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For Immediate Release – May 15, 2012

HHS launches new web-based tool to track performance of

nation’s health care system

Public can view data by age, income level, ethnicity, and other factors

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the launch of a new web-based tool that will make it easier for all Americans to monitor and measure how the nation’s health care system is performing.

The web-based tool, known as the Health System Measurement Project, will allow policymakers, providers, and the public to develop consistent data-driven views of changes in critical U.S. health system indicators.

”I am pleased that this tool will allow people to have better access to data about our health care system,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Ensuring all Americans have access to these data is an important way to make our health care system more open and transparent.”

The Health System Measurement Project brings together datasets from across the federal government that span topical areas, such as access to care, cost and affordability, prevention and health information technology. It presents these indicators by population characteristics, such as age, sex, income level, insurance coverage, and geography.

Using the Measurement Project, one can quickly view data on a given topical area from multiple sources, compare trends across measures and compare national trends with those at the state and regional level. For example, an individual could use the Measurement Project to monitor the percentage of people who have a specific source of ongoing medical care or track avoidable hospitalizations for adults and children by region or ethnic group. 

The measures included in the Health System Measurement Project, developed and selected by the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, are aligned with the HHS Strategic Plan, the National Quality Strategy, and other departmental strategic planning efforts. The measures are drawn primarily from existing publicly available datasets. The tool contains information on how the measures were calculated and provides users with direct links back to the original data sources.

To access the Health System Measurement Project, go to HealthMeasures.aspe.hhs.gov.

For more information about the Affordable Care Act, visit www.HealthCare.gov.

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Having just celebrated Mother’s Day, it is a perfect time for women to look at how they are living their lives and to check in on how they watching out for their health. Sometimes women forget to take care of themselves because of their busy schedules at work and at home. The National Women’s Health Week helps women to learn how to put their health at the top of their priortiy list and gives them the ways to do so.

The following is from womenshealth.gov – a project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health.

National Women’s Health Week is a weeklong health observance coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. It brings together communities, businesses, government, health organizations, and other groups in an effort to promote women’s health. The theme for 2012 is “It’s Your Time.” National Women’s Health Week empowers women to make their health a top priority. It also encourages women to take the following steps to improve their physical and mental health and lower their risks of certain diseases:

• Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings.
• Get active.
• Eat healthy.
• Pay attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress.
• Avoid unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking and not wearing a seatbelt or bicycle helmet.

Learn more about National Women’s Health Week.

In the news

• Presidential Proclamation – National Women’s Health Week 2012
• HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on National Women’s Health Week

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The following is from womenshealth.gov – a project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health.

National Women’s Health Week is a weeklong health observance coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. It brings together communities, businesses, government, health organizations, and other groups in an effort to promote women’s health. The theme for 2011 is “It’s Your Time.” National Women’s Health Week empowers women to make their health a top priority. It also encourages them to take steps to improve their physical and mental health and lower their risks of certain diseases. Those steps include:

• Getting at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity, or a combination of both, each week 
• Eating a nutritious diet
• Visiting a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings
• Avoiding risky behaviors, such as smoking and not wearing a seatbelt
• Paying attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress

Learn more about National Women’s Health Week.

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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released proposed new rules late last week to help doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers better coordinate care for Medicare patients through Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). An ACO is a network of doctors and other health care providers and suppliers that shares responsibility for providing care to patients.

The latest release from the HHS states that,

ACOs create incentives for health care providers to work together to treat an individual patient across care settings – including doctor’s offices, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. The Medicare Shared Savings Program will reward ACOs that lower health care costs while meeting performance standards on quality of care and putting patients first.  Patient and provider participation in an ACO is purely voluntary.

You or someone you know, may have a serious illness and have more than one doctor and taking more than one medication. If so, you have more than likely witnessed how disorganized your doctor’s office is when it comes to your medical information. No one likes to have to repeat the same information at each visit or watching doctors fumble through unsystematic files. It shows just how much our health care system needs to form accurate coordination of information and better communication between health care providers.

Medicare beneficiaries who have five or more chronic conditions suffer the most – and more than have of the Medicare beneficiaries fall into this category. With such serious conditions as diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease, these beneficiaries are very likely to have multiple physicians. These patients are at risk when doctors have failed to coordinate information in their files – so each physician is not sure what the last doctor did or they may not know which medication or dosage was prescribed. This can inevitably lead to the patient not getting the right care they need and there is an increased risk of being prescribed a medication that should not be taken with a medication prescribed by another doctor. It can also lead to complications that require hospitalization – which could have  easily been prevented. A study was conducted on nearly 12 million Medicare beneficiaries which showed that 1 in 5 patients discharged from the hospital was readmitted within 30 days which means if hospitals and doctors were better organized and coordinated with files and communication ”across care settings” , readmission may have been avoided. (continue reading…)