Flexible and Customizable

The ACG System is the only population-based system, which is totally adaptable to a local context. While our beginnings come from the U.S. health care system, we have proven success in using the ACG System internationally, taking into consideration local cost structures, coding systems, practice behavior, and language adaptations as well as the availability of local markers whether they capture socio-economic data, functionality, living arrangements, or other measures.

These new variables can be incorporated into user-created Risk Assessment Variable Sets (RAVS) that can be substituted for the supplied default case mix weights and predictive models. The ACG System supports a wide range of diagnostic and pharmacy code sets, including ICPC, ICD9, ICD9-CM, ICD10, ICD10-CM, SNOMED CT, NDC, ATC,  and Read Codes.

To see the ACG System in action and speak to a Team member about your specific needs, request a demo today.

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New in Version 11.1

The ACG System team regularly improves and develops new iterations of the software. We are pleased to share highlights of the newly released Johns Hopkins ACG System Version 11.1. The focus of which is to continue to improve not only the predictive accuracy for identifying high-risk members, but also to provide robust clinical categorization to assess and stratify populations.

ACG System Version 11.1 release highlights include:

• Significant enhancements to the Utilization Profile Report
• New and enhanced reports and export files
• Expanded modeling and processing options
• Technical enhancements and documentation improvements

HOSPITALIZATION

• Inpatient hospitalization export
• Categorizing all planned and unplanned services

NEW MODELS FOR STRATIFICATION

• Persistent High User Model identifies those whose expenses do not regress toward mean
• Reference Probability High Total Cost
• Regression-based concurrent modeling better delineates risk across diverse populations sub-groupings
• Age-gender concurrent risk model

NEW AND REVISED RISK ASSESSMENT MARKERS INCLUDING:

• Improved categorization of mental illness including EDC and Rx-MG refinements
• Refinement of frailty concepts
• Expanded and refined utilization variables (active cancer, psychosocial services, etc.)

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF AVAILABLE DATA 

• Optimized ICD-10—single codes trip multiple risk assessment categories (e.g. E11.36= Type 2 diabetes mellitus with diabetic cataract indicating TWO types of morbidities)
• DRGs now accepted!  Both for reporting and optionally as a substitute for missing inpatient claims

ASSESSING DATA QUALITY

• Avoid data gaps with time period validation of claims and pharmacy services by month
• Use pharmacy data to help assess adequacy of diagnosis recording (new concurrent modeling tools)

COORDINATION

• Care density tools for understanding patient sharing across physician groups

PHARMACY GAPS

• Now including proportion of days covered

IMPROVED REPORTING

• Advanced reporting options and bulk export options
• Easy integration of supplemental data and/or custom models

For additional information on the ACG System Version 11.1 release including details, presentations, previews and more please contact your primary support person or email info@HopkinsACG.org.

Chad Abrams, Director of U.S. Operations, ACG System; briefly describes the Johns Hopkins ACG System, and highlights features included in the software’s Version 11 release.

To see the ACG System in action and speak to a Team member about your specific needs, request a demo today.

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Kumar Subramaniam, M.B.A.; Executive Director

Kumar is the Executive Director for Population Health Analytics at Johns Hopkins HealthCare Solutions. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the business line and for the development and execution of its long-term domestic and international commercial strategy, centered around the Johns Hopkins ACG System, which transforms healthcare data into actionable information.

Kumar has a strong track record as an innovator in the development and commercialization of health care information technologies. Most recently, he was the chief information officer (CIO) of ShareCare Healthways’ Population Health division, where he enhanced their technology infrastructure and product portfolio and reimagined and built a new program delivery platform that reduced operating expenses. Prior to that, Kumar was the CIO of Humana Inc.’s Behavioral Health division, where his work in systems and business integration, joint venture enablement, portfolio modernization, and process optimization, earned him the company’s President’s award.

Kumar recently completed his Doctorate in Business Administration at the Walden University School of Technology and Business. He has an M.B.A. in entrepreneurship from the University of Louisville, KY, a Bachelor of Engineering from Pune University, and has also completed a Chartered Financial Analyst program.

James Barrett, MA, MB, BChir, MSc; Senior Analyst, UK

Dr. Barrett has been with the ACG System Team since 2009. He provides technical support to ACG System users within the NHS. He worked for 20 years in health care informatics and has a particular interest in OLAP and web-based analytical tools. He has medical qualifications and is interested in all aspects of the application of information technology in health care. He was a member of the SNOMED CT Technical Design team and has extensive experience working with the Read Code authoring project. Joining the NHS Information Authority in 1999, he worked on reporting tools to provide interactive access to HES data for NHS users. More recently he has worked for a number of years with PRIMIS+ analyzing data quality in primary care, and for the National Diabetes Audit at the NHS Information Centre analyzing the care given to patients with diabetes.

