Archive for Opinion
-
Another Reason Why Your Prescription Drug Costs are So High
If you are a patient, or an administrative manager of a clinic, you would never stop to think that the liquid medications prescribed every day (cancer drugs, eye drops, etc.) may all contain too much of that drug for the actual need, resulting in waste every time a vial is opened. Why would you? ...
-
Is a Chiropractor in the future for your on-site clinic?
The National Association of Worksite Health Centers just published the findings from a project (done by their staff and with the assistance of a grant from the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress) on the potential impact of chiropractic services for employees at on-site clinics. This project incl...
-
NBGH Releases 2017 Health Plan Design Survey
The National Business Group on Health released a summary of their 2017 Health Plan Design Survey last week. The press release itself and, of course the actual survey, are worth the read. Ironically, a 5% increase in premiums (as projected by major employers for 2017) would have been a stunning ...
-
What healthcare apps help your employees? How would you know?
We are not posting this article to recommend any specific vendor or application, but we do want to make you aware that there is a growing body of data out there to support the use of healthcare aps to assist patients in a variety of ways - like quitting smoking, losing weight, compliance with medica...
-
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 ...
-
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...
-
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...
-
CMS and On-Site Clinics
I think this may be a subtle turning point in on-site clinic recognition. CMS just announced in its on-going publication, MLN Matters, that they are adding a new place of service code for Place of Employment/Worksite. To quote the document, this new POS code ("18") is "a location, not described ...
-
EMR Implementation May Be Bad for Your Health (PLAN)!
Health care costs are supposed to be contained by more efficient coordination of health care tests and treatments. Much of this is supposed to be connected to the EMR, which is intended to bind together the process of diagnosis and treatment methodologies and assist practitioners in the attainment...
-
PWC Reports on Mobile Health Trends
I think that everyone understands that there is an increasing dependence upon new technology and social media for any number of consumer finance decisions. The Internet is here to stay, and we have to remind ourselves that hospitals and health care systems just don't lead in areas of information e...