Beckers Hospital Review: 6 Ways to Enhance Physician Communication, Alignment

Great Article from Beckers Hospital Review:

Hospital executives participate in a balancing act everyday. They have to keep many different people and organizations satisfied, and it isn’t always easy. Further, the transformation from fee-for-service to pay-for-performance models throw another to-do on an executive’s agenda: How to keep hospitals running smoothly and physicians satisfied with their reimbursements in a time when many hospitals are acquiring physician groups and changing payment models?

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Fierce Healthcare: Hospitals underestimate threat of HCAHPS penalties

Despite the looming threat of reduced reimbursements under performance measures, hospitals may be overly optimistic that they will perform well, according to experts at the American College of Health Executives’ (ACHE) annual congress in Chicago. In fact, they should probably be shaking in their boots, considering that Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores and other core measures in value-based purchasing will affect their payments.

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6 Survival Skills for Healthcare’s “Era of Disruption”

Good article on the survival skills needed for the coming years from Becker’s Hospital Review.  Recommended for anyone dealing with the future…

From Beckers.. “Ask any healthcare leader to name something that isn’t changing in their world these days, and they’d be hard pressed to come up with an answer. Technologies are evolving so quickly that equipment and IT infrastructure can be nearly out of date before they are fully functional. Brick-and-mortar healthcare delivery is increasingly threatened by breakthroughs in virtual medicine. Major regulatory changes are underway involving reimbursement, accountability and quality. The very structure of the industry — particularly for care providers — is shifting daily as more and more  players merge, consolidate and innovate.”

Find the original article here on Beckers Hospital Review.com

Original link: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/6-survival-skills-for-healthcares-qera-of-disruptionq.html

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ACEP – Medicaid Patients Struggle to Get Primary Care, Visit ERs More

Not too surprising for us in hospitals..

From the American College of Emergency Physicians:

“Twice as many people insured by Medicaid as by private insurance report barriers to primary care and Medicaid patients are twice as likely to visit the emergency department as their privately insured counterparts, according to a study published online yesterday in Annals of Emergency Medicine (“National Study of Barriers to Timely Primary Care and Emergency Department Utilization Among Medicaid Beneficiaries”)”

http://www.acep.org/Content.aspx?id=84318

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Three Factors Affecting the Next Five Years in Healthcare

The next five years for healthcare should be an interesting time for all.  George Laurin, an experienced healthcare executive has surveyed leaders for a future look at our industry.  His thoughts are something for us all to consider.

3 Factors Impacting Healthcare by George Laurin.

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Hospitals Demand Payment Upfront From ER Patients With Routine Problems

We continue to decide how to collect on those payments due to us from the patients who present to the Emergency Room without health insurance, or how to speed up the payments that are due.  Here’s a good article from Kaiser Health News that covers the topic.

Read story here.

“Provided by Kaiser Health News.” www.kaiserhealthnews.org

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Health Professional Shortage Area Bonus Payment Policy Reminders

Physicians who furnish services to Medicare beneficiaries in areas designated as primary care geographic Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as of December 31, 2011, are eligible for a 10 percent bonus payment for services furnished from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012. If an area does not have a geographic primary care HPSA designation, but does have a geographic mental health HPSA designation, then only psychiatrists furnishing services to Medicare beneficiaries in the designated area are eligible for the 10 percent bonus.

http://www.cms.gov/MLNMattersArticles/Downloads/SE1202.pdf

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Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Payments by State

Here’s where you’ll find Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Program payment and registration data in report form.

CMS.gov/Data and Reports

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Great article on Leadership Qualities needed today from Becker Review

10 Traits of Top Healthcare Leaders

From Becker Hospital Review:

“Today’s hospital leaders face a daunting task: keeping their organizations afloat and their employees happy while battling uncertain mandates of healthcare reform and fighting increased competition for patients, physicians and payor contracts. Paul Spiegelman, founder and CEO of The Beryl Companies, a technology focused patient experience company, discusses 10 traits of great hospital and health system leaders in the tumultuous healthcare climate.”

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Critical Access Hospitals need CMS support

Really good article on implementation of EHR systems in Critical Access Hospitals from Fierce Healthcare.

http://www.fierceemr.com/story/critical-access-hospitals-deserve-ehr-incentive-dollars-not-cms-gaffes/2011-12-21

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