Healthcare Financial News

A newly released report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) summarizes key discussions and presentations from The Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public, a 2½ day event convened by IOM last February. More than 600 health practitioners, scientists, policy experts, and others gathered to examine the potential of integrative medicine for improving health.  

“Integrative medicine may be described as orienting the healthcare process to create a seamless engagement by patients and caregivers of the full range of physical, psychological, social, preventive, and therapeutic factors known to be effective and necessary for the achievement of optimal health throughout the life span,” according to the report.

IOM president Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD, set forth five critical dimensions of integrative medicine:

• A broad definition of health that covers physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual factors.
• A wide range of interventions—from prevention to rehabilitation and recovery.
• Coordination of care across an array of caregivers and institutions.
• Patient-centered care, which focuses on the needs and values of the individual patient.
• A variety of care modalities, including unconventional as well as traditional therapies.

The 250-page report summarizes the presentations of more than 35 Summit speakers, including Senator Tom Harkin and Dean Ornish, MD, as well as highlights from small groups' discussions around key aspects of integrative medicine.

Participants at the IOM summit acknowledged that the current reimbursement system makes it difficult to provide team care. “We have not so much an evidence-based system of health care as a reimbursement-based system of health care,” said David L. Katz, from The Integrative Medicine Center, Griffin Hospital.

Read the IOM report.

Seven out of 10 hospitals experienced a decline in their overall financial health during the past year, according to a survey of 768 community hospital CEOs conducted in August by the American Hospital Association.  In a report and presentation released on Nov. 11, AHA said that more than one third of hospitals expect losses in the first half of 2009, up from 29 percent for the same period last year. The vast majority of hospitals surveyed have made cutbacks to address economic concerns. According to the report:

• More than half of hospitals have reduced staff.
• Eighty percent have cut administrative expenses.
• One in five hospitals have reduced services such as behavioral health, post acute care, patient education, and other services that require subsidies
• Since the beginning of 2008, 70 percent of hospitals have reduced capital spending for facility upgrades, clinical technology, and/or IT

In addition, many hospitals report “a marked increase” in the number of physicians seeking hospital financial support since the fall of 2008. Eight in 10 hospitals have seen an increase in the number of physicians seeking compensation of services such as on-call coverage. Nearly 75 percent report that more physicians are pursuing hospital employment. And more than one-third say that a growing number of physicians are interested in selling their practices to the hospital.