Cozeva is a comprehensive population health solution for clinical quality performance, risk adjustment, and total cost of care management. Cozeva’s platform will give providers a payer-agnostic unified actionable registry to measure and track outcomes through a single source of performance information on a set of advanced primary care measures.

The Data Exchange Framework (DxF) is California’s first-ever statewide data sharing agreement across health and human services systems and providers to share information safely. That means every healthcare provider can access the information they need to treat California’s patients quickly and safely.

Cozeva was a Platinum Sponsor at this year’s Rise National Conference. Booth 219 had a blast mingling with clients and meeting new industry leaders. The entire Cozeva team is grateful to everyone who visited the booth.

Health inequity cost in the US is estimated to go up to $1 trillion by 2040 from its current cost of $320 billion – an increase of more than three times leading to a per person cost of $3000 in 2040 from a current per person cost of $1000 (Deloitte Insights, June 2022).

 

The NCQA Health Equity Accreditation and Health Equity Accreditation Plus are a guide to help health systems, health plans, and other care organizations advance health equity. The programs are very collaborative in nature and require active participation, partnerships, and engagement from across the healthcare industry. It includes industry stakeholders like employees, regulators, caregivers, governments, solution vendors, and community-based organizations. Some businesses are already prioritizing health equity and building trust. Many employers are increasingly contracting with only accredited organizations that are delivering equitable and high-quality healthcare to their employees.

 

The Health Equity Accreditation focuses on the foundation of health equity work which includes:

• Building an internal culture that supports the organization’s external health equity work.
• Collecting data that helps the organization create and offer language services and provider networks mindful of individuals’ cultural and linguistic needs.
• Identifying opportunities to reduce health inequities and improve care.

For instance, increasing engagement with Spanish-speaking populations; improving no-shows for surgical procedures for Somali women, and improving rates of immunizations for adolescents in the Arab population come under the ambit of Health Equity Accreditation.

 

The Health Equity Accreditation Plus on the other hand is for organizations further along on their health equity journey. It focuses on:

• Collecting data on community social risk factors and patients’ social needs – this helps the organization offer social resources that can have the most impact
• Establishing mutually beneficial partnerships that support community-based organizations
• Building meaningful opportunities for patient and consumer engagement
• Identifying opportunities to improve social need referral processes and the partnerships that make them possible.

It addresses social determinants of health (SDOH), its needs and assesses its risks. It addresses the non-medical factors that may influence health outcomes and the political, economic, and social norms that may dictate them.

 

The Quintuple Aim for Healthcare Improvement

 

Fred Camacho, Vice President, Product Management, NCQA, while addressing Cozeva’s Annual Users Group Meeting in October 2022 highlighted that health equity is an integral part of the Quintuple Aim for healthcare improvement, vision and strategy. The Quintuple Aim is constituted of Health Equity, Lower Costs, Clinician Well-Being, Patient Experience and Population Health. He also mentioned that quality care is equitable care and that equity must be built in all quality programs.

 

Camacho further said that the following steps are central to developing and implementing health equity policies and standards to achieve the Quintuple Aim.

 

1. Collecting and monitoring patient quality data
2. Measuring quality by addressing health disparities
3. Designing and deploying improvements and interventions.

In 2009, Dr. Mandl and Dr. Kohane, in their publication, laid out their vision for an ‘ iPhone-like platform’. This Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies (SMART) platform and its applications would reduce impediments to the transfer of data, in an agreed-upon form, from one system to another. Mandl and Kohane had proposed,

• Substitutability of applications 
• Open standards, accommodating both open-source and closed-source software
• Reducing dependence on individual systems by allowing competition and “natural selection” for high-value, low-cost products.

In a decade since then, such a platform is now  an integral part of the healthcare industry. Electronic Health Records (EHR) integration enables medical records to seamlessly be accessed across electronic software solutions. For practice management, this means medical records such as personal information, medical history, and more can be accessed easily across solutions. Interoperability through EHR integrators increases care coordination and efficiency of clinical decision making. It can provide more accurate diagnosis and treatment. At the same time, it can also flag potential errors, which can range from health conditions to medical interactions. Cozeva’s technology integrates provider EHR systems to,

• Close care/coding gaps at point-of-care within one system Reduce double documentation
• Reduce administrative burden
• Enable Bi-directional data exchange

This technology improves quality and risk adjustment performance across the continuum of care.