A study published in the latest issue of Perspectives in Health Information Management, however, reveals that only 50% of surveyed health information exchange (HIE) executives say they use or plan to use metrics to measure the impact of their exchange. Amid doubts about the sustainability of HIEs, the results of the survey are disconcerting, lead author, Anjum Khurshid, director of the health systems division at the Louisiana Public Health Institute, and his colleagues conclude, because without incorporating quality of care and ROI metrics into their business model, many HIEs may not survive.
Now that the Supreme Court has issued its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, many are taking a closer look at how the law will be implemented, including at the new enforcement duties given to the IRS. The Government Accountability Office has said the IRS faces "a massive undertaking." The National Taxpayer Advocate believes that "with proper planning and funding, the IRS is fully capable of implementing healthcare reform." I am not so sure. And even if the IRS comes through on healthcare, will tax administration be damaged in the process? I know the service will do its level best to implement healthcare reform, but the IRS confronts a long list of challenges. Several concerns are particularly important.
Vanguard Health Systems, the for-profit owner of St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester and MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham and Natick, said today it will partner with Tufts Medical Center to pursue the purchase of independent hospitals throughout Massachusetts, as well as pursue clinical relationships with other health systems. The new health system, as yet unnamed, will build upon an existing set of relationships between Tufts and MetroWest that already brings Tufts specialists in cardiology and pediatrics to the MetroWest campuses. The New England Quality Care Alliance, a 1,600-member doctor's group that is affiliated with Tufts Medical Center, will also be a part of the new system.
Losing money and market share, Nashville General Hospital may stop trying to compete for inpatient hospitalizations and focus entirely on outpatient and clinical services. That is one of four options presented to the hospital board Tuesday by a consulting firm hired to devise a new business model for the publicly owned, safety-net hospital. Meharry Medical College leaders said closing inpatient beds would harm its mission. But hospital officials say Nashville General has a building too big for its needs and too many uninsured patients.
The battle to save Southeast Louisiana Hospital near Mandeville is playing out as a familiar tale, but with a somewhat unfamiliar twist. As in many political fights during lean times, the lines are drawn over just how far the state's responsibility to meet the public need goes. What's unusual in this case is that both camps are populated with Republicans, a phenomenon that's rendered many of the typical ideological arguments moot. Leading the fight are high-profile politicians who have, until now, considered themselves staunch Jindal allies.
A group of Filipino nurses who claimed they were mocked for their accents and ordered to speak "English only" won a nearly $1-million settlement against a Central California hospital where bosses and co-workers were allegedly urged to eavesdrop on the immigrant workers. The $975,000 settlement, announced Monday by lawyers from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, is believed to be the largest language discrimination settlement in the U.S. healthcare industry, according to the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. Officials at Delano Regional Medical Center insisted they did nothing wrong and settled the lawsuit only because it made financial sense.