A marketing agency is developing sustainability guidelines for its clients' campaigns and events. The guidelines will measure a campaign's performance in environmental, human and capital sustainability. Experiential marketing agency ignition Inc. is basing work for its clients on the BS 8901 standard. Because the environmental impact of such large events can be quite large, the agency saw an opportunity to design marketing programs from the ground up that were more ecologically friendly.
PR firm Reverb Communications has been under fire by MobileCrunch for allegedly gaming the iTunes app store. This type of promotion borders on shady practice. If you don't disclose your relationships—and insist that your employees do the same—you risk losing credibility. And when you lose credibility you lose the ability to market effectively. And that hurts sales.
Smart brands realize that to succeed they need to bridge the gap between marketing and IT. The digital revolution has forced these departments to become so interdependent that CMOs and CTOs are practically in the same line of work. From retail to Web to mobile, marketing is responsible for how brand strategy affects technical infrastructure, and IT is on the hook for how technology decisions alter brand experience.
Harken back to the good old days of healthcare reform, if you will. It was June 2009 and America's Health Insurance Plans, American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, the White House, Republicans, and Congressional Democrats all preached the idea of collaboration.
Those were great times way back in June as all the stakeholders hopped in their Volkswagen bus of rhetoric and headed off to Woodstock. Now, two months later, the bus is broken down on the New York Thruway and the peace and love is over.
That Era of Good Feelings has been replaced with anger, hurt feelings, and—surprise, surprise—lies, half-truths, and partisan bickering. There have been plenty of low points over the past two months, but here are three that I think have especially turned a productive health reform debate into a political campaign full of fear-mongering and name-calling:
Death panels
The person who forever damaged the healthcare debate isn't an elected official, policymaker, or healthcare leader. Sarah Palin has spent the past year in the media glare since John McCain selected her as vice president. But by the time she composed her Facebook message about "death panels" Palin had already resigned as governor of Alaska.
Her Facebook entry was the turning point in the healthcare reform debate.
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil," she wrote.
Death panels or anything remotely similar to that notion, however, are not in the House reform plan. Instead, it's a provision that would allow Medicare to pay for end-of-life consultations with patients. This provision is merely a way to reimburse doctors to help patients make choices before they reach a point in which they cannot make decisions for themselves.
The debate took a further downward spiral when health reform opponents began comparing the Democrats' health plan to Nazism. Nothing will end civil discourse faster than comparing a plan to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
When healthcare reform became health insurance reform
Let's be clear here: The reform proposals are about more than just reforming health insurance. Yes, there is the public insurance option that would keep private insurers "honest," but that idea probably won't make it to the final bill. There are other provisions that are also in the mix, such as the creation of insurance cooperatives and stopping insurers from excluding members with pre-existing medical conditions. There are also proposals to impose an individual mandate that would require all Americans to have insurance.
But those provisions are a small part of the larger healthcare reform bills, which also include investments in prevention and wellness, improving quality of care, and revamping the physician payment structure from quantity-based to quality-based. President Barack Obama, however, found that health insurance reform sounds more acceptable to Americans than healthcare reform. The new rhetoric makes the uninformed person think the president is merely going after those big, bad greedy health insurers. This is, in fact, not true. Healthcare reform goes beyond keeping health insurers in line.
Comparing U.S. health reform to socialized programs elsewhere
This one isn't surprising. Republicans know that comparing any new plan to socialism is a winner. But these same people, who are saying they don't want socialized medicine, also trumpet the need to protect Medicare. Medicare is the same program that Republicans bashed 40 years ago as socialized medicine. Now, conservatives—and nearly all Americans—find Medicare sacrosanct.
This year's health debate has also featured reform opponents charging that comparative effectiveness research will lead to rationing. The charge is simply not true, but just planting the seed of doubt is all a health reform opponent needs. Those seeds are growing into weeds that are choking the healthcare reform debate and could ultimately leave us with the same expensive, fractured healthcare system.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, one of the longest serving members of the Senate and a central figure in the current healthcare reform debate, died Tuesday night. He was 77. The death of the senator, who had been battling brain cancer, was announced Wednesday morning in a statement by the Kennedy family.
Hospitals and healthcare organizations may be overspending on high-cost medical supplies because they could be influenced by physician preferences, according to a review by ECRI Institute.
This influence of "physician preference items" or PPIs, which are represented by supplies, such orthopedic implants or cardiovascular devices or even bandages, could account for up to 60% of a hospital’s total supply costs, ECRI wrote in a new white paper.
To achieve savings by moving away from the acquisition of physician preference items, hospital leaders will need to "win the cooperation upfront" of physicians "using an evidence based, value focused process," said Anthony Montagnolo, ECRI's chief operating officer.
