https://youtu.be/uVzpHuvOQiE

What They’re Watching: Alan Pruhs, Association for Utah Community Health

By

Eli Kirshbaum

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Like many folks in Utah’s health sector, Alan Pruhs, Executive Director of the Association for Utah Community Health, is working on transitioning the health care payment model from focusing on volume to focusing on value—which he emphasized is much easier said than done

He says value-based payments will help the 14 community health centers his organization represents care for the significant number of uninsured patients they see. Under the current volume-based Medicaid payment model, he says, these facilities aren’t receiving adequate payments for caring for this population.

He also discusses the utility of his organization’s newly implemented population health management software.

“We’re now being able to reach [patients] more proactively than we have before by using this electronic tool that’s attached to, and connected and mapped to each of their individual EMRs. If we can have data at the point of care, care teams can start to address gaps at the time we have the patient in the health center.”