Thomson Reuters has launched a suite of new payment reform tools designed to help U.S. hospitals manage risk and seize opportunities as new healthcare payment models go into effect.

"Healthcare providers face a mixture of reimbursement methods including fee-for service, bundled payments, value-based purchasing penalties and population-based payments integral to medical homes and accountable care organizations," said Doug Shaw, executive vice president at Thomson Reuters. "Our new services help providers adapt in this rapidly evolving environment by leveraging information and analytic capabilities we traditionally deliver to governmental and commercial healthcare payers."

[See also: Thomson Reuters set to help with CMS' Medical Home Project.]

The Thomson Reuters Payment Reform Solutions suite has four components:

• The Reimbursement Risk Baseline helps show hospital leaders key metrics that will impact their reimbursement under new payment models; the potential financial impact that value-based purchasing models will have on their organization; whether they're at risk of Medicare penalties due to high readmission or infection rates; and how their patient care experience score will impact future reimbursement.
• The Market Snapshot establishes healthcare utilization and spending benchmarks across the continuum of care for a hospital's market. It also provides customized intelligence regarding services needed by discrete populations based on episodes of care for the top disease conditions. The solution enables hospital administrators to model the potential financial impact of participating in arrangements that involve shared savings and alternative risk-based reimbursement.
• The Bundled Payment Design solution helps hospital execs better understand which services can be provided in a bundle, what drives cost, what providers are needed to bundle services across sites of care, and how they can create a comprehensive package at a competitive price.

• Risk-Based Analytics help clinically-integrated organizations leverage real-time clinical information across the continuum of care in order to better coordinate care, manage costs and maintain quality.


[See also: Thomson Reuters names top health systems for quality, efficiency.]

"Thomson Reuters has a sophisticated understanding of the complex issues related to healthcare payment reform," said Shaw. "Our Payment Reform Solutions combine this knowledge with our comprehensive data and analytics expertise to provide decision makers with the clarity to predict the impact reform will have on their organizations."