August 7, 2012
news
According to a study from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), care providers for low-income uninsured people are increasingly looking towards care coordination to improve quality care and reduce costs. The study, “Safety-Net Providers in Some U.S. Communities Have Increasingly Embraced Coordinated Care Models,” examined trends in safety net coordination activities from 2000 to 2010 in 12 cities with low-income metropolitan communities.
July 13, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
The nationwide health alliance's senior public policy executive looks at the emerging landscape around accountable care arrangements, and sees an environment with far greater clarity and certainty for the developers of evolving payment and care delivery innovations going forward.
July 13, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
Rodney Ison, M.D., the chairman of the NewHealth Collaborative, says the first essential in developing an accountable care organization is for the process to be physician-driven. The second? Lots of information technology.
July 13, 2012
news
According to a July 11 blog by Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), 12 states have committed in recent weeks to lead efforts to create health insurance exchanges (HIX) by 2014. These new state-based health insurance marketplaces, called Affordable Insurance Exchanges, will allow consumers to compare health care plans and choose a private health plan that meets their needs. These exchanges were a part of the Affordable Care Act, which was upheld earlier this month by the Supreme Court.
July 11, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
I recently started to read a book on healthcare reform—appropriately titled “Health Care Will Not Reform Itself”—written by George C. Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente. The book was handed out to attendees of Halvorson’s presentation at last month’s ANI conference put on by the Healthcare Financial Management Association in Las Vegas. Although it was published in 2009, the book is as relevant today as it was then, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Accountable Care Act.
July 5, 2012 David Raths
article
Stage 3 of meaningful use may seem a long way off. After all, the Stage 2 final rule has yet to be released. Yet for members of the Meaningful Use Work Group of the federal Health IT Policy Committee, deadlines are fast approaching. They are working to make initial Stage 3 recommendations by Aug. 1, so that a Request for Comment can by issued in November and final recommendations can be published by May 2013.
June 29, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
After yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling to uphold the main parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Barack Obama’s signature domestic act, the hard work will continue for providers, patients, and payers to drive down the high cost of healthcare. Not only will providers have to manage their populations more effectively in the wake of the ACA, experts say, but patients will have an added accountability for the cost of their own healthcare. Payers will also need to do much work to ready their products for primetime via newly developed health insurance exchanges.
June 27, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
Provider organizations have the opportunity and responsibility to act today to improve care, according to James G. Lee, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Adventist Healthcare, Rockville, Md. In 2009, the health system started a primary care medical home pilot system for its employees.
June 20, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
With the expected decision on healthcare reform by the Supreme Court, what will happen to patient safety and quality reforms taking place under the Affordable Care Act? In a recent article in Scientific American, several healthcare experts said that patients will suffer if the law is struck down. Yet a recent article in the New York Times also points out that initiatives that hospitals have already put in place will have a lasting impact, and the economic pressure to provide better care to more people is irreversible.
June 8, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
blog
How long will it take to incorporate clinical data in payer-led ACOs and will most of these efforts focus on reducing medical costs like unnecessary testing, rather than other population health elements like reduced readmissions and chronic disease management? I’ll take a look at what payer action is happening now in the ACO market in a two-part blog series.
June 6, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Providers are facing myriad challenges developing accountable care organizations (ACOs), finding no easy solutions on the market today to scale and successfully perform the population health management necessary for these complex risk arrangements, said IT industry leaders who participated in a panel that tackled the strategic IT issues surrounding ACOs at the Healthcare Informatics Executive Summit in May.
June 5, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
Recent research--and decades of experience--are pointing to more effective ways to treat a vulnerable, resource-intensive group of older patients. And now, we have the IT tools we need to do a far better job, and improve dual-eligibles' health status--and the national economic bottom line.
