Making the Comprehensive Shared Care Plan a Reality

Authored during the Obama Administration by a team of healthcare and public policy professionals affiliated with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, this NEJM Catalyst article describes how robust collaboration between the healthcare and technology communities can advance promising approaches to long-term, high-quality patient care.

In 2015, HHS defined a vision for a “Comprehensive Shared Care Plan,” or CSCP, to serve as “a vehicle for secure, virtual exchange of information among clinicians caring for the same patient, regardless of the clinicians’ (and the patient’s) locations.” According to that vision, such a tool would proactively advance patients’ health goals over their entire lifetime by enabling efficient and effective care.

While there is broad agreement that such tools are key to unlocking the promise of coordinated care, significant operational, technological and financial barriers delay their development and adoption. The authors make clear that the federal government and alternative payment models have the capacity to incentivize the sector to overcome these barriers and develop the operational clarity, technological standards, and financial opportunities needed to overcome them. Most importantly, robust collaboration between the health care and technology communities can help to advance this promising approach to long-term, high-quality patient care.