RETHINK Talks: An Interview with PointClickCare (2024)

This article is brought to you by PointClickCare. This interview took place during a live Q&A session with PointClickCare VP & General Manager, Senior Living Travis Palmquist at the SNN RETHINK event in Chicago held on September 1, 2021. The interview has been edited for clarity.

Skilled Nursing News: In the past, we’ve talked a lot about interoperability and what [PointClickCare is] doing to connect the dots. Tell me about PointClickCare’s current state of play and the vision you see for the next 12 to 18 months.

Travis Palmquist: We’re trying to connect the skilled nursing LTPAC, the acute care and the payer with a common interoperability perspective, bringing all that to the surface and making the data transparent. We’re moving from a place where interoperability is an exciting opportunity to a place where it’s a necessity.

If you look at some of the trends in skilled nursing like SNF at home and virtual acute care at home, the rates and premiums are all troublesome for SNFs. Traditional Medicare occupancy is going down and Managed Medicare is going up. CMS is a very passive administrator of reimbursem*nt. Payers are not, they’re active. Their expectations are higher. Solving this problem will require embracing transparency, demonstrating quality, improving transitions and outcomes, and driving efficiencies. Care collaboration and coordination are a core piece of the solution, and that starts with connecting people.

Skilled Nursing News: Connecting people through connected networks is a permeating theme in some of the conversations we’ve had with your teams. Talk about your view of that connected network and what it’s comprised of.

Palmquist: At this point, most operators have probably heard of a continuity of care document, or “CCD.” I would call that connected care 1.0, and what we’re talking about is going to 2.0. Again, it’s about getting the right information and creating the right alerts so all of those stakeholders can optimize their performance and positively impact care outcomes.

I don’t know how many LTPAC providers have heard of a thing called a Risk Adjustment Factor (RAF) score, but if you are a payer in the room, you know exactly what a RAF score is. The right RAF score ensures residents are getting the right reimbursem*nt and access to the right services. This is just one example of going from 1.0 to 2.0 and sharing the right information. I’ll go a step further. Acute care embraced the opportunity and the data ship has sailed. They’re sharing with payers and those networks are set up, but LTPAC has been hesitant, and for good reason.

A fear exists amongst operators that being transparent with data will cause it to be weaponized against them. We’ve seen rate erosion as more active payers have gotten involved, not rate inflation. I think we need to get our arms around it, because this isn’t going away.

We need to empower ourselves by sharing data that can change the conversations and make sure that LTPAC is teed up for their rightful piece of the pie. Looking the other way is not working. We have a 10-year run of seeing rates and premium mix go in the wrong direction.

Skilled Nursing News: Your phrase weaponized data sounds scary. Do you really think that’s on the horizon?

Palmquist: No, I don’t think that at all, but I use that term for a reason. The fear of data transparency dates back to when I was operating in the ’90s. I don’t think we can afford to be in that place anymore.

Skilled Nursing News: Your organization has a huge footprint, and you see clearly way across the care continuum. How do you see care collaboration coming into the LTPAC segment that you’re championing at this point in your role?

Palmquist: The payers are going to have a lot to do with it. I think they’re going to demand it from a quality perspective to drive efficiencies. I left operations because I got tired of going home at night knowing I didn’t have enough staff. I know that’s going to happen to us right now. We’re going to lose more good operators and administrators because of the staffing problems we have. We have to leverage technology to drive efficiencies, faster decision making, better decision making, faster engagement and better outcomes. We have to leverage the data to be able to do that.

Skilled Nursing News: How do you think the data component for the consumer side of health care transforms into helping providers possibly even at the SNF level? What does that consumerization of data sharing look like for you?

Palmquist: For us, step number one is helping our customers understand the importance of getting digitized. You need to have a solid EMR, because this data has to exist in order to be shared.

We also need to get leaders on board with the change management required to insert this into workflows and embrace best practices. That data can’t be unsurfaced or made available because it’s an additional task, or we’re throwing something else on top of already overworked staff. It has to be embedded into the workflows and that requires some change management. Once we get that data and it’s normalized, we can be a great technology partner that works alongside our customers to position LTPAC where it needs to be.

This article is sponsored by PointClickCare. PointClickCare is the leading electronic health record (EHR) technology partner to North America’s long-term post-acute care industry. To learn more about how PointClickCare can help your business, visit pointclickcare.com.