Author Archive
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Business Coalitions Get in the Act
More and more business coalitions are getting onto the on-site and near site space. A couple of notable examples come to mind immediately. One is in the upper Wisconsin area and the other is in Indianapolis. OurHealth is the regional vendor that is coordinating care among several employer who ...
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Study Says NCQA PCMH Model “Best”
A study conducted by Michael Ewing at the University of Alabama, the results of which were published in the Journal of Healthcare Management (58:4 July/August 2013 issue, p258-265) evaluated three models with respect to the effectiveness of a patient-centered medical home. Those 3 models were deve...
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Walgreens and Community Health Network Join Forces
With the Accountable Care Act continuing to unfold, the focus by CMS on interoperability and the use of EHRs nationwide, and the continued formation and study of ACOs, it is no surprise that Walgreens would find partners in the health care community and form linkages. For the on-site community, an ...
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Patient Registry on Steroids
Population health management calls for a comprehensive patient registry, something you can't do on an old-fashioned rolodex. Those companies fortunate and forward-thinking enough to have started an on-site clinic years ago, now probably have massive electronic patient registries, but nothing that ...
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The 38-day, $60,000 Emergency Room Visit
Hard to believe, I know, but a patient actually spent 38 days in a hospital emergency room in 2012 waiting for a bed to become available in a psychiatric facility. This isn't a "medical" event, but mental health costs are soaring and contribute to absenteeism, too. The Agency for Healthcare Rese...
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Even the Government Likes Wellness Programs
Rules were recently issued regarding the Affordable Care Act regarding wellness programs, and, "Starting in 2014, the rules will allow companies to reward employees who participate in workplace wellness programs by reducing their health insurance premiums up to 30 percent," as opposed to current reg...
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2013 Survey
The Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health 2013 Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care is available on line. This 30+ page summary of their survey is a must read. We have mentioned it in our June newsletter as well and wanted to provide a link to it here. These two highl...
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Does Access Improve Outcome?
One of the reasons frequently given for starting an on-site clinic these days is access. Employees complain that they just can't find adequate primary care services. And, it's true, there does seem to be a shortage of family and internal medicine physicians these days (to say nothing of peds a...
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More About Pricing Transparency
It has been reported that two Representatives from Texas (a rare effort by a Democrat and a Republican collaborating these days) recently introduced a bill into the House (HR 1326) that would require "States to establish laws mandating that hospitals publicly disclose the cost of various services." ...
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Recent Forbes Article on Price Transparency
So, the pricing your employees get for healthcare services may not be quite as clear as the windows shown here, but this is one of the biggest issues consumers of healthcare face -the lack of price transparency. Employers have tried their best to make it easier for employees to understand pricing,...