Many of the problems in the current healthcare supply chain and capital acquisition processes were set into motion "during the pre 1983 golden days of healthcare" when hospitals were reimbursed retrospectively on a basis of identified costs plus a "reasonable and customary" mark up, according to the study. That ended in 1983 with the passage of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
When healthcare administrators looked for ways to lower operating costs, they turned their attention to supply chains to aggregate volume to bring down the cost of supplies. While these strategies usually worked, group purchasing was less successful when dealing with some physician preference items.
For instance, some physicians used the leverage associated with the volume of patients they placed in a hospital to continue to get the specific items they wanted. Or, sometimes major manufacturers courted physician preferences with items used during procedures by creating new products specifically at the request of individual physicians.
To get savings associated with the management of the acquisition of physician preference items supplies and capital equipment, ECRI suggested, hospitals should consider methodologies that are:
Process driven, or using a formal process for the review and approval of all prospective purchases, including those physician preference items
Evidence based, or making decisions using data provided by an evidence based review of alternatives by an objective party
Value focused, or making decisions based on the measurable value they return to the organization—as opposed to their acquisition costs
One of the largest groups of uninsured in the country today is young adults--those between the ages of 19 to 26 years. While they make up about 18% of the adult population, they account for up to 28% of the uninsured: an estimated 10.3 million young adults--or about one in three (32%)--lacked health insurance coverage, according to figures from the Urban Institute.
"Because young adults face so many transitions--graduation, job changes, and in this economy, unemployment--they are especially vulnerable to the risks of being uninsured," said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, earlier this summer in response to a study of this group. She noted that "comprehensive health reform would go a long way toward ensuring that young adults have stable, affordable health coverage" that would give them access to the care they would need.
It appears that the dilemma of young people has not been far from the minds of health reform-makers on Capitol Hill. For instance, in the healthcare reform bills approved last month by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the House, provisions were included that call for:
Allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance policies until age 26--during the years when they are least able to afford their own coverage.
Using an insurance exchange to give young adults the option of enrolling in lower cost insurance plans--with recognition that young adults often have few health needs and are less able to afford coverage at the start of their working careers.
Making health insurance available to those without job based coverage, while premium assistance will be available to those who can’t afford it.
However, even if reform measures are approved at the federal level, it will take time for these provisions to be enacted. Actions, though, have been going on elsewhere to provide younger individuals with healthcare coverage.
For instance, earlier this summer, New York became one of about two dozen states requiring commercial insurers and managed care organizations to offer an option to continue coverage for unmarried young adults, in this case, through age 29--regardless of financial dependence under a parent’s group health insurance policy. This adult child does not have to be a student, must not be eligible for other coverage, and must either work or reside in the state.
Florida, New Mexico and Washington also have extended insurance coverage to adults who are not students up to age 25. In Florida, a provision is available to extend that coverage until the children reach age 30.
But changes also are occurring at the collegiate level. For instance, at 11 campuses of the University of North Carolina this fall, students who do not have their own coverage or coverage through their parents will be required to have coverage, which can be obtained through a new plan "designed to leverage the UNC system's buying power." This coverage will be will be factored into financial aid packages.
Students will have a $300 deductible and be covered for up to $100,000 under the UNC package. A study last year by the General Accountability Office found that more than half of collegiate plans had a maximum benefit less than $29,000.
Young adults who are not in school full time after graduation from high school are much more likely to be uninsured--primarily because it is much harder for them to obtain access to employer coverage: 37% of part time and non students ages 19 to 23 were uninsured, compared with 18% of full time students, according to a recent study from the Commonwealth Fund.
"Loss of health insurance coverage impedes young adults' access to the health system at precisely the time they should be establishing their own relationships with physicians and puts them and their families at significant financial risk," said study author and Commonwealth Fund Vice President Sara Collins.
While young adults are healthier than older adults, about 15% do have chronic conditions such as asthma, and more than half weigh more than what is considered to be a healthy weight. In addition, 2.7 million births occur to women in this age group, and young adults have the highest rates of injury related visits to the emergency room of any age group, according to the study.
In the absence of comprehensive change or reform in the health insurance system, the following three policy changes could "incrementally extend coverage" to a portion of uninsured young adults and prevent others from losing coverage in the future, according to the study. They include:
Extending eligibility for Medicaid/State Children's Health Insurance Plan public coverage beyond age 18.
Having states ensure that all colleges and universities require full time and part time students to have health insurance and offer health insurance coverage to both.
Extending eligibility for dependents under private coverage beyond age 18 or 19.
