Shares of wellness program provider Healthways Inc. plunged today after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said the first phase of a pilot wellness program will end this year, as scheduled, but didn't indicate whether a Phase II expansion is in the cards. The Nashville-based company's shares fell $10.52, or 16 percent, to $55.85 in composite trading for the biggest decline since June 21, 2002.
The Kansas Board of Healing Arts on Tuesday suspended the medical license of a jailed doctor and shut down his Haysville, KS clinic that prosecutors have labeled a "pill mill." The physician's was charged last month with illegally distributing medication. Prosecutors allege the clinic stayed open long hours, rushing patients through and prescribing drugs for no legitimate medical reason. The physician also allegedly then pocketed millions of dollars by filing fraudulent claims with health insurance carriers, including Medicare and Medicaid, according to the federal indictment. Prosecutors say at least 56 patients treated died of accidental overdose
With its major sources of funding flattening out, the University of Cincinnati plans to restructure its healthcare and medical operations and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for it. University Hospital, the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and UC Physicians are finalizing a strategic plan to target four areas for clinical investment: cancer, neuroscience, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders including diabetes and obesity. The plan already is a focus of UC's $800 million capital campaign and critical to the university's future. The Academic Health Center, which includes the colleges of Medicine, Allied Health Sciences, Nursing and Pharmacy, University Hospital and several other parts, supports a budget of nearly $500 million.
Subsidizing claims of more than $15,000 a year for certain chronic diseases and requiring insurance companies to cover those claims is a centerpiece of a health-care reform bill introduced by Ohio Rep. Jim Raussen, R-Springdale, chairman of the House's Health Care Access and Affordability committee. The bill would also subsidize coverage for small companies, make it easier for children to be covered on their parents' policy and provide incentives for doctors and hospitals to computerize records. The proposals could cost $150 million to $500 million over the next six years.
More than 100 nurses, led by the Healthcare division of the Service Employees International Union, massed in Pittsburgh's Capitol rotunda to demand that the state Senate act on a bill that would ban mandatory overtime health care workers who take care of patients in hospitals and nursing homes. The state House passed such a ban on mandatory overtime by a vote of 166 to 31 nine months ago, but the Senate hasn't taken up the issue. The healthcare workers demanded that the Senate vote on the bill.
Florida's Healthy Start program has opened a prenatal outreach center in Martin County, helping more than 75 pregnant women get the medical care they need. The staff helps the women get temporary Medicaid, schedules their first doctor appointments, answers questions and enrolls them in pregnancy classes. Martin County lags behind the state's record in prenatal care, according to statistics from the county Healthy Start Coalition. In Florida, 76.8 percent of pregnant women begin prenatal care in the first trimester, but in Martin County, that number is 56.8 percent.
Aetna is making a highly visible show of its support for the annual American Heart Association's Go Red For Women movement by lighting the cupola of its national headquarters red for the month of February. The company, headquartered in Hartford, CT is also supporting Go Red For Women luncheon events in California and Michigan, and encouraging employees nationally to wear red on Friday, February 1, which is "National Wear Red Day."
Two years after the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina, the healthcare community in the Gulf Coast region is still recovering. But an electronic medical record project spearheaded by the Mississippi-based Coastal Family Health Center may help with the rebuilding process.
The Coastal Family Health Center network is working to centrally implement the HealthPort EMR system across its seven-member network. Katrina destroyed Coastal Health's data center, and was an impetus to the regional EMR project.
"We lost about 60,000 patients' paper medical records, so to go electronic and have it remotely hosted with multiple copies of the data was just a good business decision," says Coastal Health CIO Chuck Clark. "We intend to have all seven of the community health centers and all clinics up on medical records by the end of September this year."
Coastal Family Health Center operates community health centers along the Mississippi coast, serving coastal counties by providing primary healthcare, dental care, and optical care. There are seven of these community health centers, along with their 30 clinics, in the state.
Connecting the centers via electronic records will benefit all of them, Clark says.
