A Houston doctor has been convicted of conspiring to defraud Medicare of nearly $30 million. According to prosecutors, Dr. Michael D. Kim fraudulently certified physically fit beneficiaries in Texas and Louisiana to receive motorized wheelchairs. They say the false certificates scammed of more than $10 million.
In an effort to combat two of its biggest problems—health insurance costs and obesity—Alabama officials are putting into motion a plan to tax the state's overweight employees as a way to recoup insurance costs. Starting in 2010, employees will be charged $25 a month for health insurance.
Here's a tagline for your next ad: "Our hospital kills fewer patients than the other guys!" No wait—that doesn't sound quite right. What if you flip it around to accentuate the positive? You could try something along the lines of "More patients survive when they are treated at our hospital." But that's not exactly a compelling message, either.
On August 20, CMS released mortality rates for every hospital in the country based on patients who died within 30 days of being admitted from a heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia. The "death rates" as some in the media are calling them, are available online at the Hospital Compare site.
And it's super easy to look up the information. Consumers type in their ZIP code, define their search parameters by distance in miles, check off up to three hospitals, and click a button to compare them.
The effort was well-publicized in the widely-read USA Today newspaper, which also listed the best- and worst-scoring hospitals in the U.S. Although the Hospital Compare site can be hard to navigate, the newspaper's special package makes it easy to find the information. And understanding the results is easy, too.
I've criticized CMS in the past for making their data inscrutable, but it looks like they're learning their lesson on that score—the results, which compare the selected hospitals to each other and to the national average, are presented in an easy-to-understand graph. The explanation of the data is also fairly straightforward, although it's written at roughly a tenth-grade reading level, which is a little on the high side.
Of the handful of hospitals that I looked at, none had a mortality rate above the national average. That's pretty good news for those hospitals, right? Something to celebrate?
Well, if you can figure out a way to do that without mentioning death, I'd sure like to hear about it.
CMS "discourages" hospitals from using information from the Hospital Compare site in marketing efforts. But that's not going to stop hospitals from doing so: Experts I've talked to say CMS is unlikely to enforce the unofficial rule and, even if they do call a hospital on it, the most they'll do is send a stern letter.
Effectively, there's nothing stopping hospitals with good mortality rates from putting the results in a print, radio, outdoor, or TV ad.
Well, nothing other than common sense, that is.
It's one thing to take risks in your marketing efforts, strive to make an impact, and cut through the clutter. I'm all for that. And I think hospitals should be open and transparent about their patient safety, patient satisfaction, and quality statistics. It's not a bad idea to put the information or at least a link to the Hospital Compare site on your own Web site. After all, the information is already out there.
But a billboard or a TV spot touting your low mortality rates? Call me a traditionalist, but that just doesn't seem right to me. I just can't think of any good way to talk about death in a hospital ad.
Gienna Shaw is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com.
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The American work force is changing dramatically, growing more diverse, older and less populous. This work force of today is comprised of four very distinct generations:
Generation Y (born 1978-89)
Generation X (born 1965-77)
Baby boomers (born 1946-64)
Silents (born before 1946)
Many of the silents and baby boomers are on the verge of retirement or will retire within the next five years. As these two generations depart the work force, the overall number of workers will shrink because of the relative size of older generations versus the younger group.
In 2006, two workers left the work force for every one entering it, according to a report by Ajilon Finance, a staffing firm headquartered in Saddle Brook, NJ. This trend will continue into the foreseeable future, putting pressure on employers to become creative and aggressive in their recruitment and retention tactics.
Many employers recognize this coming shortage and are taking steps to create programs that attract potential candidates. In some cases, the efforts that attract new employees can also serve to retain existing workers.
But because of the differences among the four generations in their lifestyles, work styles, and psychographics, devising the right program can be a challenge.
For example, younger workers tend to use e-mail, text messages, and instant messages to communicate with colleagues and customers, whereas many boomers favor face-to-face or telephonic interface. Also, members of the younger generations thrive in a fast-paced world of multitasking, while boomers appreciate a slightly more leisurely workplace tempo.
Staff reductions in the past two decades have burdened the remaining workers, who are under great pressure to produce more and, in some cases, to work longer hours.
Time starved
While there are many distinctions among the four generations, one commonality is that all workers would love to have more time—for themselves, for family, for friends, or to just relax.
