Healthcare

Showing 353–368 of 450 results

  • Health GPOs continue to change, attract federal scrutiny

    Fall 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 276

    Abstract: Nearly every hospital uses a group purchasing organization (GPO) for at least some of its purchasing needs. In the 1980s and 1990s, the industry consolidated into seven large GPOs to provide national group purchasing services. Now it looks like the industry is changing again as interest in regional and local GPOs grows. This brief article discusses hospitals’ increasingly assertive relationships with GPOs, and federal scrutiny among concerns about whether GPOs produce genuine purchasing savings for their members.

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  • Greening the hospital: It’s no longer optional

    Fall 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 782

    Abstract: Many hospitals don’t have a complete understanding of the impact their facilities have on the environment, including the presence of toxins, the dollars spent on harmful products and processes, the health effects on patients and employees, the energy efficiency of hospital activities, and the volumes of waste that they disgorge. This article looks at some of the situations that may be present in a hospital and how to address them. These involve a hospital’s supply chains, waste disposal system, facility design and operations, and food service. A sidebar lists three online sources that can help hospitals improve their “environmental health.”

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  • Is there an ACO in your future? – Understanding the hospital’s role in accountable care organizations

    Fall 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 1074

    Abstract: Health care reform will significantly expand patient access, yet major problems remain with the U.S. health care system. Overall costs are unsustainable, and several health-outcome measures lag behind other industrialized countries. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) includes provisions to address these issues through aggressive promotion of accountable care organizations (ACOs). This article explains what an ACO does, and discusses three PPACA programs that directly affect ACOs. It also suggests how to form an ACO and offers special tips for hospitals. A sidebar looks at legal impediments to forming an ACO.

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  • Strategies for responding to adverse events

    Fall 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 865

    Abstract: If a death or serious disability results from a preventable medical error, the potential legal and financial consequences are huge. This article examines the recent history of attempts to identify and prevent “adverse events,” and lists five recommended responses to them. It also discusses the findings of an Office of Inspector General (OIG) study of this issue.

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  • Practice notes – Incentive payments for “meaningful use” of EHR

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 509

    Abstract: CMS is eager for physician practices to deploy electronic health record (EHR) technology as soon as possible. It has proposed two incentive-driven programs — one through Medicare and the other through Medicaid — to encourage “meaningful use” of EHR systems. Physicians are required to participate in one of the programs, and most are expected to choose the Medicare program. This article looks at the “meaningful use” provisions, and the stages in which they’re to be carried out.

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  • What’s their secret? – Why some practices thrive and others don’t

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 850

    Abstract: Top-performing physician practices don’t achieve their success by accident. Outstanding results are the product of regularly measuring financial and other practice performance and taking action to continually improve. Important areas to focus on include charges and collections; patient flow; referral sources; fee schedules; salaries and benefits; and gross collection percentages per payor.

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  • 7 steps to smarter, timelier collections

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 678

    Abstract: In times when cash flow may not keep pace with patient flow, it’s important to ensure that one’s practice collects for every procedure and every patient. This article offers seven suggestions, including assigning billing employees to certain insurers; keeping an eye on accounts receivable aging; creating an office manual; and providing performance incentives.

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  • Medicare fraud and abuse allegations: Minimizing the damage

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 802

    Abstract: The complexity and constantly changing nature of the Medicare regulations on prohibited practice behavior makes violations almost inevitable. But the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) offers some safeguards. They include an audit of operating policies and procedures; implementing a training program to familiarize staff with regulations; providing staff with easy methods for reporting potential problems or violations; and uncovering violations before an outsider does. A sidebar to this article discusses how to voluntarily disclose such self-discovered violations.

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  • How will health care reform affect your hospital? Here are just a few examples

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 296

    Abstract: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will create reforms that indirectly influence every provider and payor entity in the health care system. This short article looks at three of the many ways that hospitals will be affected.

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  • New standards make qualifying for tax-exempt status harder

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 728

    Abstract: True or not, over the last several years, a perception has developed that not-for-profit hospitals and health systems provide no more charity care than their for-profit counterparts. Such thinking has led to increased scrutiny of tax-exempt health care entities and whether they deserve that status. And the recently enacted health care reform along with an Illinois Supreme Court decision in March may make it harder to qualify for tax-exempt status.

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  • The board’s role in ensuring quality of care

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 943

    Abstract: Many factors have converged recently that place quality of care and patient safety at the top of the agenda for hospital governing boards. For example, the health care industry is dealing with the patient safety movement, pay-for-performance plans and stricter government regulations. But what should a board’s role be? The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has created more detailed recommendations for the minimum quality-related activities of governing boards of health care organizations. A sidebar to this article discusses fiduciary duty and quality of care.

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  • It’s a new day – A look at hospital-physician alignment strategies

    Summer 2010
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 1030

    Abstract: The forces pushing hospitals and physicians to work together more closely are almost overwhelming. Decreasing reimbursements, increasing costs and growing administrative headaches are leading more physicians to actively seek affiliation with hospitals — from casual physician concerns with hospital strategy and operations to full commingling of interests and activities. There are a number of prominent strategies available, including three joint venture models. These offer tremendous benefits, but many business and legal questions need first be considered.

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  • Practice Notes – How to best manage practice risks

    Spring 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 492

    Abstract: When physicians consider risk management, most will immediately think of their medical malpractice insurance coverage. And rightly so. But, in addition, there are certain insurance policies that every practice should carry. Before soliciting bids, physicians should take inventory of current coverages, identify where their practice has too much or too little protection, and prepare a matrix of coverages comparing wants and needs.

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  • Those who take care of others … should take care of their retirement benefits, too

    Spring 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 853

    Abstract: Any physician getting ready to retire, or simply move to another practice, will need to decide what they want to do with their retirement account from the job they’re leaving. Options include taking a lump-sum distribution, making a direct rollover into a traditional IRA or to a new employer’s 401(k) plan, or leaving the assets where they are. But there are pros and cons involved, depending on one’s age, income and retirement goals.

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  • Will the medical home trend transform how you practice medicine?

    Spring 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 737

    Abstract: If the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) trend continues to gain ground, it will most likely involve every type of provider and require dramatic changes in health care delivery. Key to the PCMH concept is “whole-person orientation,” in which the personal physician is responsible for meeting all of the patient’s health care needs or arranging appropriate care through other qualified professionals. But transforming a medical practice to a PCMH is a major undertaking that requires a series of incremental changes. Doctors will need to tailor their conception and implementation of the PCMH model to the distinct characteristics of their practice.

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  • Health care reform: What you can expect from the new law

    Spring 2010
    Newsletter: Rx for Practice Management / Practice Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 871

    Abstract: Health care reform … at last. But what does it mean to physician practices? According to one authority, it will place a huge load on physician practices by releasing pent-up demand for health care services from an additional 18 million newly insured people and new Medicaid users. With more patients, physicians in all specialties will have the opportunity to increase their revenues, although some critics maintain that it will redistribute income away from primary care providers and misalign monetary incentives for doctors. This article discusses the impact on Medicare payments, along with incentive payments and cost savings through streamlined health insurance claims processing procedures. Tort reform and the prospects for reform of the sustainable growth rate formula are also explored. A sidebar shows an upside and downside of the legislation as it affects the business side of a practice.

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