The time patients spend in waiting rooms at their physician's office may soon be shorter, because the wait for one simple, commonsense health care reform in Michigan may soon be over. Michigan lawmakers are considering legislation that would eliminate redundant prior authorization forms for prescribing certain drugs. These forms create a significant administrative burden that delays patient care, increases patient wait times, and limits the amount of time Michigan physicians and their staffs can spend directly with patients addressing their health needs.
Intermountain Healthcare has added another feather to its cap with the Institutional Leadership Quality Award, recently presented by the American College of Medical Quality. American College of Medical Quality president Alan Krumholz said the board was "profoundly impressed with the culture of care management operating within Intermountain and the capacity demonstrated for keeping its patient population as healthy as possible." Lucy Savitz, Intermountain's director of research and education in the Institute for Healthcare Delivery Research, said the company has some new procedures that may have helped earn the honor.
The money that Maine owes to its hospitals under the MaineCare program has touched off fevered political debate in recent weeks, with the hospitals warning of "dire consequences" that could jeopardize access to health care. Finding out how the debt has affected hospitals' bottom lines is difficult as the state hospital association and a state agency disagree on a seemingly simple measure of their profitability. Questions about the discrepancy between the hospitals' lobbying group and the state health data organization over a widely publicized metric of hospital profitability highlight the complexity of assessing the financial health of Maine's hospitals.
If you believe everything you read and hear, technology is the Holy Grail of our industry. It will "fix" just about everything that's broken in healthcare. That's a presumption fueled by human nature: Gravitate toward simplicity and immediate gratification. Technology is tangible, something we can install, turn on and it works. But what exactly should we expect from this working technology? Have we done a thorough job of defining what we want to accomplish and then addressed all of the components that go into ensuring we succeed?
Minnesota is edging closer to creating an online marketplace where more than a million people and small businesses will shop for health insurance. House members debated the Minnesota health insurance exchange bill late into the night Thursday, then passed it 72-61. Previously, House and Senate negotiators had worked out a final compromise on the exchange, which will change the way one out of every five Minnesotans shops for health insurance next year. The Senate will take up its version of the bill next week. The exchange is a key provision of the Obama administration's health care reforms.
How good a hospital is St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital? Depends on whom you ask. The Leapfrog Group, a respected nonprofit that promotes patient safety, gave an "A" to this Michigan hospital. The company Healthgrades named it one of America's best 50 hospitals. But the Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization that accredits hospitals, and U.S. News and World Report omitted St. Mary from their best hospital lists. Consumer Reports gave it an average safety score of 47 points out of 100, citing high numbers of readmissions, poor communication with patients and excessive use of scans. Medicare, which has a new program rewarding hospitals for meeting certain quality measures, is reducing St. Mary's payments by a fraction this year.