Hospital/physician relations
US not-for-profit children's hospitals are likely to remain financially stable in the next year or two although changes on the horizon, including those related to healthcare reform, could affect the sector's traditional niche role.
The currents of health reform and consumerization are getting more treacherous for incumbent hospital businesses, according to a new report by Standard and Poor’s Rating Services.
Accountable care organizations are captivating because they contain elements of care delivery that most experts agree should improve healthcare: financial risk sharing, electronic health records, quality benchmarks, patient engagement and care coordination. But the question remains: can ACOs pull it off?
While others have dispassionately made the point that there are unexplained variations in Medicare physician billing data that warrant careful consideration when using such data, one doctor thinks CMS has devious motives.
With an annual rate of 11,000 fatalities from falls in U.S. hospitals, falls are a persistent concern for healthcare facilities. They raise issues of care quality and are increasingly a financial issue.
Around the country, physicians are starting private practices every day. And the economics work if the practice is constructed correctly -- paying for itself and earning equal-to or greater-than that of an employment model.
When physicians are uninvolved in how expenses are handled in the larger health system environment, and it does not affect their income, behavior changes and apathy for the operational overhead ensues. Institutions leave themselves open to problems when a physician has no incentive to keep costs low.
The Affordable Care Act included a number of delivery system reforms, such as ACOs, bundled payments, and workforce provisions to strengthen foundations in primary care. Unfortunately, a focused effort on payments for specialists was not included.
As new physicians and practice groups join your organization, a thoughtful, standardized approach can make onboarding and orientation go more quickly and efficiently.
Physician engagement results in better patient care, more accurate reimbursement and more. Here are some tips for engaging with your physicians.