Author: trident500
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Healthcare Trends in 2009: A Mid-Year Financial and Legislative Update
Early and costly proposals for healthcare reform are creating clouds of uncertainty on the healthcare horizon, providing scant relief for organizations stymied by the economy, patient safety issues and internal budget restraints, observes Paul Keckley, Ph.D, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. As he prepares a mid-year review of financial and legislative…
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“An Honest Tale Speeds Best, Being Plainly Told”: Another Look at Health Spending and the Supply of Physicians
Claims that the current physician resource shortage is due to the reduced work effort of physicians are misleading and ignore important trends, namely the demographic changes within the profession, the growth in non-physician spending that has outpaced spending on physicians and the relative decline in spending on physician services over the past 20 years. Such…
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Sorry, You Can’t Have That Information: Data Holder Confusion Regarding Privacy Requirements for Personal Health Information and the Potential…
This study, conducted in Newfoundland and Labrador, assessed the level of awareness, perceptions and concerns of healthcare providers, health researchers, data managers and the general public about the collection, use and disclosure of personal health information (PHI) for research purposes. Data collection involved surveys and follow-up focus groups with participants. Results indicate a poor understanding…
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Office Home Care Workers’ Occupational Health: Associations with Workplace Flexibility and Worker Insecurity
Office home care workers provide support to visiting staff, although their work tends to be invisible in many respects. This paper focuses on managers, supervisors, coordinators, case managers and office administrative staff in home care. We examine the effects of workplace flexibility and worker insecurity on office home care workers’ occupational health, particularly their self-reported…
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Wiring the Medical Home: Healthcare IT to Power a Patient-Centered Model
Implementing an EHR into your organization is not the same as implementing a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model of care, according to Dr. James Crawford, senior vice president for laboratory services and chair of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. To be a PCMH, the practice workflow…
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Health Risk Stratification Trends: Same Data Points, Different Focus
Health claims are still scrutinized during risk stratification, but today’s analysts examine these data points through a slightly different lens, explains John Harris, chief wellness officer and senior vice president for Healthways. Harris explains why the focus has shifted from ICD-9 coding patterns to the financial trends evident in the claims, and what accelerating or…
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Physician Engagement with Aetna ‘Care Considerations’ Pays Off in Medical Home Pilot
Aetna’s practice of sending its providers periodic “care considerations” — detailed clinical data that identify opportunities to improve care — has been formalized in its patient-centered medical home (PCMH) pilot with Partners in Care (PIC), explains Dr. Don Liss, the regional medical director of Aetna’s mid-Atlantic region. PIC providers’ engagement with the care considerations is…
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Improving Patient Engagement in Telephonic and Online Health Improvement Programs for Lasting Behavior Change
The daily engagement of Medicaid beneficiaries in self-care health monitoring programs can help healthcare organizations avoid many of the challenges inherent in working with this frequently underserved population, explains Pharos Innovations CEO Dr. Randall Williams. Once participants are identified, they are very receptive to the daily contact, which has resulted in extremely high program engagement…
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Improving Patient Collections in an Unhealthy Economy: Technologies and Processes to Speed Payments
With a revenue cycle that is measured by claims denials, collaborative data mining by billing and IT can identify origins of financial “bleeding” and turn these problems into actionable items, explain Beacon Partner experts Kevin Burchill, director; Se…
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Improving Patient Collections in an Unhealthy Economy Technologies and Processes to Speed Payments
With a revenue cycle that is measured by claims denials, collaborative data mining by billing and IT can identify origins of financial “bleeding” and turn these problems into actionable items, explain Beacon Partner experts Kevin Burchill, director;