More doctor pay is being tied to patient satisfaction metrics, another sign health care may be coming more consumer-friendly, according to a new national analysis of physician compensation. Already, doctors and hospitals increasingly have more of their pay tied to health outcomes and related clinical measures as medical care moves toward value-based compensation rather than fees for service. But momentum is slowly building for physicians to also be measured on how quickly phone calls are returned to how long a patient sits in a physician office waiting area as part of "patient satisfaction metrics" insurers are working into contracts with medical-care providers.
Many Arizonans who chose the lowest-cost insurance plans available under the -Affordable Care Act soon learned that securing the health care they signed up for wasn't as easy as flashing an insurance card at the nearest doctor's office or hospital. Health Net sold the least-expensive plans in Arizona and dominated the market, signing up about 80,000 residents, or two out of every three who enrolled for coverage under the federal health-care law. While its low monthly premiums appealed to consumers, Health Net's narrow choice of doctors and at-times long phone waits for customer service led to far more complaints than were filed against any other insurer.
Rex Hospital switched last month to new electronic medical records software, a technology shift so complex it will take about a month to complete and is being scripted like a full-scale emergency: 1,000 technical specialists, two round-the-clock command centers, daily strategy sessions and a vacation blackout for most employees. Durham-based Duke University Health System has already made a similar switch, and WakeMed Health & Hospitals plans to introduce the same software at its main campus in February. An integrated IT system coordinates all hospital departments, imaging labs and doctors offices on a single network for patient records and for generating bills.
Garrison Memorial Hospital sees 1,400 to 1,500 people in its emergency room annually. That is up about 20 percent over the last three to four years. Tioga Medical Center patient numbers have increased fourfold, from 6,000 patients in 2010 to more than 24,000 today. To meet this new demand, investments are being made in rural health care across the state, in areas where those facilities are the only medical care available for miles around. "We're the only hospital on (U.S. Highway) 83 between Minot and Bismarck," Garrison Memorial Hospital Administrator Tod Graeber said. "Because we're so far away from the larger cities ... with strokes or heart attacks people may not survive."
Now that the initial shouting and—at times—vitriol from both sides has subsided after Monday's Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, it's time to take a sober look at what the ruling says about the future of health care reform in the United States. The majority's ruling was an imperfect solution to a complicated case involving the reach of religious liberty to exempt organizations from providing certain medical benefits that they find morally objectionable to their employees. The fact that these medical benefits were almost exclusively offered to women makes this decision all the more difficult to accept for some.
Work has begun on a new main entrance at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, adding more traffic cones, construction cranes and workers in hard hats to the campus near Lake Barrington, but also signaling further progress in the facility's $247 million modernization project expected to finish in 2017. Officials say the new entrance will provide a much-needed facelift to the 35-year-old hospital. "The lobby portion of the project really creates an updated look for the facility," said Alison Wyler, the executive sponsor of the campus modernization project. "Our building is old and we wanted to create a much better environment for our patients."