According to the American Psychological Association, more than half of all working adults and 47% of all Americans say they are concerned with the amount of stress in their lives. A 2004 Harris Interactive Study reports that one in three U.S. workers feel chronically overworked.
One way of reducing this stress is to help employees achieve a better balance between their work and their personal lives. An innovative method of supporting this mission is to provide concierge services to employees. These services are very similar to what hotels have provided to their guests for years.
Concierges offload simple and time consuming-chores so that workers can use their free time to relax or enjoy friends and family. The most popular of these services are:
Personal shopping: picking out gifts for family and friends or picking up groceries or household supplies
Automobile services: gassing up the car or taking it in for repair
Mail/shipping/postage services: going to the post office to mail packages or buy stamps
Information research: finding information on topics such as child or elder care options or researching a product
Dry cleaning/laundry services: taking and picking up dry cleaning or laundry
And these offerings are just the beginning of what your organization can offer. For example, many workers take advantage of travel planning services. A concierge can help arrange flight reservations, book a rental car, and find hotel accommodations. Many times the concierges find special deals, saving the employees not only time but also real dollars.
Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, MI, offers its employees such services. "In the competitive healthcare job market, we wanted to provide a premier benefit to our current and future employees that was not available at other organizations," says president and CEO Frank Sardone. "It was our goal to make employees' lives less stressful and complicated."
Real impact, real results
These services provide value to both the organization and its employees. Some of the benefits:
It reduces employee turnover: Turnover decreases have been reported ranging from single digits to more than 50% in the case of Bronson.
It increases profits: Hospitals can save money on recruiting costs. Bronson, for example, documented a $250,000 annual savings in recruiting costs.
It improves productivity: Survey results show that employees saved an average of two hours for each fulfilled concierge service request. Half of those surveyed said they put that time back into their work.
It reduces stress: More than 90% of employees surveyed said the service lessens their stress and adds balance to their work and personal lives.
Positive return on investment (ROI)
The annual investment in concierge services can range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the size of the facility, utilization goals (percentage of employees using the service), and number of concierges, among other factors. However, clients report a positive ROI for their efforts. Bronson's goal was to reduce turn-over to 0.2%. They surpassed that goal by more than 276%.
Making it happen
There are several models and approaches for concierge services. A facility could staff the concierge from within, hiring concierge staffers as employees of the organization. Additionally, a hospital that wants to start with a trial could add the concierge function to the duties of an existing position (not already fully employed) and provide only one or two of the most popular services to get started, such as dry cleaning/laundry and automobile services.
Hospitals can also choose to outsource this function, hiring a vendor that already has established processes and systems for tracking, such as collecting transaction payments (such as for dry cleaning or car repair). A vendor would also have the appropriate insurance and bonding for driving employees' cars and entering their homes. They are also experts at marketing these services within the hospital for maximum utilization and therefore effect for the employees.
Change or lose out
The impending work force changes will require innovation and boldness, especially to attract and keep the best workers of tomorrow. A concierge service, aimed squarely at employees' level of satisfaction with their employers is one way to do this.
Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester, MI, also offers concierge services. "Getting help in life, being taken care of, are as important to my well being as being able to pay my bills," one employee there said.
Tillie Hidalgo Lima is president and CEO of Best Upon Request, a concierge service provider in Cincinnati, OH. She can be reached at 513-605-7800 or thl@bestuponrequest.com.thl@bestuponrequest.com.
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Florida Health Care Plan Inc. is being sold to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida for $85 million. Following the sale, Florida Health Care will continue present operations and organization as a community-based, locally managed health plan available to Volusia and Flagler County residents. Its 57,000 members will have immediate access to an expanded statewide and nationwide network of Blue Cross services and healthcare providers.
Pfizer Inc. has resumed television ads for the cholesterol pill Lipitor, six months after stopping commercials with artificial-heart inventor Robert Jarvik that led to a congressional investigation. In the new ads, the endorser is a talent agent from the San Francisco area who tells viewers he started taking Pfizer's Lipitor after surviving a heart attack. Pfizer had run frequent TV ads from late 2006 through February in which Jarvik endorsed Lipitor. While he holds a medical degree, Jarvik never completed licensing requirements to practice medicine.