Quality and Safety
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will develop a new records system aimed at facilitating quality reporting for long-term hospital care, according to Wednesday's Federal Register.
An online clinic launched in 2010 by non-profit HMO HealthPartners for the diagnosis and treatment of 40 simple medical conditions showed an average savings of $88 per episode over care in a traditional setting, providing hope for the future of online medical care.
Emergency medicine has been plagued in recent years with problems like physician shortages and diversion, or turning away ambulances because of overcrowding. One solution being used in many areas to reduce congestion and cut costs is the employment of nurse practitioners.
New research finds that many seniors who switch from their HMO-style Medicare Advantage plan to traditional Medicare have higher levels of significant health problems, fueling concerns that the private plans cater to more profitable, healthy beneficiaries but don't provide the most attractive care for the very ill.
Carolyn Clancy, MD, will step down as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) after 10 years leading the organization.
On Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it had selected more than 500 healthcare organizations to participate in its Bundled Payment for Care Improvement initiative, a program to test how bundling payments for episodes of care can improve care coordination and lower overall Medicare expenditures.
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.
I’ve been noticing two reoccurring themes in medical real estate: satellite care clinics and consolidation of health systems and physician practices. Both of these issues correlate with the unknown long term effects of healthcare reform as hospitals implement provisions and transform their organizations into more efficient care entities.
As hospitals face penalties for readmissions, they are implementing programs to enhance care coordination to keep patients from returning to the hospital.
When Steve Woods' wife was pregnant, he put on what he calls "sympathy weight." That was a dozen years ago. "She went back to her svelte, in-shape figure and I've maintained the sympathy weight," he said.