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This Viewpoint from AHRQ describes the plan to create a national health care extension service to disseminate actionable knowledge, with a goal to reduce the gap from evidence of clinical effectiveness to clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the growth in the value of primary care to the U.S. health care system. Topics discussed include supporting primary care is a major goal of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; information on new programs such as the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus; and evolution of Medicare’s accountable care organization programs that incorporates new payments for primary care.

Electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) that capture data from electronic health records promise accurate and timely measurement, but their use has been limited in payment. The Comprehensive Primary Care initiative sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services used eCQMs as part of a shared savings incentive. To assess performance, the authors developed benchmarks for 11 measures and compared performance of initiative and benchmark practices. Initiative practices outperformed benchmark practices on 8 measures in 2015 (between 6.3 and 17.7 percentage points) and 9 measures in 2016 (between 1.7 and 20 percentage points). Initiative practices improved significantly on 7 measures from 2015 to 2016 (between 3.3 and 8.6 percentage points). For 3 measures, the improvement was greater than benchmark practices that reported the same measures in a 2-year period (between 1 and 8.9 percentage points). The authors conclude that eCQMs can be used for payment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Incorporating behavioral health care into patient centered medical homes is critical for improving patient health and care quality while reducing costs. Despite documented effectiveness of behavioral health integration (BHI) in primary care settings, implementation is limited outside of large health systems. We conducted a survey of BHI in primary care practices participating in the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative, a four-year multi-payer initiative of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We sought to explore associations between practice characteristics and the extent of BHI to illuminate possible factors influencing successful implementation.Method: We fielded a survey that addressed six substantive domains (integrated space, training, access, communication and coordination, treatment planning, and available resources) and five behavioral health conditions (depression, anxiety, pain, alcohol use disorder, and cognitive function). Descriptive statistics compared BHI survey respondents to all CPC practices, documented the availability of behavioral health providers, and primary care and behavioral health provider communication. Bivariate relationships compared provider and practice characteristics and domain scores.Results: One hundred sixty-one of 188 eligible primary care practices completed the survey (86% response rate). Scores indicated basic to good baseline implementation of BHI in all domains, with lowest scores on communication and coordination and highest scores for depression. Higher scores were associated with: having any behavioral health provider, multispecialty practice, patient-centered medical home designation, and having any communication between behavioral health and primary care providers.Conclusions: This study provides useful data on opportunities and challenges of scaling BHI integration linked to primary care transformation. Payment reform models such as CPC can assist in BHI promotion and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the care facilities that are required for the military personnel that return from war. It informs that all active-duty military personnel receive their medical care directly from the Military Health System (MHS). It further informs that the care for these persons include the strategies related to suicide prevention, prevention of depression and traumatic brain injuries.

The Global War on Terrorism brings significant ethical challenges for military physicians. From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay, the actions of health care providers have come under considerable scrutiny. Military providers have dual roles as military officers and medical professionals, which have the potential to come into conflict. Olden they are inadequately prepared to manage this conflict. We review pertinent historical precedents, applicable laws, ethical guidelines, and military regulations. We also present examples of ethical challenges deployed clinicians have faced and their ethical solution. Finally, we propose a practical strategy to educate physicians on how to manage complex ethical dilemmas in war time settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the authors discuss developments in the healthcare sector in the U.S. as of late June 2016, particularly in care delivery and payment in advanced primary care. Also cited are the move by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to introduce alternative payment models that reward value and quality, and the objectives of the Affordable Care Act and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.

The Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (CPC), a health care delivery model developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), tested whether multipayer support of 502 primary care practices across the country would improve primary care delivery, improve care quality, or reduce spending. We evaluated the initiative's effects on care delivery and outcomes for fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries attributed to initiative practices, relative to those attributed to matched comparison practices. CPC practices reported improvements in primary care delivery, including care management for high-risk patients, enhanced access, and improved coordination of care transitions. The initiative slowed growth in emergency department visits by 2 percent in CPC practices, relative to comparison practices. However, it did not reduce Medicare spending enough to cover care management fees or appreciably improve physician or beneficiary experience or practice performance on a limited set of Medicare claims-based quality measures. As CMS and other payers increasingly use alternative payment models that reward quality and value, CPC provides important lessons about supporting practices in transforming care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sought to determine how well the Framingham prediction rules correlate with ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease in a military beneficiary cohort by examining demographic and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes from electronic medical records between 2001 and 2008. This sample (n = 163,627) included people averaged at 52 years of age (range 18-108); slightly more than half were male (55%), 21% were African-American, and 59% were Caucasian. Fifteen percent of beneficiaries had ischemic heart disease and 3.4% had cerebrovascular disease. The Framingham model fits our data well; all Framingham risk factors were associated with increased likelihood of ischemic heart disease and all Framingham risk factors except gender increased cerebrovascular disease prevalence. Age was the strongest correlate for both ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease (> 60 years old; ischemic heart disease relative risk, 3.9; 95% confidence interval, 3.7-4.0; cardiovascular disease relative risk, 3.9; 95% confidence interval, 3.6-4.2) followed by hyperlipidemia and hypertension. We conclude that military clinicians can risk stratify military beneficiaries using the Framingham risk model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]