Author Archive
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Bellin Health Cited by the NY Times
Bellin Health - Wisconsin It does not matter whether you know about Bellin, or not. They are making their presence felt in a big way in their own market area in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where they are matching efforts and maintaining a presence in a state with a lot of other prominent health care...
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Dignity Health Deal to Purchase U.S. Healthworks Closed
U.S. Healthworks has been acquired by Dignity Health (previously Catholic Healthcare West). U.S. Healthworks operates 170 primarily occ med centers in 15 states but has recently indicated it is interested in providing on-site clinic services (although their Web site doesn't have a clear option f...
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ABIM and “Choosing Wisely”
This post will have a follow-up in our next newsletter, to provide more extensive commentary. And, we are delinquent in not picking up on this sooner, the announcement was made last April. The American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation has established the "Choosing Wisely" web site. Per ...
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Funding for AHRQ in Jeopardy
Actions taken recently at the Congressional level at first were stunning to us, but as we thought about it and complete lack of responsibility the Congress has taken over the last few years, it seemed par for the course. As all of you are aware by now, the House of Representatives appropriations b...
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Towers Watson Onsite Clinic 2012 Survey
Towers Watson recently released the results of their 2012 survey of employers who already have, or are planning to add, an onsite clinic for employees. Perhaps somewhat of a surprise, the number one reason the respondents gave for having an onsite clinic is to "Enhance worker productivity." Se...
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“Guidance for a Reasonably Designed Employer-Sponsored Wellness Program Using Outcomes-Based Incentives
How many meetings have you attended where the discussion inevitably falls to what incentives really work with employees to promote better health? What is too much? What is too little? What type of incentive works and what doesn't? Cash? Gift card? Premium reduction? Day off? ...
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AHRQ in the News
Most of us reference the AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) from time-to-time for research of interest and value. This federally funded agency hands out significant dollars in grants for research on healthcare quality. We list it on our site as a resource, and we reference their r...
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What does that cost?
All of us do it, comparison shop - at the grocery store, in the mall, and hopefully always when making those larger purchases like a car, new home appliances, etc. But comparison shopping for healthcare services has traditionally been difficult, if not impossible. The average consumer just can't...
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Commonwealth Fund Analysis
The Commonwealth Fund has published "standards" for the evaluation of the effectiveness of patient-centered medical homes. The Fund pulled together 75 experts in the field to define "a standard set of core measures" which could be used for this purpose. See the reference article at our link as w...
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Another Update on Montana State Clinics
It was announced on 6/23/2012 (shortly after our last update) that the State of Montana signed the final contract with CareHere to provide on-site services for state employees in spite of the protest filed by the second-place bidder, MiCare of Montana. Has this issue been "put to bed?" Only ...
