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Deploying to Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure

Posted By: Jeff Schoenborn  On : October 26 2020

As a company we weren’t sure whether to use AWS or Azure as our preferred cloud platform. To get a better idea of which platform is better, I decided to test them both. Here’s what I learned.

 

 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its competitor Microsoft’s Azure are a mixture of several types of services: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS).  These tools enable the creation of virtual servers, databases, website hosts, etc, all configured to the users needs. Cloud platforms elim

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BHA Stars Planner Updated for 2021

Posted By: Jeff Schoenborn  On : October 19 2020

The BHA Stars Planner is now updated with 2021 Medicare Star Ratings results and new measures! The tool is still completely free. Test scenarios for getting your plan to 4 Stars using peer contracts for comparison.

 

BHA is pleased to announce that we've incorporated the newly released 2021 CMS Stars ratings data into our tool set. Who are the top performers? Who improved and declined? You can see all the details from various plans like Humana, Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser, Blue Cross, etc -- Star ratings for every measure in an interactive and easy u

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Tools to Raise Star Ratings in the Age of Covid-19

Posted By: Jeff Schoenborn  On : September 16 2020

Recent guidance from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) indicates that even during the pandemic that is Covid-19, they expect MAPD health plans to continue to emphasize clinical and service quality. CMS also indicates that they expect data collection for HEDIS® measures to “return to normal” in 2021.

 

Whether there is a return to normal or not, it is clear that CMS expects that health plans will be able to generate HEDIS® reports in 2021 related to care given in 2020. Plans need to be taking action now to both assure members are gett

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Covid-19, 2022 Star Ratings, and Whats Left for 2020

Posted By: Jeff Schoenborn  On : September 16 2020

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a sudden and far-reaching impact on Medicare Advantage Star Ratings. CMS will shortly publish 2021 Star Ratings including numerous adjustments for data that was not collected due to the pandemic.  CMS has also shared their plans for 2022 Star Ratings - how they will score the quality of care and service occurring in this unprecedented year.  In this post, Baltimore Health Analytics shares the key points of the communication and guidance from NCQA® and CMS regarding this year and what levers may still be pulled in the

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BHA Announces Tool to Facilitate Higher Star HEDIS Rates

Posted By:   On : September 16 2020

Baltimore Health Analytics (BHA) is announcing the development of our Supplemental Data Source tool to assist health plans with raising HEDIS® rates. The tool utilizes medical records that health plans may have have in house. The BHA tool, known as Ocular, uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to allow scanning of medical records for keywords specific to HEDIS® measures. From there it is an efficient matching process to members with gaps, quick review and data validation and conversion in to a HEDIS® compliant Supplemental Data Source.

 

With the uncertain

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