Astrata News

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Navigating the Quality Measurement Transformation: Safeguarding your Health Plan’s Success in the Era of  Value-Based Care

Speaker

Dr. Michael Barr  

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION

Holding on to CMS and State quality incentive payments is becoming more challenging for health plans. As the number of members covered under value-based care arrangements continues to increase, the rules for measuring quality at health plans are changing very rapidly. What’s driving these changes and how can your health plan protect against threats and manage the transformation? In this webinar, we will explore the challenges facing value-based payment models, why it is essential to expand measurement priorities, and how high-quality data will be critical to health plan success. 

TOPICS 

  • How value-based care is transforming quality measurement  
  • What’s wrong with value-based payment models?  
  • Why are all roads leading to digital measurement?  
  • How to drive meaningful measurement improvement  
  • Financial implications and opportunities for health plans

Speaker Bio

Dr. Michael S. Barr, President & Founder of MEDIS, brings 35 years of experience in healthcare, including executive and clinical roles in the U.S. Air Force, academia, community health, professional and accreditation organizations, and private practice. As an independent consultant, Dr. Barr now brings his knowledge, skills, and insights to help address a wide range of complex healthcare challenges in the United States and internationally. Before founding MEDIS, Dr. Barr served as the Executive Vice President of the Quality Measurement & Research Group (QMRG) at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). In this role, he oversaw the development of HEDIS® performance measures, research and analysis, contract and grant management, and NCQA’s consulting services. Additionally, Dr. Barr spearheaded the digital measures strategy for HEDIS while contributing to NCQA’s strategic initiatives, public policy, and educational programs. 

Dr. Michael Barr

Sponsored by Astrata, Inc

Astratais a digital quality company, offering a suite of products and services for health plans and value-driven providers who are moving from paper-based clinical quality measures to digital clinical quality measures, as required by NCQA and CMS. Astrata’s products make it possible to better measure and improve healthcare quality, a foundation for moving to value-based care. Astrata’s value propositions include dramatic efficiency gains, higher clinical quality rates, and increased quality bonus payments.  

Astrata Is Among Latest to Earn Certified Data Partner Designation in NCQA Data Aggregator Validation Program 

June 7, 2023 PITTSBURGH, PA Astrata announced today that it has earned Certified Data Partner designation in the new National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Data Aggregator Validation program. Astrata is part of the latest NCQA cohort to earn this NCQA Certification, which indicates that Astrata adheres to NCQA data standards. 

As one of the first of seven data partners to have achieved certification, Astrata is unique in its use of proprietary Natural Language Processing (NLP) transformations to earn NCQA’s rigorous assessment and certification. The company is certified for the Data Transformation, Normalization and Mapping standard (PSD 4.0), using NLP methods to ensure that standard data streams include the full complement of applicable clinical data.   

“This NCQA certification positions Astrata to combine our state-of-the-art analytics products with DAV certified data streams to help our payer customers achieve their digital quality transformation goals,” says Girish Chavan, CTO/Co-founder, Astrata. “We are especially excited to offer this service to customers of our NLP product suite as a way to further reduce their effort during prospective HEDIS season.” Astrata is proud to partner with ELLKAY, a nationwide leader in healthcare connectivity, to deliver value to payers who are moving to prospective HEDIS medical record review. 

This certification enables Astrata to support organizations on their digital quality journey with assurance that they have met the high standards of NCQA DAV Certification. Notably, Astrata’s eMeasure product, a native FHIR/CQL HEDIS engine, has also achieved NCQA certification as the first vendor to certify e-measures using a native CQL/FHIR approach. eMeasure is a joint offering with Smile Digital Health, a global health technology leader harnessing open standards to fuel digital transformation. 

For information about NCQA Validation, click here.

About NCQA 

NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA Accredits and Certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA’s website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make informed health care choices. NCQA can also be found at Twitter @ncqa and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa. 

About Astrata  

Astrata is a digital quality company, offering a suite of products and services for health plans and value-driven providers who are moving from paper-based clinical quality measures to digital clinical quality measures, as required by NCQA and CMS. Astrata’s products make it possible to better measure and improve healthcare quality, a foundation for moving to value-based care. Astrata’s value propositions include dramatic efficiency gains, higher clinical quality rates, and increased quality bonus payments. 

Astrata Joins NCQA’s Industry Council for Health Care Quality

January 13, 2023 

We are pleased to announce that Astrata has joined the NCQA Industry Advisory Council. As a leader in digital quality technology, we’re eager to collaborate with the NCQA to help them meet their vision of improving healthcare quality and making healthcare more accessible to all. At Astrata, we are committed to harnessing the power of data to create meaningful change in healthcare. We look forward to working with the NCQA to move the industry towards a digital quality future.

Steve Whitehurst Joins Astrata’s Board of Directors

October 12, 2022 

PITTSBURGH, PA – Steve Whitehurst has joined Astrata’s Board of Directors. Steve has over 25 years of leadership experience in SaaS, Digital Health and Healthcare IT. With strong operational and commercial experience, he is typically called on to lead companies seeking strong value creation through new market expansion and growth strategies. He has broad experience with pre-revenue startups to later stage businesses looking for high double digit growth. Whitehurst has experience with multiple funding and investment structures. He has personally led multiple transactions, both as a buyer and seller. He’s had success in private and public sectors, building go to market strategies and developing acquisition plans/targets to achieve preferred valuations. He also sits on multiple healthcare boards and acts as a mentor for the healthcare startup community.

