Mary Mosquera

As health systems and hospitals consolidate and battle for patients, they are starting to employ online consumer marketing efforts. A new Provider Web Presence Index is now available to track provider success.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care topped the list of the National Committee for Quality Assurance annual rankings of health insurance plans in 2013, followed by the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest.

The growth rate of healthcare spending rose 4 percent in 2012, slightly lower than the previous year, but with more dollars spent on outpatient care and out-of-pocket expenses, according to the Health Care Cost Institute.

Many health systems lag on strategies to take advantage of new open enrollment on health insurance exchanges that could help offset declining revenues from fewer admissions and more care moving outside of the hospital.

For healthcare employers, the recent modest growth in insurance premiums in employer-sponsored group plans has more impactful consequences for the their bottom line than it does for non-healthcare employers.

Large and small providers and payers enlist a variety of strategies to develop accountable care organizations and other value-based models.

Health insurers have reached out to consumers in a blitz of in-person, online and networked information and events so those who need coverage or want to change their current individual coverage will know how to connect with and be comfortable with the health insurance exchanges.

One area in which Congress has acted in a bipartisan manner is in crafting a permanent solution to the “doc fix,” the sustainable growth rate formula.

National health spending will accelerate in 2014, as more individuals will be able to access health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is looking into ways that Medicare can strengthen accountable care organizations and the shared savings program to make them more effective for providers and patients, including improving benchmarks, adding more risk and getting beneficiaries more involved.