Quality and Safety

The National Quality Forum announced that Christine Cassel, MD, will become its president and CEO mid-summer 2013 when she leaves her decade-long post as president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation. Cassel took a few minutes to talk to Healthcare Finance News about her upcoming role.

A patient-centered care model and the capacity to deliver primary care are more essential for starting an ACO than financial strength, according to a recent study from the Commonwealth Fund.

When patients have access to after-hours services with their primary care provider, emergency room usage is significantly lower and fewer patients go without needed medical care, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) released last week by Health Affairs.

Bundled payment and payment reform in general are hot topics in healthcare circles, and will prove to be a challenge for many. Jay Sultan, thought leader for payment reform at TriZetto, a healthcare management solutions company, shared with Healthcare Finance News five key ideas for hospital leaders to consider in order to break barriers to successfully implement payment reform at their organizations.

Hospitals and medical practices across the country have continued to increase their privacy and security budgets over the past five years, said a new HIMSS survey released Wednesday. Officials, however, say the percentage of the budget dedicated to these issues is still cause for concern.

As the home care market becomes increasingly competitive, two worker-owned cooperative home care agencies get proactive by becoming the first home care companies in the country to be certified B Corporations.

More than 350 healthcare, patient, veterans and business organizations on Tuesday urged Congressional leaders to reject any proposal to turn the Medicare Part D plan into one that resembles the rebates structure of Medicaid drug programs.

Consumer-directed health plans with high deductibles typically exempt recommended preventive care such as annual physicals or screening tests from the plan's deductible or require only a small copay as a way to ease financial barriers and encourage patients to seek care. However, many patients don't understand their plan benefits for preventative office care and tend to avoid visits altogether.

An annual list of issues facing physicians doesn't offer any surprises. The Physicians Foundation released today its Physicians Watch List, five issues the nonprofit organization has identified as likely to have the most impact on doctors in 2013.

Jeffrey Brenner, MD, is on a mission to improve the quality and cost of healthcare delivery in his community. He is particularly focused on "super-utilizers," the segment of the population that uses a disproportionately high amount of hospital and ER services. Brenner spoke recently with Healthcare Finance News Editor Rene Letourneau about his research and his views on the nation's failing healthcare systems.