Post-Acute Care Partners: A Make-or-Break Choice

by Mark Dubow, Director

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Your selection of post-acute care (“PAC”) partners can make or break your value-based payment programs and care management initiatives. Even where fee-for-service is still dominant, having the right post-acute care partners can improve economic performance by reducing length of stay and minimizing acute care readmissions. Most health systems and hospitals do not own PAC facilities, […]

Rice Discusses Collaborative Governance and Boundary Spanning

Continuing our series on excerpts of interviews with iProtean experts, we feature our old friend and new iProtean expert, Jim Rice, Ph.D., FACHE., on governing in an era of population health.   We’re moving into an era of population health management that will have profound implications, both challenges and opportunities, for boards of directors. I […]

Jennings, Grauman Explain Bundled Payments

We recently interviewed Marian Jennings and Dan Grauman on bundled payments. What follows are excerpts from those interviews.   Dan Grauman: A bundled payment is a new payment mechanism called for in the Affordable Care Act, the Bundled Payment Care Initiative (BCPI). Essentially, it is a payment for a specific episode of care over a […]

PHM & APMs: What Comes First?

This blog/newsletter features an excerpt from an upcoming iProtean course featuring Dan Grauman from Veralon. Dan discusses the concepts and payment mechanisms that gained traction from the Affordable Care Act.   As is often the case during times of changes in health care, many terms and concepts are used. Population health management is conceptual. It’s […]

Competition for Physicians Increases in Urban Areas

Note: iProtean will be at its annual symposium next week. The newsletter/blog will resume the following week.   More recruitment for physician employees occurred in urban than rural and suburban areas in 2015. Compared to all placements in 2015, nearly 37 percent were recruited in urban areas compared to 25 percent in 2013, according to […]

Malware Is Top Information Security Concern for Healthcare Execs

Four-fifths of executives at healthcare and payer organizations said in a 2015 KPMG survey that their IT has been compromised by cyber-attacks. Malware was the top information security concern of the 223 healthcare executives surveyed.   The recent cyber-attack on a California hospital highlighted ongoing malware dangers for hospitals and the need to plan accordingly, […]

Medical Staff Plans: Rightsizing in a Healthcare Reform Environment

by Craig Holm, Director

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The impact of the Affordable Care Act on clinical practice patterns has influenced the utilization of and need for most physician specialties. Completing a medical staff development plan will help a health system or hospital right size its medical staff in light of these impacts, and ultimately help determine community need for physicians. Yet too […]

Patient-Centered Medical Homes Reduce Cost and Utilization

Patient-centered medical homes generally reduce both cost and utilization, according to a new report from the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative.   The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is an innovation in care delivery designed to advance and achieve the Triple Aim of improved patient experience, improved population health and reduced cost of care. A medical home […]

Survey Highlights CEOs’ Top Concerns for 2016

The American College of Healthcare Executives’ third annual survey found that the chief concerns of community hospital CEOs involve financial issues, especially transition from volume to value (risk-based payment) and Medicaid payment. Financial concerns trumped other areas such as quality, patient safety, government mandates and personnel shortages.   A former chairman of the Medicare Payment […]