In the world of health care, change is never-ending. Politics, government regulation, scientific advancement, technology, and the economics and financing of health care foster shifts to reshape how care is delivered and how much it costs. Many of these shifts are completely invisible to us as health care consumers. But they also drive what is…
Telling a complete patient story requires capturing the social determinants that influence overall health. Evidence suggests that focusing on “upstream” interventions outside of traditional clinical care—such as housing, neighborhood conditions, and increased socioeconomic status—can lead to overall improvements in health and reduce health disparities and inequities. The challenge for health systems is capturing and structuring…
Download Slides Scarlet Health is an in-home, fully integrated digital platform providing access to on-demand specimen collection services. Backed by BioReference’s national presence and infrastructure, with laboratory facilities and professionals across the country, Scarlet delivers an innovative, flexible, mobile alternative to traditional patient service centers or other draw locations when phlebotomy and other specimen…
Like so many technologies before it, telehealth is a disruptive force with seemingly limitless potential. It can be a phone call between a doctor and a patient, or a message exchange between a primary care provider and a specialist. It can even be a consumer answering a few simple questions online and getting the prescription…
Using data from its social determinants of health database, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently created an online visualization tool providing county-level information about people’s internet access. The new resource features a US map showing percentages of households with computers, smartphones, and any type of high-speed internet access. The map also shows…
After their first year of using the Alternative Payment Model (APM) Performance Pathway (APP) reporting method, participants in the Shared Savings program are spared further challenges as CMS delays the full transition to electronic clinical quality measures (eCQM) and MIPS clinical quality measures (MIPS CQM) and scales back some program requirements. Last year, participants in…
When asked about government’s influence and impact on healthcare, I like to cite my friend, former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt, who says, “If you want to change healthcare you have to change Medicare.” Everybody else—the commercial insurers and the providers—will follow. But changing Medicare is hard. As we’ve seen, even with…
Historically, the U.S. healthcare system has evolved based upon the presence of an “event”, i.e., the need for a visit – planned or impromptu – to a medical provider and/or facility. The inefficiencies, glut of utilization and exponentially rising costs that flow from it as funded by the long-standing “fee-for-service” (FFS) payment methodology have been…
When it was launched 56 years ago, Medicare became the first single-payer insurance program in the U.S., guaranteeing medical coverage to virtually every American once they turned 65. Medicare has proven to be a crucial feature of the U.S. safety net, providing healthcare services to tens of millions of Americans while helping to keep them…
Will accountable care organizations (ACOs) be the value-based payment model of the future?That depends. As the value-based care market has changed, ACO numbers have dropped and competitive payment models have attracted medical groups. ACOs need to prove that the shared savings model can increase historical savings and retain provider participation. And they may have limited…