Operations Management

Healthcare News of Note: CVS finalizes purchases of Signify Health, Oak Street Health, moving into home healthcare and primary care

CVS Health has completed the acquisitions of Signify Health and Oak Street Health, expanding its efforts to implement a value-based payment ecosystem focused on holistic care. Chatbot responses to patient’s questions were preferred over physician responses, earning higher rankings from evaluators for both quality and empathy, according to a recent study. Increasing rates of depression,…

Deborah Filipek May 8, 2023

Harris Affinity Decision Support can help healthcare leaders identify meaningful areas for improvement

Improve your healthcare organization by leveraging advanced cost, performance, reimbursement and profitability data to inform and drive critical financial, operational and clinical decision-making.

HFMA May 1, 2023

How the CEO of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. aims to upend the PBM model 

W hen Alexander Oshmyansky, MD, PhD, pitched the idea of a not-for-profit drug company that would undercut drugmakers’ excessively priced pharmaceuticals, he was soundly rejected by potential backers, attracting no outside money. But on the advice to try to create a for-profit company instead, and with the later backing of Mark Cuban, things started to happen.…

Paul Barr, MS, MBA April 28, 2023

Healthcare News of Note: Healthcare private equity deals amounted to a strong $90B in 2022

In 2022, healthcare private equity deals reached nearly $90 billion, the second highest on record. Concerns about increased workloads, staffing shortages and burnout have been felt most acutely by less experienced nurses, according to a newly published study. Patients seeking care in safety-net clinics are accruing chronic diseases at high rates in middle age, indicating…

Deborah Filipek April 28, 2023

Hospitals are facing a long slog to return to pre-pandemic normalcy, panelists say

The logjam of patients who cannot be seen expeditiously at hospitals is becoming an entrenched problem with no imminent solutions, a CMS leader said this week. “The data tells us healthcare services, particularly for the Medicare population, have not come back to pre-pandemic levels,” said Jonathan Blum, principal deputy administrator and COO with CMS. “We’re…

Nick Hut April 21, 2023

Healthcare News of Note: What can be done to correct data disparities in women’s health?

The prevalence of women’s health conditions is roughly five times that of their documented diagnoses, which means for every woman diagnosed with a women’s health condition, roughly four go undiagnosed. The 2023 emergency medicine Match will see 555 initially unmatched positions, affecting a larger number of residency programs than in 2022, when 219 unmatched positions…

Deborah Filipek April 17, 2023

Medicare’s proposed FY24 update to inpatient payments falls short, hospitals say

Hospitals are less than pleased with Medicare’s proposed FY24 payment update for inpatient care. In proposed regulations, the net inpatient payment update is 2.8% after factoring in a mandatory productivity adjustment of -0.2 percentage points. As usual, the update would be reduced for any hospital that does not fulfill quality-reporting requirements or qualify as a…

Nick Hut April 12, 2023

Hospital operational changes underway as health equity becomes one of The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals

Reducing healthcare disparities became a Joint Commission accreditation standard (LD.04.03.08) on Jan. 1, a little more than a year after the organization issued a Sentinel Event Alert warning of impacts on patient safety. However, on July 1, the standard will become a National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG), which experts say points to one thing: Healthcare…

Lisa A. Eramo, MA April 10, 2023

Maryland’s all-inclusive population health payment model continues to show promise, but nonhospital spending poses a concern

An innovative payment model for Maryland healthcare providers has improved utilization, cost and quality thus far, but an increase in nonhospital spending requires further study. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) released an analysis of the first three years of Maryland’s Total Cost of Care Model, an effort to improve population health management.…

Nick Hut March 31, 2023

How investing in the workforce can improve a health system’s bottom line

The year 2022 will be remembered as one of the worst financial years on record for healthcare. It will also be recalled as the year when the anticipated workforce shortage moved from being just one of many strategic concerns for health system leaders to becoming their most critical and urgent challenge. The rapidity with which…

Rodney B. Hanners March 29, 2023
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