cmonfils | June 27, 2011
HealthLeaders June 2011 By: Philip Betbeze
To create a viable ACO, leaders at Summa Health System recognized the need to convince independent physicians that the model can work for them, despite the many risks.
Innovative and forward-thinking organizations haven’t been waiting around for the government to act before transforming the way they deliver care. Yet even with proposed regulations out for accountable care organizations, many organizations are still taking a wait-and-see approach. But Summa Health System’s top executives and a cadre of independent physicians don’t see the value in waiting, and have been working diligently to create the structures and systems required to deliver care that is better and cheaper—in short, an ACO. (more…)
Category: Accountable Care Organizations |
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cmonfils | June 27, 2011
www.myhealthguide.com
MyHealthGuide Source: Todd Leeuwenburgh, Editor, Employer Health Benefits, Thompson Publishing Group, 6/24/2011, www.Thompson.com
Self-funded plans, insurers and other payers will have an easier time complying with health reform’s internal appeals and external review rules, under rules the U.S. Departments of Labor, Treasury and Health and Human Services issued June 24. (more…)
Category: DOL, Self-Funding |
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cmonfils | June 27, 2011
www.myhealthguide.com
MyHealthGuide Source: HealthLeaders-InterStudy, 6/24/2011, HL Article
Nashville, TN — HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a leading provider of managed care market intelligence, reports that employer groups of as few as 50 to 100 lives are considering self- insurance for their employees.
According to the recent Mid-Atlantic Health Plan Analysis, smaller employer groups are actively weighing whether to take on their employees’ medical risk in order to save money on insurance premiums. Those who choose to exit the fully insured market generally hire a health plan or third-party administrator to manage the health benefits. (more…)
Category: Health Care Legislation, Self-Funding |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.mckinseyquarterly.com
JUNE 2011 • Shubham Singhal, Jeris Stueland, and Drew Ungerman
The shift away from employer-provided health insurance will be vastly greater than expected and will make sense for many companies and lower-income workers alike.
US health care reform sets in motion the largest change in employer-provided health benefits in the post–World War II era. While the pace and timing are difficult to predict, McKinsey research points to a radical restructuring of employer-sponsored health benefits following the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act. (more…)
Category: Health Care Legislation |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.ebn.benefitnews.com By Kevin Sweeney June 15, 2011
For too many employers, poor health and well -being comes at a hefty price in terms of increased health care costs and decreased productivity. But for one California-based company, the path to a more healthy, happy workforce has come at hardly any cost at all. (more…)
Category: California, Wellness |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.ebn.benefitnews.com By Kelley M. Butler June 15, 2011
Wellness program provider CEO calls traditional approaches ‘boring,’ incentives unnecessary ‘bribery’ and health risk assessments ‘dangerous’
I’ve never met Danna Korn, but after spending just 25 minutes speaking with her, I believe her company – wellness program vendor Sonic Boom, in Carlsbad, Calif. – is aptly named. Recalling from middle school science that a sonic boom is the thunderous sound created from shock waves when an object is moving faster than the speed of sound, Korn’s approach to wellness and her views on traditional programs likely will send shock waves through the industry. (more…)
Category: Wellness |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.ebn.benefitnews.com By Lynn Gresham June 15, 2011
This article is the third and final in EBN’s annual Preparing for Open Enrollment series, and presents benefits professionals’ advice on when and how to rollout a wellness program. The first two articles are available at www.ebn.benefitnews.com/openenrollment. (more…)
Category: Wellness |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.ebn.benefitnews.com By Michael Cohn June 15, 2011
President Obama signed legislation in April repealing the expanded 1099 reporting requirements in the health care reform law and Small Business Jobs Act. (more…)
Category: Health Care Legislation |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.ebn.benefitsnews.com By Kathleen Koster June 15, 2011
The Employers Council on Flexible Compensation is fighting to repeal parts of the health care reform law that establish annual caps for flexible spending accounts and require a prescription for over-the-counter medications to be reimbursed under FSAs. It also is pushing for a change to allow for a cash out at the end of the year in place of the use-it-or-lose-it system that dates back to the 1980s. (more…)
Category: Health Care Legislation, PPACA |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.businessinsurance.com Rodd Zolkos June 20, 2011
As staffs increase, hospitals expected to use captives more
Hospitals will look to add physicians to meet the added demand of the 32 million previously uninsured U.S. residents affected by the health care reform law, experts say.
Pressure on hospital and health care systems to add physicians as a result of the federal health care reform law will prompt dramatic growth in the use of alternative risk transfer vehicles to address medical professional liability risks, many experts say. (more…)
Category: Health Care Legislation |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.healthleadersmedia.com
Philip Betbeze, for HealthLeaders Media , June 13, 2011
Innovative and forward-thinking organizations haven’t been waiting around for the government to act before transforming the way they deliver care. Yet even with proposed regulations out for accountable care organizations, many organizations are still taking a wait-and-see approach. But Summa Health System’s top executives and a cadre of independent physicians don’t see the value in waiting, and have been working diligently to create the structures and systems required to deliver care that is better and cheaper—in short, an ACO. (more…)
Category: Accountable Care Organizations |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.modernhealthcare.com By Rich Daly Posted: June 20, 2011 – 12:01 am ET
Reform law’s strict enforcement, tough penalties a slap in the face for some providers
As the 2010 federal healthcare overhaul was moving through Congress, provider groups knew that it contained an unprecedented series of penalties aimed at improving the quality of patient care and reducing inefficiencies in the healthcare system. But 2011 has brought those penalties into greater focus, as federal policymakers have begun to issue the regulations that spell out the extent of the financial toll on providers. (more…)
Category: Health Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, Reimbursement |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.modernhealthcare.com
By Maureen McKinney Posted: June 20, 2011 – 12:01 am ET
New evidence about the gravest healthcare errors and where they occur has driven the National Quality Forum to update its list of “serious reportable events” for the first time in five years.
The NQF’s Serious Reportable Events in Healthcare report, used by many state organizations as a tool for public reporting of adverse events such as wrong-site surgery, patient falls and late-stage pressure ulcers, was first released in 2002 and last updated in 2006. A newly revised list includes new events and addresses patient safety in settings outside of hospitals. (more…)
Category: Health Care Legislation |
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cmonfils | June 26, 2011
www.modernhealthcare.com
By Modern Healthcare Posted: June 20, 2011 – 12:01 am ET
Anyone familiar with the predictive-modeling techniques that allow credit-card companies to detect suspicious charges at the cash register might wonder why the CMS couldn’t do the same thing with all the blatantly fraudulent charges sent to Medicare. (more…)
Category: Medicare |
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cmonfils | June 22, 2011
www.news.yahoo.com By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Jun 21, 2001
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed. (more…)
Category: Health Care Legislation, Medicaid |
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