News
Discern Health Supports ONC with Interoperability Regulations
March 2020
On March 9, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) released new regulations that substantially change the way health care providers and patients access, exchange, and use electronic health information. Discern Health assisted ONC with the development of these far-reaching regulations. The 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule requires that patients have…
Quality Outlook Blog: Listening More Closely to Oncology Patients
March 2020
In the latest installment of Discern Health’s Quality Outlook blog series in the Journal of Clinical Pathways, Partner Tom Valuck, Vice President Theresa Schmidt, and Directors David Blaisdell and Manasi Tirodkar explore the role of integrating patient voices in cancer care and accountability programs, specifically through patient-reported measures (PRMs) and patient-reported performance measures (PR-PMs). In…
Discern Health Promotes Theresa Schmidt to Vice President
March 2020
Discern Health recently promoted Theresa Schmidt, MA, PMP, CSPO to Vice President. During her time at Discern, Theresa has demonstrated excellent project leadership and strategic perspective, a strong commitment to the growth and development of her team members, and dedication to Discern’s mission and success. As VP, Theresa will leverage her background in non-acute care,…
Discern Health Welcomes Carl Sirio as a Senior Advisor
March 2020
Discern Health welcomes board-certified internist and critical care physician Carl A. Sirio, MD, as a Senior Advisor. As a seasoned health care executive and a leading voice in health systems improvement, Carl has devoted his career to working toward health care quality, safety, access, and equity. At Discern, Carl will use his experience as a…
Thomas Weaver Joins Discern Health as Project Analyst
March 2020
Thomas Weaver, MPH recently joined Discern Health as a project analyst. To support our clients, Thomas leverages his experience with cancer-related research, outpatient care delivery, and hypertension risk factors and prevention methods to assist with projects related to program evaluation, quality improvement, and value strategy. Prior to joining Discern, Thomas completed a fellowship at the…
Discern Health to Co-Host Virtual Workshop on Patient-Centered Measurement
February 2020
On March 27, please join Discern Health and PFCCpartners from 3:00 PM–4:00 PM ET (12:00–1:00 PM PT) for the virtual workshop “Patient Family Advisor Summit: Co-Designing Person Centered Measurement.” The workshop will review the outcomes from the 2020 Patient Family Advisory (PFA) Summit. PFCCpartners and Discern convened the PFA Summit on measure development to empower patients and…
Discern Health Summarizes CMS’ Latest Guidance on the MIPS Value Pathways Framework
February 2020
Discern Health joined and summarized the February 12th Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) Public Webinar, which provided an overview of the MIPS Value Pathways participation framework outlined in the 2020 Physician Fee Schedule / Quality Payment Program (PFS/QPP) Final Rule. The purpose of the webinar was to describe the…
Tokia Day Joins Discern Health as Finance and Operations Manager
February 2020
Tokia Day recently joined Discern Health as the finance and operations manager. In this role, she provides oversight to ensure that Discern is financially prudent and in compliance with standards set by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and other regulating bodies. Tokia’s work helps Discern quantitively assess its current performance to produce measurable outcomes and…
Discern Health Contributes to the Serious Illness Quality Alignment Hub Strategic Plan
February 2020
The Serious Illness Quality Alignment Hub (“the Hub”), a coordinated effort to develop a national strategic plan that will incentivize and/or require delivery of high-quality care for people living with a serious illness, has released the final version of the Hub Strategic Plan. The Hub is a three-year effort of the Center to Advance Palliative…
Discern Health Co-Authors JITC Article on Quality Measures for Cancer Immunotherapy
February 2020
In conjunction with the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), Discern Health Partner Tom Valuck and Director David Blaisdell co-authored the new Journal of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) article, “Defining Current Gaps in Quality Measures for Cancer Immunotherapy: Consensus Report from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2019 Quality Summit.” The article identifies four…