Kelsey Brimmer
Across the country, state governments are trying to come up with the most reasonable and effective ways to pay back their Medicaid deficits owed to hospitals.
Many healthcare leaders around the country are agreeing that 2013 is going to be a challenging year for hospitals and healthcare systems, and many are going to have to refine their thinking, said Jeff Jones, managing director at Huron Healthcare, a healthcare consulting firm.
While many companies across the country are seeing positive results and cost savings through their workplace wellness programs, a new study from Health Affairs suggests that the savings employers may strive for with these programs may more likely come from cost shifting to the most vulnerable employees rather than employees' improved health.
When it comes to healthcare analytics, hospitals and health systems can benefit most from the information if they move towards understanding the analytic discoveries, rather than just focusing on the straight facts.
With the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) expansion of insurance coverage expected to increase the need for primary care services -- requiring an estimated additional 7,200 primary care providers -- 7 million Americans could likely face a primary care physician shortage after 2014.
For the last 10 years, the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers (CCHP), in Camden, N.J., has worked with local healthcare providers, hospitals and physician practices to improve quality, care coordination and costs by focusing on what the organization calls "superusers" and the high-cost "hot spots" in the city.
In order to survive in the ever-changing healthcare marketplace while saddled with new healthcare reform mandates, hospitals around the country must optimize three fundamental components of care delivery: clinical/operational integration, financial integration, and shared infrastructure and governance.
The earlier hospitals begin to plan and strategize for how they will handle the healthcare environment once health insurance exchanges are operational, the better, said Purva Rawal, senior manager of health reform at Avalere Health, during a webinar Thursday.
As hospitals face penalties for readmissions, they are implementing programs to enhance care coordination to keep patients from returning to the hospital.
On Tuesday, representatives from the Montefiore Medical Center in New York and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) discussed how regional collaborations can improve quality and reduce costs during a webinar sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Health Care Innovations Exchange.