An inner-city health system that has become a model for safety-net hospitals, and a small, rural hospital that has set its own high bar for quality are among the winners in the 6th annual HealthLeaders Media Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program, sponsored by Cejka Search, GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, and Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis.
Winners in the 2009 Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program include Denver Health & Hospital for Large Hospitals and Health Systems; Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, WA, for Community and Mid-Size Hospitals; Cary Medical Center in Caribou, ME, for Small Hospitals; NorthShore University Health System Medical Group in Evanston, IL, for Medical Groups; and Independent Health in Williamsville, NY, for Health Plans.
The HealthLeaders Media Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare 2009 program is designed to celebrate the outstanding teamwork that occurs in healthcare organizations each day, to share what makes top leadership teams successful, and to encourage other healthcare leaders to learn more from the best practices of top leadership teams. Winners are judged on the team's overall leadership culture, its ability to overcome challenges, and its ability to demonstrate successes that result from outstanding leadership teamwork. Only one winner per category receives this national honor each year.
HealthLeaders Media Editor-in-Chief Jim Molpus says the 2009 Top Leadership Teams winners share a common thread in that systemic barriers to healthcare performance have not stopped them. "We hear so much defeatism coming out of the healthcare debate today," Molpus says. "Then you look at the challenges facing a public, safety-net hospital system like Denver Health. Others in very similar situations have closed, but Denver Health has set the bar higher than merely surviving. It has found a way to grow and to carry out the highest purposes of its mission to serve the citizens of Denver."
"The stable, committed, and innovative leadership team at Denver Health is one of the primary factors in our success as an integrated safety net healthcare delivery system," says Patricia A. Gabow, M.D., CEO of Denver Health.
"Recognition of this outstanding team by HealthLeaders Media confirms my conviction that effective leadership in today's complex healthcare environment is not the work of one or even several people; it is the work of a well-oiled team."
Other winning work from this year’s honorees includes:
In five years, the leadership team at Grays Harbor Community Hospital turned around the struggling community hospital, improving employee, patient, and physician satisfaction while also increasing market share.
Despite being a 65-bed hospital in rural Maine, Cary Medical Center is at the forefront of using the latest healthcare information technology to improve care.
Independent Health has developed a leadership culture that promotes teamwork and a passion for serving the community, says Top Leadership Teams Judge Jeffrey A. Kramer, Ph.D., Director of Programs in Healthcare Management & Insurance Studies at the University of Connecticut School of Business. "They remain true to their roots in a highly competitive market, and represent many of the positive aspects of health plans that are often overlooked."
A culture built around peer teamwork and data-driven decision making has allowed NorthShore University HealthSystem Medical Group to more than triple its number of physicians in the past decade.
The 2009 winning teams share some of the common teamwork qualities that past winners have demonstrated, including a commitment to community improvement, a culture of transparency and communication, relentlessness on performance, and a focus on measurement of organizational goals. Full profiles of the winners and their teamwork lessons will be featured in the December issue of HealthLeaders magazine.
The 2009 honorees of the Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare will be featured speakers at the annual HealthLeaders 09: Hospital of the Future Now conference, to be held Oct. 15-16 at The Palmer House in Chicago. Leaders from healthcare organizations such as Scripps Health, Mayo Clinic, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Ascension Health, Trinity Health, Kaiser Permanente, UPMC and others will share leadership lessons and strategies to create a vision for the next generation of hospitals.
About HealthLeaders Media
HealthLeaders Media is the premier publisher of information resources for senior-level healthcare executives, reaching more than 100,000 healthcare decision-makers nationwide every month. In addition to its flagship monthly journal, HealthLeaders magazine, HealthLeaders Media distributes relevant industry information, practical advice, case-study solutions, and innovative strategies through newsletters, e-mail publications, live events and state-specific healthcare business news services. For more information, visit online at www.healthleadersmedia.com.
As debate over federally funded healthcare coverage rages across the country, a survey found that San Francisco's universal healthcare scheme gets high marks from participants. Of the nearly 1,100 users surveyed, 63% said they were "very satisfied" with the program, known as Healthy San Francisco, according to the survey conducted by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Another 31% said they were "somewhat satisfied." More than 45,000 residents are enrolled in the landmark plan, created in 2006 to provide healthcare for residents who lack private insurance, but are not eligible for other public programs.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that a massive school closing wouldn't stop the spread of the swine flu virus, saying vaccinations must be the defense against a menace that one report said could infect up to half of the population. She said people should plan ahead for a potential outbreak, particularly those with pre-existing medical conditions, pregnant women, and healthcare industry workers. Sebelius said federal health authorities also are recommending that people should immediately get their regular "seasonal" flu vaccine to bolster their health for the scenario yet to play out later this year regarding the swine flu virus.
