Quality and Safety
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield reported last week that the second year (2012) of its patient-centered medical home (PCMH) program yielded cost savings of $98 million for 1 million members covered by the effort.
Thirty-six hospital finance teams are in the running to be named a top department in Healthcare Finance News' inaugural "Where to Work: BEST Hospital Finance Departments" program.
According to a recently commissioned study by American International Group (AIG), an international insurance company, significant barriers to patient safety still exist in healthcare.
Summa Health System and Catholic Health Partners are on the road to becoming accountable care organizations, and they're sharing what they've learned with attendees of the Healthcare Financial Management Association's ANI 2013 conference taking place next week in Orlando, Fla.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced Tuesday a competition to improve consumer understanding and use of data comparing hospital prices but the results could also be of use to hospitals.
A couple of recent wellness-related headlines caught my eye.
Bob Berenson, Harlan Krumholz and Peter Pronovost are luminaries in the creation of quality and safety measurements in health care. They have come together to propose Seven Policy Recommendations to Improve Quality Measurement, published on the Health Affairs blog. They propose a number of thought-provoking ideas but I find myself disagreeing with more of them than I would have expected.
Healthcare organizations have often been criticized for being slow to adapt to changes in the marketplace. A recent accelerator program spearheaded by Independence Blue Cross (IBC), Penn Medicine and DreamIt Ventures hopes to change that by backing 10 innovative healthcare startups. And while none of these startups are likely to revolutionize medicine, they do suggest that there are many entrepreneurs with promising solutions that may reduce the cost of care while maintaining its quality.
Health insurer Priority Health has announced it has contracted with Healthcare Blue Book to publish cost and quality information for more than 300 procedures by facility and physician for its insurance members in Michigan.
Like it or not, a new healthcare landscape is taking shape that runs counter to just about every convention the industry has ever known.