"By going into a network like this, we're helping them by reducing their overhead costs," Clark says. "When you go in and you cooperate with other groups, you can always save money."
The EMR provides information on the patients' family history and medical history, and includes other patient-centered information. For example, if a doctor prescribes a patient medication that is contradictive to what the patient is already taking, the system flags it.
The system can also remind physicians to perform recommended tests like colonoscopies or mammograms, Clark says. "It reminds the provider or doctor that this patient is due those health maintenance items instead of the doctor always having to flip through a patient chart to keep track of these things."
The EMR is also beneficial to patients in an increasingly transient society, Clark says. "If we're all using compatible applications that we can exchange for medical information, their medical record becomes a lot more portable for them," he says.
General staff at the clinics is also appreciative of the EMRs, says Edna Brown, third party insurance supervisor/management information systems coordinator at Northeast Mississippi Health Center in Bahaya. Simply not having to look for individual patient charts is a huge time-saver, she says.
Additionally, having the patient information readily available has helped the medical secretaries, who no longer have to pull 500 charts for labs.
"We are a big clinic--we have a lot of charts, a lot of providers," Brown says. "When providers would get the labs before, everything was on paper. We would put the information on the chart, and put it on the provider's desk. But if that provider is out, that chart is out, and if the patient comes in during that time then we're stuck hunting for that chart."
Clark says that despite the EMR's success, his goal is to continue expanding it. Patients do not currently have access to their own records, but Coastal is working on a Web portal in which patients can pay a monthly or annual fee to access their medical files.
Another important step, Clark says, is to get hospitals in on the electronic record exchange--especially those on the Mississippi coast that are near Coastal's clinics.
"They have to fax us data, we have to manually input the data, then discharge summaries have to be faxed over then scanned into the patient's electronic record," Clark says. "It will be much better when we can get everybody to where all of these systems can talk together and we can exchange all of this information electronically."
The Health Resources and Services Administration is seeking comments from the public on its plan to institute a permanent deviation from a policy in HHS with regards to HRSA's Small Rural Hospital Grant Program. The SHIP grant program is designed to assist eligible small rural hospitals in implementing HIPAA compliant Prospective Payments Systems in order to reduce medical errors and improve patient quality.
Trying to break through the clutter to capture market share and top of mind awareness requires a good balance of planning, creativity in your branding, and proper media placement. For Stamford (CT) Hospital, it took six years of program development and organizing of their service lines before they were ready to grow and assert their position within the market.
Facing a crowded marketplace, Stamford's focus was to stand out. "It's a very cluttered advertising market for hospitals, and all the ads look alike and contain too much information," says David Smith, senior vice president of strategy and marketing solutions for Stamford. "The ads for this campaign are designed to be visually intriguing, to break through the clutter, be non-hospital like, be simple, dramatic, say one thing clearly, and be smart and sophisticated." Stamford, with assistance from SPM Marketing & Communications in LaGrange, IL, managed to convey all those characteristics in the campaign.
One particular piece shows a shadow image of a man balancing a crutch, advertising Stamford's orthopedic service line and group rehabilitation program. The copy, "Discover more at a hospital that offers an orthopedic group rehabilitation program with proven results for a faster recovery," fully conveys concepts the campaign wishes to get across with the backing of different, animated imagery.
The use of purple as a backdrop and the "discover more" theme are recurring elements throughout the campaign. Using direct mail publications, radio, and print, Stamford relied on their creativity and simple branding to get their message across.
The campaign is still running, but results so far have been positive. "Our pretests with focus groups showed that it achieved what we wanted: people knew more about our capabilities, saw the affiliation [we have] with New York Presbyterian Healthcare, and looked to us as more of a regional medical center," says Smith.
Kandace Mclaughlin is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. Send her Campaign Spotlight ideas at kmclaughlin@healthleadersmedia.com. If you are a marketer submitting a campaign on behalf of your facility or client, please ensure you have permission before doing so.
