Strategic Planning
While narrow networks aren't new, they have emerged as one of insurers' major levers for keeping costs down under the Affordable Care Act. Patients are often distressed at narrow networks' restrictions, but such plans can be designed right.
Accountable care organizations can be risky business. ACO care partners must be able to depend on one another for proper patient handling, data flow, clinical cooperation, revenue sharing and other agreed-upon measures.
The change from a fee-for-service healthcare model to a value-based approach might be inevitable, but that doesn't mean it's happening quickly. In fact, the majority of providers remain tied to the old model.
While population health models are wonderful, they have happened too sporadically. The healthcare payment system is not supporting this work and the U.S. needs a value-based system that accurately rewards population health models and initiatives.
The third largest U.S. retail company is partnering with a well-known integrated delivery system to evolve the primary care walk-in clinic, in a confident bet on retail health.
Most hospitals already have in place plans to cope with disasters such as tornadoes and plane crashes, but the Ebola virus presents a different challenge. Because of the risk and expense involved, a hospital's CFO should be an integral part of Ebola planning and preparation efforts.
Bon Secours Health System wants to ensure discharged patients get the care and attention they need without being unnecessarily readmitted to the hospital. To that end, they're launching a new population health and care management program.
DaVita HealthCare Partners, a provider of kidney dialysis services, is making a move into primary care, and has announced a joint venture with a hospital company in Colorado and Kansas. Some say the firm might be trying to create a model for Medicare to follow.
When medical practices consolidate through a merger or acquisition, they do so today for the same reasons they did 20 years ago. Today, however, the stakes are higher, and three essentials must exist prior to the merger for positive returns.
Care coordination networks are a mainstay of the Affordable Care Act's cost reduction goals. Accountable care organizations are the most widely recognized of these networks, yet by no means is design of these business arrangements simple or straightforward.