Dr. Barrett received his MA from Cambridge University.

Walter Fenner, M.B.A.; Program Manager

Walter Fenner has more than 20 years of international experience in strategic business development, planning, budgeting, operations, project management, and marketing. As part of the ACG System team, Mr. Fenner manages the back-office operations, working closely with the ACG System development and licensing teams as well as more than two dozen international customers.

Before joining Solutions, Mr. Fenner worked in a range of management positions at the Johns Hopkins University and in the public and private sector in both the United States and Europe.

Mr. Fenner earned a Master of Business Administration degree from European University, Switzerland and a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Nations, USA.

Giulianna Peri, M.M.I.S.; Digital Marketing and Communications

Giulianna Peri brings to the team more than 20 years of leadership experience as a marketing, operations, and information technology executive in health care, telecommunications, and architecture and planning.

Throughout her career, Ms. Peri has worked with leading academic medical centers and corporate organizations to advance their business objectives by creating and managing e-commerce initiatives, developing new business processes, improving marketing operations, and facilitating partnerships worldwide.

Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins team, Ms. Peri lead an organization pioneering the online commercialization of intellectual property between the top health systems in the United States and around the world.

A native Spanish speaker, Ms. Peri earned a Master of Science degree in management of information systems and e-commerce from Nova Southeastern University and a Bachelor of Science degree in international business and French from Florida Atlantic University.

Sollis Clarity Health Analytics

Sollis Clarity Health Analytics, with the integrated ACG System, is health care analytics software that helps National Health Service (NHS) commissioners and clinicians understand patterns of multi-morbidity and its relationship to utilization, costs and outcomes.

Sollis Clarity Health Analytics goes beyond patient level risk stratification. Risk stratification at a population level helps the health economy — providers and commissioners — analyze and minimize the progression of diseases and the exacerbation of co-morbidities. When combined with the ACG System it is a comprehensive family of measurement tools designed to help explain and predict how health care resources are delivered and consumed.

The following video describes how using risk adjustment and case mix analysis can help commissioners evaluate health care expenditure across providers and set more informed and equitable budgets or capitation rates.

Analyses and insights into the population profile of a Sustainability and Transformation Partnership

Sollis was commissioned by a Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) to provide analyses to help them better understand their population profile.

 

Using the population health management tools available in Sollis Clarity Health Analytics and the Johns Hopkins University Adjusted Clinical Groups® (ACG® System), our analyses revealed some fascinating insights, which you can read about in the PDF available here.

For more information about Sollis and Sollis Clarity Health Analytics, and insights into population health management:

Visit the Sollis website or their social media channels

Inclusion of the above resources does not imply an endorsement of the companies or the products/services they provide. See Terms page for details.

Epic

The ACG System can be integrated into Epic’s Healthy Planet:

eClinicalWorks

eClinicalWorks is a cloud-based EHR used by thousands of doctors, nurse practitioners and medical professionals.

NQF Endorsement for TCOC

In 2013 HealthPartners received an endorsement from the National Quality Forum (NQF) for their Total Cost of Care and Resource Use Measures (TCOC) methodology, which incorporates the ACG System.

HealthPartners’ Total Cost of Care and Resource Use Measures (TCOC) framework addresses one of the most fundamental problems related to population health: rising health care costs. TCOC is designed to support affordability initiatives, to identify instances of overuse and inefficiency, and to highlight cost-saving opportunities. It is a full-population, person-centered measurement tool that accounts for 100% of the care provided to a patient. Additionally, it supplies a reporting suite to support multiple levels of analysis.

More information about the TCOC methodology can be found on the HealthPartners website. For information about, and access to the TCOC Toolkit click here.

Click here to read the NRHI Report:  From Claims to Clarity: Deriving Actionable HealthcareCost Benchmarks from Aggregated Commercial Claims Data

The ACG System is a key component of the TCOC methodology. If you are not yet an ACG System user, please click here for information on acquiring a license.

Jonathan P. Weiner, DrPH;

Jonathan Weiner is a co-developer of the Johns Hopkins ACG System. He is a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also a professor of health informatics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s division of health sciences informatics. His current research focuses on the application of electronic health records (EHRs) and HIT for population based applications such as performance measurement and predictive modeling/analytics.

