Category: Uncategorized
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Telemedicine shows ROI at ATA
Ironically, Andrew Watson’s first telemedicine procedure was with a rural patient who was a Mennonite. At first, the patient and physician looked at each other warily. “He didn’t have a TV,” said Watson, a colorectal surgeon and vice president at Pittsburgh-based UPMC, with a wry laugh. “And I’d never done this.” read more
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Patient Engagement and Education in the Medical Home: Perspectives from Several Pilots
Looking to jump-start patient outreach in the medical home? The appointment calendar is a great place to start, recommends Barbara Wall, a healthcare consultant who advises organizations on adoption of the patient-centered model of care. She describes the simple steps that medical home staff can follow to turn the appointment calendar into a patient teaching,…
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Medical Home Collaborations: How Hospitals Are Benefiting from Partnerships in Patient-Centric Primary Care
Richland Care Medical Home’s member services department serves as health navigator and problem solver for its clients, guiding patients to appropriate services within the medical home network, explains program director Marcus Barnes. Patient engagement in the Richland Care Medical Home often begins when a prospective client visits the emergency room, and often takes staff members…
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Becoming an Engaged Physician
To Dr. Todd Rowland, director of medical informatics at Bloomington Hospital and executive director of HealthLINC, the definition of an “engaged physician” includes working with others to find solutions to the problems of the healthcare industry at large. A self-described engaged physician, Dr. Rowland gives advice on how to become an engaged physician, discusses the…
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Hospital-Physician Alliances is Key to Engagement
Hospitals should take advantage of the typically competitive nature of physicians to encourage collaboration, says Nathan Kaufman, managing director of Kaufman Strategic Advisors. Kaufman notes that “quality dialogue” between hospitals and physicians is key to engagement. In this podcast, he also discusses how a physician champion can drive success and explains physicians’ reluctance to adding…
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Telephonic Case Management: Protocols for Behavioral Healthcare Patients
Though adult mental health patients, substance abusers and children and adolescents may face different behavioral health issues, there’s a common reason behind their frequent hospital and ER visits, explains Jay Hale, LPC, CEAP, director of quality improvement and clinical operations at Carolina Behavioral Health Alliance. Hale’s organization uses a set of telephonic case management protocols…
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Evaluating Health and Wellness Incentive Programs for Behavior Change
Getting people to think about dying is not the first health behavior that comes to mind when employing incentives. However, incentives can be used anywhere in the healthcare continuum — including end of life — to influence behaviors, notes Neal Sofian, MSPH, director of member engagement at Premera Blue Cross. Sofian describes the barriers individuals…
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Risk Adjustment in the Medical Home: Building an Effective Reimbursement Strategy
Social and demographic factors such as chaos in the home or functional status can complicate care coordination for patients as much as clinical factors, explains Jeff Schiff, M.D., M.B.A., medical director of Minnesota Health Care Programs for the Minnesota Department of Human Services. He identifies two key social/demographic factors getting close attention in Minnesota’s new…
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Medicaid HITECH Conference: Regional Extension Centers Drive Meaningful Use
Recently we announced an important healthcare milestone – more than 50% of eligible professionals and nearly 80% of hospitals nationwide have adopted or are meaningfully using EHRs. CMS Medicaid HITECH Conference gathered stakeholders to discuss range of health IT issues The announcement about EHR adoption and meaningful use was timely, because two weeks ago participants…
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A Strategic, Best Practice Approach to Improve CMS Star Quality Ratings
Low scores on patient outcomes measures within the CMS Star Quality ratings program — metrics CMS weights most heavily in its assignment of stars — can typically be traced to poor provider and member engagement, notes Joseph Johnson, vice president of L.E.K. Consulting. Johnson suggests ways to enlist support from these two stakeholder groups, and…