Astrata Selects MTC Group and MEDIS as Advisors for Digital Quality Solutions for Health Plans

October 11, 2022 

PITTSBURGH, PA – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Astrata has engaged two former NCQA executives, Rick Moore (MTC Group) and Michael Barr (MEDIS)  to offer advisory and consulting services, informing and optimizing Astrata’s product strategy for Digital Quality solutions for healthcare organizations.

Astrata is leveraging extensive experience and expertise of Moore and Barr to ensure Astrata’s best-of-breed technology solutions are aligned with the future of Quality and Measurement for health care.

“We are thrilled with this opportunity to assist Astrata in its mission to power value-based care by transforming healthcare quality measurement,” said Rick Moore, Founder/CEO of MTC Group, LLC.  “As CMS and NCQA continue to drive the industry towards measuring quality across populations and transitioning to digital measurement, health plans will need to utilize innovative technology solutions to make this possible.”

Astrata Achieves HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year Certification to Further Mitigate Risk in Third-Party Privacy, Security, and Compliance

August 24, 2022

PITTSBURGH, PA /PRNewswire/ Astrata, a leading provider of NLP and data analytics software for the healthcare quality industry, today announced that Astrata Chart Review, residing at Amazon Web Services (AWS) US East-1; Facility — AWS US East-1 (Data Center) managed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) located in N. Virginia, United States of America, has earned Certified status for information security by HITRUST.

HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) Certified status demonstrates that Astrata’s data security and infrastructure unit has met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and is appropriately managing risk. This achievement places Astrata in an elite group of organizations worldwide that have earned this certification. By including federal and state regulations, standards, and frameworks, and incorporating a risk-based approach, the HITRUST Assurance Program helps organizations address security and data protection challenges through a comprehensive and flexible framework of prescriptive and scalable security controls.

Astrata and Smile CDR Announce NCQA Certification for Next-Generation Digital Quality Measurement Engine

July 12, 2022

PITTSBURGH, PA and TORONTO, ON, JULY 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Astrata, a market innovator in Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS1) natural language processing (NLP) and healthcare quality solutions, and Smile CDR, a leading health data and integration company, announced today that their Digital HEDIS solution, eMeasure, is one of the first digital HEDIS engines to earn the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Certification for new digital measures. NCQA Certification programs evaluate systems and processes that support data collection, surveys, and quality improvement. This initial Certification, which includes the breast cancer screening (BCS-E) and colorectal cancer screening (COL-E) measures, follows successful beta-testing of the new Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®)-based digital measures by the Astrata team in collaboration with NCQA.

 

Ellkay Partners with Astrata for Improving Health Plans’ Quality Measurement

March 7, 2022

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J.March 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — As ELLKAY, LLC, a leader in healthcare connectivity, prepares for RISE National 2022 in Nashville, the company is pleased to announce its recent partnership with Astrata. Like ELLKAY, Astrata is an innovator in its field, developing natural language processing (NLP) and other analytic technologies to allow health plans to efficiently analyze structured and unstructured clinical data and improve value-based care. ELLKAY is known for their solutions that provide bi-directional data exchange, which is becoming increasingly more important as provider compensation continues to be linked to quality measures.

 

Astrata Selected as Beta Testing Vendor for NCQA’s Measure Certification Program™ using Digital Quality Measures

November 15, 2021

 Astrata, an innovator in advanced analytics for health care quality, today announced its participation in National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) Digital Quality Measurement (dQM) pilot and Measure Certification Program. Astrata was selected as a beta testing vendor for certification with NCQA’s new digital measures.

 

Astrata and Smile CDR Join Forces to Develop Next-Generation Digital Quality Measurement Engine

July 13, 2021

Smile CDR, a leading health data and integration platform, and Astrata, a market driver in Quality NLP and analytics, announced a partnership to produce the next generation of Quality technology. 

 

NCQA + HL7 Digital Quality Summit

July 13-14, 2021

Astrata is proud to sponsor the 2021 NCQA + HL7 Digital Quality Summit. Visit our Exhibitor Booth during the conference to meet the team, ask questions, schedule demos, and learn more about Astrata’s products, and services. 

Astrata Partners with Leverage Health, Venture Catalyst

January 31, 2021 

Astrata has partnered with Leverage Health to bring its unique analytics capabilities to the healthcare market. Leverage Health is a leading business development company, with a select portfolio of innovative companies. Astrata President Dr. Rebecca Jacobson was recently interviewed by Leverage Health partner Richard Lungen. 

Astrata Launches from UPMC

January 4, 2021 

 As the health insurance industry shifts to digitally measured quality improvement programs, UPMC Enterprises has incubated and launched Astrataa digital health care quality company. Astrata uses advanced analytics and natural language processing (NLP) to improve value-based care.  

Astrata and its team of data scientists developed cloud-based NLP technologies that allow health insurers to more efficiently analyze unstructured clinical data. This transformative solution generates real-time insights that more accurately assess quality of care and population health against Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measures. Both government and private health care payors are increasingly aligning provider compensation to such measures.

READ MORE

Press Release 
Beckers Hospital Review
MedCity News
Pittsburgh Business TimesHIT Consultant
Healthcare Innovation   

UPMC Astrata Team Selected to Participate in NCQA NLP Working Group 

February 17, 2020 

The Astrata Team (with UPMC) was selected to be part of the National Center for Quality Assurance (NCQA) working group on Natural Language Processing (NLP). The group will meet throughout 2020 to help NCQA explore how NLP may be suitable for use in quality measurement, and reporting. NCQA invited a wide range of NLP vendors from across the country to apply for the NLP Working Group. The Astrata team is excite to participate in the Working Group and to help NCQA to develop a program for evaluating this technology and it’s use in HEDIS measurement.