LTPAC Health IT CollaborativeThe LTPAC Health IT Collaborative was founded in 2005 a year after President Bush's Executive Order to digitize healthcare and form the sub cabinet Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) of Health Information (HIT). John f. Derr, RPh was present at the announcement Press Conference. At the time John was Executive VP of American Health Care Association & National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL). As the Press Conference progressed it was obvious that the focus was on hospitals and physicians and that skilled nursing homes, Home Care Agencies, Hospice Care Agencies, Assisted Living, Long Term Acute Care Hospitals, Independent Care, as well as other professionals were not recognized as part of care. John went to the attendee microphone and respecfully asked the then Secretary of HHS Tommy Thompson to include Long Term Care. Secretary Thompson then asked John to head up the coordination of LTC IT.
John then asked the American Association for Homes and Services for the Aging (Now Called LeadingAge) and American Health and Information Management Association (AHIMA) to join AHCA/NCAL in forming an informal group to represent long term care in issues and programs developed by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). The original name of the group was the LTC HIT Collaborative. Over the years since the official formation in 2005 the members in the slide to the left have joined what is now called the LTPAC Health IT Collaborative. These members represent all the care providers in the Long Term and Post Acute Care (LTPAC) Segment of Healthcare. |
why were we formed? |
The primary reason was that in 2004 the providers in the US Healthcare system were basically silos of care. The focus was on the care provider and fee-for-service. Hospitals and Physicians were represented by two very strong advocate associations: The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Medical Association (AMA). LTPAC was represented by many different associations representing their specialty providers of care and the professions involved in their care associations. LTPAC was fragmented and many times spoke to CMS and other regulatory agencies as individual organizations and members. It was recognized by the Collaborative that in the field of Clinical Information Technology it is necessary to speak as one as the third sector of care. the other two sectors being acute care and ambulatory care. This one voice enabled LTPAC to be recognized by the ONC and for the Collaborative to comment together on health IT issues that concerned all members like Interoperability and Security. When ONC requested comments on proposed regulations that CMS would implement the Collaborative would develop a response that all members would sign. Many of the members also submitted their own comments if they felt it was necessary to comment as individual associations. All of the submitted comments would compliment each other. There are no dues or operating budget for the Collaborative. It is all volunteer and the Summit is self financed.
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WHAT HAVE WE DONE? |
The Collaborative has made many contributions to health IT in its eleven years of activity. Each member association provides one person to be it's Collaborative representative. Until 2015 there was an AHIMA sponsored conference call with members every Friday at 10:00 ETZ. In 2015 this was moved to a call every other week for full membership and the alternate Friday with special sub committees discussing specific projects. The conference calls are not closed and many other interested parties join when there are issues that affect them on the subject of clinical technology. The Collaborative has it's own website where interested parties and members can contribute (http://www.ltpachealthit.org)
The following are the major accomplishments of the LTPAC Health IT Collaborative: Strategic Plans and Roadmaps: The Collaborative has produced four major LTPAC HIT Roadmaps that were in harmony with ONC. These are listed on the Collaborative Website as well as Roadmap PDFs. The last Roadmap was the 2012-2014 Roadmap. This was the same years that ONC started to include LTPAC in their Strategic Plans even though LTPAC was not included in the ARRA HITECH Act. It was therefore not necessary for a separate LTPAC HIT Roadmap. LTPAC Health IT Summits: In 2005 the Collaborative held it's first Summit concentrating on LTPAC Health IT in Chicago. This was necessary as all other IT summits and conferences had a focus that did not include LTPAC requirements and interests. Every year since 2005 the Collaborative has held an annual Summit in June. The Collaborative held it's 2016 Summit on June 26-28th in Reston, VA. Each year the attendance has increased. Many members of ONC and CMS speak at the Summit as well as other Thought Leaders in Health IT and clinical medicine. Comments on Proposed Rules and Requests for Information: The Collaborative has commented on every proposed rule or request of information since 2005. The number of comment letters is not available but it could very well be over 100. Representation: Members of the Collaborative have served as members and contributors on many Committees, workgroups, task forces, and other ONC, CMS, and grants representing LTPAC. This is an important achievement as the HITECH Act left out LTPAC and this third sector of healthcare was intentiually completely ignored. Yet as demonstrated by the graph at the top of this page, LTPAC receives over 40% of hospital discharges and is a very import member of the spectrum of care and in a person centric electronic longitudinal care model, all members of the patient care team have to be working together. The LTPAC Providers and Health IT Developers cannot be left out. The representative of LTPAC on these official groups in abled LTPAC to be understood and included in the Spectrum of Care. It is believed that without their volunteer work and the work of the Collaborative the new healthcare system would not have developed as fast as it has. The cooperation of LTPAC members were thinking of the patients under their care and recognized the value they provide to their patients. LTPAC Health IT Collaborative ONC Brief (May 2015): In March of 2015 the ONC, Karen DeSalvo, MD asked John Derr, a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Standards to provide her with a brief on LTPAC. John insisted all the members to assist him in preparing a brief titled: The Value Proposition of LTPAC. It was provided to ONC in May 2015 and outline the positive value advantages of LTPAC Providers and Support Services. the Brief outlined five Value Quality Coordination of Care (VQCC) Differentials between LTPAC and the other two sectors of care (Acute and Ambulatory). An outline of this brief is included on this Website. |