We can delay no longer. For many of the past several decades we have pursued only half measures and lip service toward needed response to a tidal wave of demographic (particularly aging and extended life expectancy) and financial change…but, more importantly, spending on individuals. Federal projections, done by the Congressional Budget Office, for Medicare and Medicaid have identified that ...
In Part I of the blog series we wrote regarding the first four causes of the negative growth in hospital admissions being experienced in most parts of the US. Most would agree that these causes, although affecting the growth of hospitals admissions negatively, are really leading to better clinical outcomes, which in many cases are more affordable and accessible. The additional eight causes that ...
In most parts of the United States the number of hospital admissions have been decreasing between 3% and 8% in the last several years. The mean length of stay, although more variable from institution to institution, has stabilized or decreased. Gross revenue increases are being consistently reported due to more uninsured becoming insured, better contracts from some payers, clinical outcomes, and, ...
A recent article published in Health Affairs, authored by Sanir Soneji, a PhD working in the Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice, questions the value of U.S. cancer care. He states that: “screening, prevention, and treatment have extended life for oncology patients, but at a higher cost in the U.S. than in Europe, without a corresponding decrease in cancer deaths. For ...
In a recent meeting, several people in the audience asked me what are the basis things that they should know and remember that will assist them in being successful in their leadership roles in the ever increasing complex healthcare industry? Knowing that one should keep the solutions, even to complex problems, as simple as possible if they are to be successful and sustainable, I answered by saying ...
As technologies and innovations continue to create more and more non-invasive procedures, the movement of “once required” inpatient care is moving rapidly to safer ambulatory settings where often better and less costly medical outcomes are achieved. This transformation is also being fueled by marked increases in the types of anesthesia that has become available over the last decade which permits ...
Although the term “managed care” has been utilized since the first generation HMOs were put into place over 40 years ago, over time the meaning of these two words has evolved since they were first coined. In today's world these words may have returned to what the originators of the term had in mind. A health maintenance organization as it was originally conceived was an organized structure of care ...
The latest hot topic in healthcare seems to be “value-based” payments. What this mean? Does it mean the current/historical payment methodology isn’t value based? If that’s really the case, I’m not the one to dissect all the issues that might entail. I’ve read some accounts that allude to the fact that healthcare is shifting from being volume driven to value driven? Again, I hear the words, but ...
The Texas Medical Board (TMB) on April 10, 2015, voted to accept a proposed rule change that would prohibit physicians licensed in Texas from prescribing medicine over the phone or by video conference to a patient they have never seen before in person. This change will undoubtedly affect the use of telemedicine as we know it today as a tool to care for patients in their homes, retirement ...
There is unanimous agreement that healthcare leaders are facing significantly complex challenges today that all require solutions to be put into place as quickly as possible. The identification of these solutions require a sound decision-making process by the CEO, the Leadership Team, and the Board. Although making these decisions might seem at times ominous, the task can be made easier by ...
In January 2015 a Forbes’ magazine article headline, “UnitedHealth’s $43 Billion Exit From Fee-For-Service Medicine” for some reason struck me as funny. It’s not as though it was new information. Back in July 2014, Forbes ran an article, “Blue Cross’ $65 Billion Move Away From Fee-For-Service Medicine.” Both articles discussed the transition to “value-based payments” and connecting health ...
Posted By
Dr. Thomas Royer, Jay Herron, Peter Maddox
Because of both continuing and new challenges in the healthcare industry, more transformational changes will be required for success in 2015 and beyond. Replacing the competitive model which has driven hospitals, health systems, and physicians for decades will be an environment requiring collaboration, accountability, and an alignment of incentives for all stakeholders to do what is necessary for ...
Posted By
Dr. Thomas Royer, Jay Herron and Peter Maddox
As we did in our first blog last year, in which we reviewed the credibility of our predictions for the healthcare industry in 2013, we begin this new year by reviewing our predictions that we made for 2014. We again ask the question – have our fourteen predictions become the new reality? 1. Rapid change continued to occur in all components of the healthcare arena even though there continues to be ...
