February 13, 2013 Mark Hagland
news
In his first State of the Union address of his second term, President Barack Obama on Feb. 12 directly addressed some of the challenges and opportunities facing the federal Medicare program in the coming years, citing value-based purchasing in particular as an important change to the U.S. healthcare system, as well as proposing changes in pharmaceutical policy and in Medicare rules for wealthy seniors.
February 6, 2013 Mark Hagland
blog
When Carolyn Clancy, M.D., announced on Jan. 31 that she was leaving the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which she had headed for almost exactly 10 years (she became that agency’s director on Feb. 5, 2003, after previously working at the agency as director of its Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research), it signaled the end of an era.
February 5, 2013 Mark Hagland
blog
I was fascinated last month by a New York Times article I read about an initiative tying physician pay in New York City’s public hospitals to the outcomes measures those hospitals will be paid against under healthcare reform.
December 12, 2012 John DeGaspari
news
The Washington, D.C.-based National Quality Forum (NQF) has elected new leadership across four of its member councils: the Consumers Council, the Health Plan Council, the Purchaser Council, and the Supplier-Industry Council.
December 12, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
As the healthcare industry moves forward to meet the demands of purchasers and payers for higher-quality, more effective, more cost-effective patient care with fewer errors and better care coordination, it is sobering to read the results of recent studies that show that improving clinical performance does not necessarily lead to the prevention of avoidable readmissions.
December 7, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
The October issue of The American Journal of Managed Care included a fascinating article, "Implementation of EHR-Based Strategies to Improve outpatient CAD Care," in which a group of researchers documented how EHR-facilitated physician alerts alone aren’t enough to improve outcomes for patients with such chronic illnesses as coronary artery disease. It turns out, success requires a savvy combination of financial incentives, IT alerts, and good data analysis.
October 22, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
A panel of association leaders from the physician, physician group, hospital, health plan, and employer-purchaser worlds uncovers a mix of optimism and trepidation when it comes to moving the healthcare system forward towards new care delivery and reimbursement models.
October 2, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
As tip-of-the-spear healthcare industry leaders, senior executives at the UPMC health system see where the proverbial puck is headed, and they’re skating towards it as powerfully as they can.
October 2, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
In contrast to what happened on November 1, 1999, when the Institute of Medicine released its industry-shaking report, "To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System," what happened on September 6, 2012, caused barely a ripple. That was the release of the IOM's third report in a series, this one called "Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America," which builds on the thinking presented in its two predecessor reports, and envisions the entire healthcare system continuously learning.
September 15, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
As David Share, M.D. and his colleagues at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan collaborate forward with local providers to master care management and utilization strategies, the criticality of leveraging analytics thoughtfully becomes ever-more-apparent. We’ll be discussing these issues in our upcoming Healthcare Informatics webinar on Sept. 25, and learning from the experiences of some of the most pioneering organizations nationwide.
September 12, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
David Nash, M.D. was extremely prescient when he established the Jefferson School of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University in 2008. Is population health moving squarely onto the center of the radar screens of healthcare leaders yet? Tune into the September 20 Healthcare Informatics webinar to find out.
September 10, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
The Institute of Medicine’s new comprehensive report, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health care in America,” advocates a healthcare system of continuous performance improvement—and healthcare IT leaders will be at the center of the action
