No love for Nashville hospitals
Posted on October 13, 2009 at 7:22 amData Advantage today released a list of the 100 “Best in Value” hospitals from its Hospital Value Index. The Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge was the only Tennessee hospital to make the list, which is presented alphabetically. Facilities in New York, Pennsylvania, Alabama and North Carolina are the best represented.
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Health care price transparency won’t hurt a bit
Posted on September 17, 2009 at 6:42 am
With the help of a few others in the industry, Robert Hendrick at change:healthcare shoots down the argument that price transparency will damage the financial prospects of physicians and hospitals.
But will knowing the price put healthcare providers out of business? Not likely. In fact, knowing the price seems to be working wonders for Wal-Mart and…oh…just about every other business model in the U.S.
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The path from health reform to behavior reform
Posted on September 11, 2009 at 7:27 amRobert Hendrick at change:healthcare some of the health care reform points brought up last night by President Obama are an assbackward way of raising prices for consumers. But they’ll work, he adds, and thus help create a more cost-conscious health care system.
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Need a hospital? Stay away from California
Posted on September 9, 2009 at 6:59 amA teaser look at the upcoming release by Data Advantage of the Hospital Value Index puts most of the lowest-rated markets in the Golden State. The top cities to be in — their actual names will be released next week — are in smaller, less populous states.
“The rules have changed — whether because of the economy, health reform or Value-Based purchasing, and quality alone is not a sustainable strategy for the U.S. hospital industry,” said John Morrow, one of the authors of the study. “These organizations will need to be accountable to their communities for their performance on value and be transparent about doing so.”
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Coming up with $2 trillion
Posted on May 11, 2009 at 8:34 am
That’s what a coalition of health care industry groups say they will seek to do over the next decade. The push to cut costs out of the health sector has even united the American Hospital Association and the SEIU, which has been pushing nurses to organize around the country.
On a Sunday conference call, senior administration officials hailed the effort as “a game changer” in the health care debate. “I don’t think there can be a more significant step to helping struggling families and to help the federal budget,” said one aide. “It just makes it even clearer than ever that health reform is going to happen this year in the Congress,” added another.
The effort, which those familiar with the plan say will aim for greater care coordination, lower administrative costs and the bundling of payments among health care providers and recipients, could result in a three percent reduction of gross domestic product by the year 2019. That year alone, the industry could save $700 billion. On a more personal level, White House aides project that after five years a family of four could be saving $2,500 a year.
SEE ALSO: From the Journal, a look at the first major obstacle to the plan. And via change:healthcare’s blog, a myopic, in-the-trenches debate about incentivizing patients to help cut costs.
It’s never the same anywhere
Posted on May 4, 2009 at 12:22 pmNashville’s Data Advantage today released results of its state-by-state hospital comparison, part of its Hospital Value Index, which rates hospitals quality of care, affordability and efficiency, and patient satisfaction and often highlights the disparate level of value between different areas of the country.
According to its latest interactive map, available here, shows the highest health care value to be found in Montana, Massachusetts, and Iowa, while states like New Mexico, Nevada, and California.
Tennessee’s score fell more towards the middle.
Local long-term care costs in check
Posted on April 30, 2009 at 9:03 amA study by financial services firm Genworth says costs at Nashville-area nursing homes and assisted-living centers are rising more slowly than elsewhere in the state and around the country.
Waiting for the day when Amazon can recommend a medical procedure we might enjoy
Posted on April 28, 2009 at 2:00 pmContinuing the trend of a more retail-styled health care world, revenue cycle management outfit nTelagent has added a new Web-based feature, the “healthcare cash register,” to its Self-Pay Management System.
The feature is designed to allow patients to both post payments online, negotiate payment terms with providers and set up payment plan through which recurring payments are automatically posted to patient accounts.
The full announcement is here.
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Respect from the elders
Posted on March 26, 2009 at 3:03 pmVanderbilt University Medical Center and Baptist Hospital have made the list of the AARP’s Top 125 hospitals in major metro areas.
The survey was part of the research for a new book from Consumers’ Checkbook (www.checkbook.org), called Consumers’ Guide to Hospitals, which uses government safety statistics and data on death and complication rates, along with survey results, to compare and rank hospitals in the nation’s largest metro areas. The final list of top 125 hospitals was selected from 1,467 acute-care hospitals in the nation’s largest population areas. Key measures included:
* Ratings by patients
* Ratings by physicians
* Death rates and adverse-outcome rates
* Doing proper tests and procedures
* Major medical school affiliation
* Leapfrog Group safety standards
The only other Tennessee facilities making the list were Memphis’ Methodist University Hospital and Baptist Memorial Hospital.
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Half of U.S. hospitals losing money
Posted on March 12, 2009 at 12:29 pm
And data from the Colorado Hospital Association’s Databank project shows that hospitals lost almost 8 cents for every dollar of fourth-quarter revenue. At first glance, it suggests that American consumers aren’t just cutting back on buying cars and hi-def TVs. And the job market dynamics aren’t promising going forward.
Furthermore, signs for health coverage in 2010 among employers studied in the latest Hewitt survey of employers point to their plans to allocate even more costs for premiums, copays and coinsurance to the insured employee and dependents. This could further exacerbate the downward pressure on hospital finances in 2010 given what appears is some elastic demand for hospital services among consumers who are paying greater amounts of out-of-pocket expenses for care.
But Robert Hendrick, co-founder of Nashville-based change:healthcare, suggest we look at the numbers in a fundamentally different way.
Who knows, maybe we’re getting healthier or just using better judgement about what constitutes a needed procedure. Maybe our wellness and DM programs are working. Insurance companies and self-insured employers should be jumping for joy at the news because that SHOULD translate to lower healthcare expenses for them in the form of fewer claims - at least in the short term.
CNN love for local health care company
Posted on March 3, 2009 at 3:09 pm
change:healthcare’s price comparison services got some air yesterday during the cable channel’s Q&A segment on health issues. Scroll the timer to about 40 seconds into the segment.
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