In January 2016, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt announced that CMS would update Meaningful Use to focus more on patient care and outcomes.

At the same time, Slavitt brought renewed attention to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015—MACRA—triggering confusion among hospitals and health systems already scrambling to attest to Meaningful Use. 

Many questions arose. What is MACRA? What is the relationship between MACRA and Meaningful Use? Is Meaningful Use over?

Patient portals—websites allowing patients to easily and securely access their EHRs and even communicate with their providers—were one of the big recommendations of MU2 in 2012.

CMS promoted portals as a way for patients to access their EHRs and for providers to demonstrate that their patients were actually doing this, calling the portal “a powerful platform for increasing access, empowering patients, supporting care between visits and improving health outcomes.”

Yet, three years into MU recommendations for patient portals, no one is calling them a resounding success.

Setting expectations early is shown to improve patients' episodes of care, improve patient outcomes and reduce readmission rates. It also prepares your hospital for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiatives like Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR).

The concept that it takes seven interactions—or “touches”—before a person becomes a customer is well documented in the marketing industry. Less is written about how this can apply in a healthcare setting. 

In this era of value-base care, patients are synonymous with customers, and engagements are the new touches. Unlike in marketing—where a touch can simply drive a sale—a touch in healthcare can really impact patient outcomes and the cost of care, build patient satisfaction and confidence and make patients feel involved in their care.

Surely, it’s time to start taking the theory of seven touches into the healthcare realm. I’ll start by offering seven easy ways you can engage/connect with/touch patients.