// By Marcia Simon, APR // Crisis management is a standard part of hospital communication preparedness, but who could ever have anticipated the coronavirus pandemic? How do you communicate to your community and patients about a pandemic when nobody anywhere has all the answers? Yale New Haven Health clinicians and ancillary staff quickly came together, Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Well before cases of COVID-19 began to spike in the U.S., health care organizations were watching the response to the pandemic unfold worldwide and preparing for the worst-case scenario. Communications to myriad stakeholders have been and are being created, coordinated, and standardized across multiple channels. Accurate, up-to-date information is Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Health care spending for older adults is disproportionately higher than for other age groups. According to 2016 research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the 65 and older group — 16 percent of the population — consumes 36 percent of health spending. The cost of care for older adults is Read More
With the shift toward value-based care and the assumption of risk, many health care organizations are beginning to understand that they must address behavioral health in conjunction with physical care for patients. In our new story, Howard Gershon, a founding principal of New Heights Group, discusses the business case. Here’s an excerpt. Behavioral health issues Read More
One of the keys to success in preparation for value-based health reimbursement models is the use of technology to identify opportunities to close gaps in service, improve cost-effectiveness of treatments, improve outcomes, and enhance preventive care services. In Missouri, three Federally Qualified Health Centers serving more than 53 counties and 107,000 patients in mostly rural Read More
// By Howard Gershon, LFACHE // With the shift toward value-based care and the assumption of risk, many health care organizations are beginning to understand that they must address behavioral health in conjunction with physical care for patients. Behavioral health issues are in the news every day, whether it’s a national sports figure who has Read More
// By Sheryl S. Jackson // A newly formed alliance of three Federally Qualified Health Centers provides an example of how shared expertise and pooled resources are laying the groundwork for value-based care, with the ultimate goal of driving better outcomes and lower costs in Medicaid managed care contracts. One of the keys to success Read More
“Value-based care models are on the rise, and health care providers and payers are increasingly aligning to control costs while providing quality care,” says Jordan Pisarcik, vice president of growth and customer engagement at DocASAP. Here’s an excerpt from Pisarcik’s new article: According to a recent report by Humana, value-based care initiatives are proving to Read More
// By Jordan Pisarcik // Most providers do not have a digital access strategy in place that accounts for health plan initiatives, but greater payer-provider financial alignment will accelerate the need for a coherent strategy. Value-based care models are on the rise, and health care providers and payers are increasingly aligning to control costs while Read More
“If you didn’t know the whole story, you’d think last October 20 was a less-than-glorious Sunday in Seattle,” writes SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “It was a football day, of course, and the Seattle Seahawks lost to the Baltimore Ravens 30-16. But for two local hospitals, Virginia Mason Health System, with about 600 licensed beds, and Read More
“Not that many years ago, you would commonly find ‘senior services’ programs in almost every hospital across the country,” says Daniel Fell, a senior strategist at Optum. “But somewhere along the way, despite the demographic trends confronting the health care industry that clearly point to a seismic shift among the health care population — mainly Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Properly done, the participation of sports teams can create impressive visibility and emotional involvement for a cancer awareness promotion. Here’s what it produced for the State of Washington’s Virginia Mason Health System and CHI Franciscan. If you didn’t know the whole story, you’d think last October 20 was a less-than-glorious Read More
// By Daniel Fell // How should hospitals and health care delivery systems think about serving the growing “senior” population? How can health systems better leverage data and technology to meet the needs of consumers and caregivers who will be using health care services at the highest rate over the next several decades? Not that Read More
“Population health is a hot topic in our industry,” says Susan Dubuque of ndp. “But let’s be honest. As health care marketing professionals, we may have a difficult time getting our heads around this complex, multifaceted concept. There is lack of clarity about even the most basic issues like: What is population health? Who is Read More
Hospital and physician-owned Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have seen double-digit growth since 2015. Axios, which tracks membership data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), reports that the largest organization in this category, Kaiser Permanente, grew 23 percent from 2015 to 2018, to almost 1.6 million members. The other 40 or so hospital- and Read More
// By Wendy Stark Healy // Medicare Advantage Plans have become a popular choice among Medicare recipients, and health systems are staking their claim to the market. Some health systems have had insurance arms for years, and others are just launching their plans. Done correctly, hospital-sponsored Medicare Advantage plans offer an attractive opportunity for health Read More
Marketers envision playing a leading role in population health activities. // By Susan Dubuque // Population health is a hot topic in our industry. But let’s be honest. As health care marketing professionals, we may have a difficult time getting our heads around this complex, multifaceted concept. There is lack of clarity about even the Read More
Approximately 0.6 percent (about 1.4 million) of American adults identify as transgender, according to a report from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Like all people, transgender individuals — people who have a gender identity or expression that differs from their assigned sex at birth — need access to health care. Many Read More
// By Althea Fung // Care of transgender patients is complex, cutting across multiple medical specialties and requiring an integrated, coordinated approach — including care at home. Mount Sinai’s Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery (CTMS) offers gender-affirming care to trans men and women. Approximately 0.6 percent (about 1.4 million) of American adults identify as Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The experience of health care often falls short for the most important stakeholders in health care — patients and the clinicians who serve them. Are health care leaders stuck trying to reengineer a fundamentally flawed system? Is reframing a way to unlock the potential? Dr. Zeev Neuwirth, author of Read More
A vision for population health through community partnerships and innovation // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Under Dr. Tony Slonim’s leadership, Renown Health has forged strong connections with the community, acting as a catalyst for change. “If you want to improve the health of your community, engage the people who are most likely to be Read More
Measles cases are on the rise. All six regions of the World Health Organization (WHO) are experiencing large outbreaks of measles. In the U.S., health officials recorded 1,109 new cases of measles in 30 states in the first six months of 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the greatest number Read More
// By Althea Fung // The recent outbreak of measles puts the issue of vaccination front and center, especially for children’s hospitals. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has taken a leadership role in providing accurate, evidence-based information through its Vaccine Education Center. Measles cases are on the rise. All six regions of the World Health Organization Read More
Treating illness is important, but that is only a part of overall health. Social determinants of health (SDoH) — the conditions under which people are born, live, and work — are increasingly recognized as strong influences on health. Conditions like poverty, education level, and lack of social support contribute to more than half of premature Read More
// By Althea Fung // Treating illness is important, but that is only a part of overall health. Social determinants of health (SDoH) — the conditions under which people are born, live, and work — are increasingly recognized as strong influences on health. Conditions like poverty, education level, and lack of social support contribute to Read More