OMAHA, Neb. – The Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII) is pleased to announce its partnership with the Compass Practice Transformation Network in executing the work of the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPI) in Nebraska. TCPI was introduced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2015 to help clinicians achieve large-scale clinical transformation. TCPI provides technical assistance for eligible providers to succeed in value-based care environments, as defined in the MACRA legislation of 2015, including risk-based commercial arrangements that require providers to manage total cost of care.

NeHII will provide technical assistance to more than 750 clinicians in Nebraska over the next two years of TCPI, utilizing its data infrastructure and quality improvement staff to move the clinicians through five stages of transformation:

• Setting aims with clinical and process measures

• Using clinical data to drive care decisions in areas (such as HbA1C control, breast cancer and colorectal cancer screening rates and reducing hospital
readmissions)

• Achieving progress on aims 

• Achieving benchmark status in local, regional and national clinical data sets

• Thriving as a business via pay-for-value approaches (private and commercial value-based
contracts)

While the healthcare industry increasingly focuses on clinical care’s value (lowering the cost of services while maintaining high quality outcomes and experiences for patients), NeHII is adding TCPI to the value it brings the state through its healthcare information exchange. TCPI will provide a testing ground for clinicians looking to explore value-based arrangements and compiling data to manage a population’s health. 

NeHII has named Tony Troester, MS, PMP, CSSBB as the Program Director for the TCPI project and will utilize his experience leading cross-functional healthcare teams in quality and health information technology. Troester will serve as a subject matter expert in the Quality Payment Program, MIPS, project management and Lean/Six Sigma. 

In alignment with the strategic plan that was finalized by the NeHII Board of Directors calling for NeHII to offer quality reporting services to eligible clinicians throughout Nebraska, NeHII is pursuing Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) activities and aligning offerings to MIPS categories and objectives. A QCDR is a CMS-approved entity vetted to submit data on behalf of eligible clinicians. NeHII anticipates 2018 QCDR designation, as well as expanding analytic tools for population health. The QCDR option through NeHII will offer a comprehensive and cost-effective solution for clinicians to report the data to CMS, manage quality performance and inform population health.