Professor Weiner is the director of the newly formed Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health Information Technology (CPHIT) which focuses on R&D related to the application of EHRs, e-health and other HIT to the health of populations, integrated delivery systems and public health agencies. On the training side, he is the director of the Johns Hopkins doctoral training program in health services research & policy. He is also the director of the Johns Hopkins public health informatics certificate training program. He is an internationally regarded researcher, policy analyst and lecturer. His expertise includes: managed care and integrated health care delivery systems; predictive modeling, risk adjustment and healthcare analytics; healthcare IT and health system integration; quality of care measurement, health workforce deployment & planning, and cross-national comparisons in the primary care sector. He is the author or co-author of over 130 peer reviewed articles. He is a frequent consultant to integrated delivery systems and managed care organizations around the nation and globe.

Professor Weiner holds a doctorate of public health (Dr.P.H.) in health services research from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also holds an M.S. in health administration from the University of Massachusetts and a B.A. in human biology from the University of Pennsylvania.

David Bodycombe, ScD, MSc

Dr. Bodycombe is responsible for formulating and overseeing the R&D agenda of the lab. He is actively engaged in all phases of moving the work of the lab from initial conceptualization, methodological design, and analytics, to deployment and publication. He has more than 40 years of experience in statistics, the design and construction of large clinical and epidemiologic databases, statistical programming, and information technology applications development.

Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty, Dr. Bodycombe served as Vice President of Analytics for Premier Inc., a major quality improvement and supply chain management organization. In addition, he was Director of Research for the American College of Cardiology. He has also consulted on a wide range of projects concerning prison healthcare, Native American sanitation programs, and HIV in minority communities.

Dr. Bodycombe holds a ScD in Health Policy and Management and a Baccalaureate degree in Biology from the Johns Hopkins University, as well as an MSc in Biostatistics from Georgetown University.

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Hong Kan, PhD, MA, MPP

Hong Kan, PhD, MA, MPP is an associate scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a core faculty member at CPHIT. He has a background in health services research, statistics, and machine learning. Before joining Johns Hopkins, he had over a decade of outcomes research experience in the managed care and pharmaceutical industries. His primary research interests lie in outcomes research, health economics, risk adjustment, and related methodologies including predictive analytics and causal inference. He brings academic research and methodological expertise along with broad industry research experience and real-world perspectives.

Thomas Richards, MS

Mr. Richards has been with the ACG System Team since 1989. An electrical engineer by training, Mr. Richards designed and programmed all command line versions of the ACG System software, including Windows, all UNIX variants, and the assembly language MVS version.  Mr. Richards provides technical support to the ACG System Team on the development of data bases used for further research and development of the ACG System products. Mr. Richards also created SKYTALE, HIPAA compliant software for encrypting/de-encrypting patient identifiers on claim level data. He was the chief technical architect for the Sentinel Centers Network database and has spoken at conferences on the use of ACGs with data from federally funded community health centers.

Hsien-Yen Chang, PhD, MS, MHS

Dr. Chang joined the ACG System team in 2003. He applied the ACG System in Taiwan’s National Health Insurance scheme showing that the ACG System could be adopted in Asian countries, despite the different health care systems from those in western countries. He has also participated in the incorporation of the longitudinal element into the ACG system, including morbidity trajectory and consistent high-cost users. He continues to work on multiple ACG System development projects including incorporating electronic medical records, developing opioid abuse markers, and refining frailty indicators.

Dr. Chang received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2009 from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health under the supervision of one of the founders of the ACG System: Dr. Jonathan Weiner; while at the same time obtained a Masters degree in Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins. Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins University, he received a Master degree of Health Policy and Management from Harvard University.

Originally from Taiwan, Dr. Chang obtained his Bachelor degree of Public Health from the National Taiwan University in 1995, and then completed his first Master degree of Health and Welfare Policy at the National Yang-Ming University in 1997.

Melissa White Davis; Director, Product Marketing & Business Development

Melissa White Davis has more than 20 years of marketing, business development and strategic partnership experience. Her expertise includes building quantifiable marketing strategies, brand management, product marketing and navigating the evolving digital health and wellness industry. As the director of product marketing & business development for the population health analytics team, Ms. Davis is dedicated to advancing our mission to showcase the Johns Hopkins’ population health analytics capabilities to ultimately improve the health outcomes of patients and populations through the use of an analytics-driven interventions. In addition to driving the Johns Hopkins ACG system’s product marketing strategy, Ms. Davis also provides leadership and direction to the team’s market intelligence and business development activities.