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.
July 3, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
At the HFMA conference last week in Las Vegas, Marc Halley, president and CEO of Halley Consulting Group, LLC, Westerville, Ohio, described a perfect storm of unprecedented demand, declining reimbursements, and increasing regulations and costs that will affect healthcare more than anything coming out of Capitol Hill.
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 14, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Not only must organizations create sophisticated business intelligence tools to help identify high-risk patients, providers will have to engage patients and provide better care coordination to reduce readmissions, said IT industry leaders. “If we’re going to crack this whole issue of readmissions, plus so many other deficiencies, we need better processes, better outcomes, and a sustainable process, which is what cost [reduction] is really all about, then we’re going to have to solve these problems. It’s not just decreasing readmissions,” said James L. “Larry” Holly, M.D., CEO, Southeast Texas Medical Associates.
June 13, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
Christopher Beal, D.O. , a member of a small, independently owned physician group practice in St. John’s, Mich., has become an unexpected national advocate for patient engagement. Dr. Beal has not only used a patient portal to improve patient relations, but has made it a vital part of his patient-centered medical home (PCMH). In this exclusive interview, he discusses his successes in this area, remaining challenges, and what’s next.
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.
May 17, 2012 Susan Heichert, Mary Bear-Dukes, and Dawn Mitchell
article
Some hospitals and health systems are looking to extend their own EMR solutions to independent hospitals and clinics. The practice became possible with the relaxation of anti-kickback statutes in 2006, but the sense of urgency has heightened in today’s environment. In fact, some organizations are even implementing new EMR solutions internally while extending the same solution to private practices simultaneously.
April 19, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
I’ve been enjoying reading Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done, a 2010 book by Ian Ayres, an economist and lawyer who is a professor of both law and management at Yale University as well as a columnist for Forbes, and a regular contributor to the New York Times “Freakonomics” blog.
April 18, 2012 David Raths
article
Health insurers that used to focus on individual claims are now looking across their entire membership to better define the appropriate level of financial risk to assign and to drive the right kinds of interventions. Many are making a determined effort to share their predictive analytics findings with clinicians.
April 2, 2012
news
A new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) makes the case for integrating primary care healthcare providers and public health professionals. The report says further integration will allow both primary care healthcare providers and public health professionals to meet their goals of ensuring the health of populations.
February 3, 2012 Gabriel Perna
blog
I find it fascinating how typically members of the two parties in congress find themselves poles apart on most policy issues – especially in a politically charged election year – and yet they’ve found they common ground on health IT. Recently, the Washington D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) released a report stating there are numerous obstacles in the way of an effective deployment of health IT. The report came with multiple recommendations on how the government can do better.
