Laura Ramos Hegwer

About the Author

Laura Ramos Hegwer

Latest Work

UAB’s Patient Navigation Program Saves $19 Million Annually

UAB Health System used a novel care model to reduce hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and intensive care stays for patients with complex cancers.

Laura Ramos Hegwer June 1, 2017

Children’s Hospital Uses EHR to Save $6 for Every $1 Invested

Nationwide Children’s Hospital piloted a continuous improvement program that reduced total inpatient days, admissions, and emergency department visits. A major success factor was the capture of specific data with every patient encounter, creating systematic opportunities to improve patient outcomes and deliver care more efficiently.

Laura Ramos Hegwer June 1, 2017

What’s Behind an Innovative Tool?

A specialized department to help clinicians and researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital get their innovative ideas to market.

Laura Ramos Hegwer May 15, 2017

Toward a Common Vision for Value Based Care Metrics

Reporting dozens of potentially conflicting metrics from government and commercial payers can be a burden on providers, who seek ways to streamline or prioritize the number of metrics.

Laura Ramos Hegwer May 15, 2017

Finding Success with Provider-Sponsored Health Plans During Uncertain Times

Community Health Choice, a provider-sponsored health plan started by Harris Health System, has grown its marketplace membership from 300 enrollees to 150,000 over four enrollment periods. Despite uncertainty about the future of federal healthcare laws and the marketplaces, the health plan says that it may still experience growth in 2018.

Laura Ramos Hegwer May 12, 2017

Henry Ford Health System Builds a Population Health Management Platform

The health system’s plan for value-based care involves centralizing core population health management functions and integrating data from multiple sources.

Laura Ramos Hegwer May 11, 2017

Avoiding the Costliest Denials

Eligibility, outpatient medical necessity, and case management authorization continue to be three of the costliest denials. To avoid the negative effects of these types of denials, it is critical to implement an improvement process based on data.

Laura Ramos Hegwer April 10, 2017

Using Dashboards to Drive Better Performance

The decision support team at Baptist Health implemented a new tool that provides dashboards to monitor service line performance, profitability, and utilization.

Laura Ramos Hegwer April 7, 2017

Palliative Care Results in $1.7M Savings While Improving Outcomes

A decision support system helped a hospital measure its cost savings from palliative care and justify expanding the service.

Laura Ramos Hegwer April 6, 2017

Cleveland Clinic Saves $22M in Pharmacy Costs by Developing Dashboard Tool

Cleveland Clinic’s 2016 prescription drug savings resulted from smarter pharmacy sourcing, thanks in part to new technology developed in-house and greater visibility into drug price changes.

Laura Ramos Hegwer April 6, 2017