A newsbasket is on-line Internet publication containing comprehensive aggregated collections of information.


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

What is health care transparency

What is health care transparency?

{Q}There is no correlation between cost and quality. Prices for medical services can vary greatly - even for the same procedure, in the same area, within the same network.{EQ}

cloud-based software helps employers gain control over health care spending.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1769895 Until very recently, health care in the United States was delivered behind the secure walls of a fortress that kept information on the prices charged for health care and the quality of that care opaque from public view.

Over time, enormous and ever-increasing amounts of money have disappeared behind the fortress walls. Much good undoubtedly was done for patients entering the castle in search of succor. 

But it has been nearly impossible for prospective patients thinking of entering the health care system to know what they or someone else will have to give up in return for whatever care they will receive from the inhabitants of the fortress.
 in a recent article in The Journal of the American Medical Association, imagine a department store whose customers are blindfolded before entering. A shopper might enter the store seeking to buy an affordable dress shirt and a tie, but exit it with a pair of boxer shorts and a scarf. Sometime later, he would receive an invoice, whose details would be incomprehensible to him, save for one item: a dollar amount in a framed box with the words: “Pay this amount.”


http://tinyurl.com/kuzfyok {Forbes} {Q} Mr. Sonenreich is quoted from an appearance on public radio affiliate WRLN with this provocative commitment:

“We’d be willing to put our prices to all the insurance companies out in public and we would welcome that kind of transparency of everyone in the marketplace.”

He’s not talking about “chargemaster” rates here. These are the contractual rates that the hospital has negotiated with the insurance companies.{EQ} know, the secret ones. Here’s    commitment. I’ll publish (or link to) those rates when they do become public.{EQ}

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Denial: When it helps, when it hurts - Mayo Clinic

Denial: When it helps, when it hurts - Mayo Clinic

Refuse to acknowledge a stressful problem or situation


  • Avoid facing the facts of the situation


  • Minimize the consequences of the situation

  • In its strictest sense, denial is an unconscious process. You don't generally decide to be in denial about something. But some research suggests that denial might have a conscious component — on some level, you might choose to be in denial.

    Common reasons for denial
    You can be in denial about anything that makes you feel vulnerable or threatens your sense of control, such as:
    • A chronic or terminal illness
    • Depression or other mental health conditions
    • Addiction
    • Financial problems
    • Job difficulties
    • Relationship conflicts
    • Traumatic events

    Wednesday, March 5, 2014

    What would convince a doctor to refer his patients to YOUR assisted living facility? | Blog | Illumination Analytics | Health Reform for Assisted Living Communities | Better Healthcare and Lower Cost

    What would convince a doctor to refer his patients to YOUR assisted living facility? | Blog | Illumination Analytics | Health Reform for Assisted Living Communities | Better Healthcare and Lower Cost: What would convince a doctor to refer his patients to YOUR assisted living facility?
    March 1st, 2014



     Dr. Steven Fuller

    It always surprised me that not a single marketer offered me the one thing that would have made me choose THEM in a heartbeat:  metrics.  The one feature that would have made the greatest impression is the one thing I was never shown…some type of HEALTH PROFILE, anything that demonstrated they understood and were committed to the huge responsibility of managing my patients’ health.
    Here are just a few things that I wanted to know and whose answers would have made a lasting and very positive impression and would have resulted in my referrals:
        I wanted to know the types of chronic health conditions and medications that are currently managed in this marketer’s AL so that I could have an idea of what the health environment was like.
        I wanted to know whether an AL could manage my patient with heart failure or lung disease or severe arthritis or chronic pain or depression and who is taking 8 different medicines at different times of the day.
        I wanted to know whether a facility somehow differentiates or adjusts its staffing to account for the Risk Level of individual residents – that is, does it care for residents with many health needs any differently than it does for residents with only minimal needs.
        I wanted to know WHO is managing the health of all the residents.  Are these caregivers educated about the kinds of health conditions my patients have and the medicines they take?  And how do the caregivers keep track of and become informed of all the health needs that they are managing?  This is a huge task when caring for so many people.
        I wanted to know whether the AL PROACTIVELY manages the health needs of my patients, or do they just wait until my patients get sick before intervening or sending them to the ER.  And how can the AL demonstrate its answer to me?



    {He developed Illumination Analytics specifically for Assisted Living Communities in order to enhance health management and provide objective measures of care excellence in this setting.}