Vermont doctors will receive automatic updates when their patients are admitted to a hospital, or when they are discharged, under a new health data pilot funded by a federal grant. Supporters hope the new technology, built by Boston-based company PatientPing, will help patients by ensuring that all of their doctors are aware of their movements within the health care system.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center recently announced a big change that most marketers would probably applaud. Vanderbilt plans to publicly share the results of patient surveys—including reviews and ratings of individual physicians and practices—on its website. Unfortunately, in an era where patient-satisfaction scores could determine funding from governmental programs and even affect health providers’ own compensation and job security, the urge or need to get positive reviews may give providers an incentive to make choices that are not always in their patients’ best interests.
There aren’t many Alzheimer’s treatment centers that host rock concerts. And trade shows. And weddings, bar mitzvahs, and celebrity birthday bashes. But when the medical staff here at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health calls it quits each evening, the building does a quick costume change to usher in a glamorous nightlife. The product of a liquor salesman’s bold vision and Frank Gehry’s brash architectural style, the outpatient medical center treats some 25,000 patients with an array of neurological disorders each year.
A new primary care initiative will free physicians to care for Medicare patients the way they want to, officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday. The 5-year initiative, known as the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus model, will "give doctors the freedom and flexibility to practice medicine the best way they know how, to return to what matters most to doctors and their patients," said Patrick Conway, MD, CMS chief medical officer, on a phone call with reporters. The Comprehensive Primary Care Plus initiative includes two tracks, each with different requirements and payment options. Both will require practices to give patients 24/7 access to care and to deliver preventive care. Practices in both tracks also will be given upfront incentive payments and will be able to keep them or be required to pay them back, depending on how well they perform.
A Medicare proposal to test new ways of paying for chemotherapy and other drugs given in a doctor's office has sparked a furious battle, and cancer doctors are demanding that the Obama administration scrap the experiment. The vehement reaction is raising questions about the government's ability to tackle high drug costs, the top health care concern for the public.
The nation's biggest health insurer has decided to stop selling coverage on public insurance exchanges in two states for next year, but consumers shouldn't take this as an early warning that a mass exodus is brewing from a key element of the Affordable Care Act's coverage expansion. Analysts say these exchanges may be improving for insurers after a difficult start. However, they also expect insurers to continue leaving some unprofitable markets as the coverage expansion heads toward its fourth year.