Providers

The year 2019 will finally be when the healthcare industry, particularly payers and providers, finally begins to catch up to other industries in terms of giving the consumer what they want.

For hospitals and other healthcare professionals, mobile apps represent the future of healthcare communication. If your facility isn’t already using apps or isn’t seriously evaluating them, your organization is behind the adoption curve.

Despite impending changes in Washington, DC, as the Democrats are set to take over the House of Representatives in 2019, the divided federal government could lead to a spell of predictability for some healthcare sectors as most action shifts to the state level.

Among Medicare beneficiaries, the relationship between fragmented ambulatory care and subsequent emergency department visits and hospital admissions varies with the number of chronic conditions. Check out our website’s new table/figure pop-up feature! Click on the name of a table or figure in the text to see it in your browser.

An annual survey conducted by a physician staffing firm found more providers working a few more hours and showing signs of burnout amid some concerns about reimbursement. The Medicus Firm, a staffing company in Texas and Georgia, said it is the 15th year it has conducted the survey.

A recent study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that healthcare professionals are downplaying the importance of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) following national dietary guidelines.

The chair is funded by the healthcare solutions company Navvis.

Haywood Brown, MD, immediate past president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology (ACOG), discusses the importance of postpartum follow up, and the reasoning behind ACOG's recently revised committee opinion.

Providers should be involved in new reimbursement model development from day 1, said Roger Brito, DO, national director for oncology, Aetna.

The ability to have a plan that’s going to work and be large enough that it makes sense for those involved is a barrier for employers who want to pursue alternative payment models, said David Merrill, HR benefits manager, Volusia County, Florida, and John Robinson, CEBS, REBC, RHU, president and CEO, RobinsonBush.

Syapse, a leading precision medicine company, and Roche have joined forces to advance precision medicine in oncology. They will work together to bring real-world data to providers, bring oncology into the value-based care era, advance patient-reported outcomes, and optimize clinical trial recruiment.

A chief medical officer for a major payer outlines the challenges making sure that certain high-cost therapies are directed to the patients who need them.

Vivor has a provider-facing technology platform that empowers providers to address financial toxicity by proactively identifying financial resources for their patients, said Ian Manner, MBA, co-founder, CEO, Vivor.

Representatives from 3 payers who partnered with providers on the Oncology Care Model (OCM) took the stage at Community Oncology Alliance (COA)’s Payer Exchange Summit on Oncology Payment Reform to outline their experience with OCM and how it has differed from other care models.

The move to give entrepreneurs access to patient-approved continuous glucose monitoring data fits with the company's prediction that insulin pumps will become a thing of the past, and most of the heavy lifting of delivery will be done by a smartphone.

The report finds that the same technology that physicians use to remind patients about appointments can be used to send reminders about screenings or that a payment is past due.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has released the first-ever COPD National Action Plan, which is aimed at ending the illness.

The Network for Excellence in Health Innovation finds potential areas of innovation and then tries to eliminate the obstacles to those ideas so its members can achieve the triple aim, according to Susan Dentzer, president and CEO of The Network for Excellence in Health Innovation.

Over 65,000 ineligible providers have been culled from the Medicaid program due to a component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires periodic recertification of eligibility.

What we’re reading, January 17, 2017: a newly finalized federal rule eases record sharing of drug abuse treatment between providers; numerous rallies in support of Obamacare draw thousands across the nation; HHS nominee Representative Tom Price allegedly introduced a Congress bill that favored his stock holdings.

Using precision medicine to implement clinical decisions can help healthcare providers achieve the triple aim, said Leonard M. Fromer, MD, FAAFP, executive medical director of the Group Practice Forum.

As the healthcare system adjusts to the transition to value-based care, providers in particular are having a hard time keeping up with all of the changes, said Andrei Gonzales, director of value-based reimbursement initiatives at McKesson Health Solutions.

Last month, the healthcare payment network InstaMed announced that it was the first in the industry to achieve point-to-point encryption (P2PE) v2.0 validation. How important is this level of encryption for healthcare? What will this mean for those who seek better protection of their payment card data?

At the Payer Exchange Summit V, sponsored by the Community Oncology Alliance (COA), 2 employer groups and a provider participated on a panel to provide practical insight into the extraordinary challenges and decisions faced by employers and employees with a cancer diagnosis.

Lawmakers have been working on the problem of what to do about out-of-network bills that result from emergency room care for more than a year.

There are signs that smaller providers, in particular, are not moving toward value-based reimbursement at the same pace as larger healthcare stakeholders.

Coverage from Patient-Centered Diabetes Care, April 7-8, 2016. Presented by The American Journal of Managed Care and Joslin Diabetes Center.

Marketplace consumers desire more health plan measures on how well plans support long-term patient—physician relationships. Consumers are skeptical of measures about rewarding providers for high quality.

The Affordable Care Act and additional legislation that has mandated extending mental health parity coverage are contributing to an increased demand for mental health services that the United States is not meeting.

Cancer pathways can potentially improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. Recent concerns about pathway adoption deserve attention, including excessive administrative burden to clinics.