Last Updated: Oct 19, 2023

On Wednesday, Nov. 15 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics (OBRHI) is hosting a virtual conference titled “Optimizing Healthcare Delivery to Improve Patient Lives”. CMS is aiming this conference toward convening leadership from the federal government, health provider organizations, and patient advocacy communities to determine ways to reduce administrative burden, strengthen access to quality care, and make it easier for clinicians to render this care (CMS OBRHI, 2023).

Attending this event will help in making a difference in the healthcare industry. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) recognized from a 2017 report that there is a significant percentage of time family physicians spend on administrative and EHR tasks (Arndt et al., 2017). These tasks are:

            Chart Review: 32.1%

            Billing and Coding: 3.9%

            Visit Documentation: 23.7%

Also, Deloitte published in their “Global Health Care Outlook 2023” document that administrative or clerical burdens are one of the primary contributors to burnout (Deloitte, 2023). According to the Surgeon General’s Advisory on Addressing Health Worker Burnout, 35 – 54% of nurses and physicians in the United States Health Workforce and 45 – 60% of medical students and residents all reported symptoms of burnout (HHS, 2022).  This data represents the need for addressing these concerns as this will help in improving the lives of physicians and reducing the harmful consequences of burnout and administrative burnout such as decreased time spent between provider and patient, increased medical errors, and hospital-acquired infections among patients and staffing shortages (HHS, 2022).

The other area of focus for this conference is to strengthen access to quality care. According to the CDC, in 2021 the United States had 84 million people who lived in Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (CDC, 2023). Access to care is a continued concern in the United States, and addressing this issue connects to solving the other issues surrounding this conference.

Registration is now open for the event and can be completed online at:

https://cmsburdenreductionconference.com/

To stay connected with this event and other events under the CMS OBRHI you can sign up for their newsletter at:

https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USCMS/subscriber/new?topic_id=USCMS_12350

References:

1. CMS OBRHI. (2023, September 11). CMS burden reduction conference. CMS Burden Reduction Conference. https://cmsburdenreductionconference.com/  
   1. Arndt BG, Beasley JW, Watkinson MD, et al. Tethered to the EHR: primary care physician workload assessment using EHR event log data and time-motion observations. Ann Fam Med. 2017;15(5):419-426.
      1. Deloitte. (2023, February 22). Global Health Care Outlook 2023 - Deloitte. Global Health Care Outlook 2023. https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-shared/legacy/docs/gx-UPDATED-Health-care-Outlook-2023_Consolidated.pdf  
      2. HHS. (2022, May 20). Addressing health worker burnout - HHS.gov. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Building a Thriving Health Workforce. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/health-worker-wellbeing-advisory.pdf  
      3. CDC. (2023, September 1). Health Care Access. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/health_equity/health-care-access.htm