Providing price and quality information is viewed as a Holy Grail among health plans and providers, who see transparency as the key for igniting health care consumerism. However, that Grail remains elusive, as issues of tool usefulness and consumer trust cloud the market."A Health Plan Work in Progress: Hospital-Physician Price and Quality Transparency," a report from those indefatigable folks at the Center for Studying Health System Change (CSHSC), explains that health plans are ramping up transparency efforts in what is still an early phase of market development and adoption.
Do membership practices offer privileges or just reserved for the privileged?
I have watched the meteoric rise of popular term “Medical Home.” While I personally dislike this phrase, it has caught on in the popular vernacular and looks like it is here to stay. In conjunction with the rise of the term is the growing popularity of a practice model that includes a higher level of service on a membership basis. It is essentially, next-generation concierge medicine, but now being promoted under the more politically correct banner of “direct practice.” Multiple variations of the model exist, from an all-inclusive single fee to a membership structure that retains a fee for service financial arrangement.
So discerning patients evaluating these practices are forced to determine the relative value of this new direct practice concept, and having passed that test, determine which type of practice model actually makes sense to them (All inclusive or Fee-for-Service). Lets look at these questions using a traditional four-person family with an annual all-in health care spending of $15,000 (consistent with Milliman’s 2008 numbers).
Around the Web in 60 Seconds (Or Less)
Google launches its own Web browser, Chrome. The latest competitive move with Microsoft is available for download today.
About 800 people in New Hampshire are about to lose their health insurance because the plans don’t meet the minimum requirements set by the state. Can you say unintended consequences of consumer protection laws?
The Joint Commission will now grade hospitals on their level of "cultural competency." The Commonwealth Fund will fund a panel to "explore how diversity, culture, language and health literacy issues can
be better incorporated into current Joint Commission standards or
drafted into new requirements."
The National Quality Forum has endorsed nine new national standards for health information technology in the areas of electronic prescribing, electronic health record, interoperability, care management, quality registries, and the medical home.
California steps into uncharted territory without a state operating budget. The Legislature’s failure to agree has led to the longest overdue budget in state history.
Medicare hospital quality reporting steps up in sophistication
Medicare is now reporting actual risk-adjusted mortality rates for pneumonia, MI, and heart failure. The topic must be important because NPR’s "Talk of the Nation" spent 30 minutes interviewing Don Berwick and me about it — on the day of Hillary’s speech nonetheless!
To listen to the show, click here. Also, here’s an article from USA Today that got the ball rolling, as well as Avery Comarow’s thoughtful blog on these new reports.
Here are a few observations about the new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services initiative, some of which I made on the NPR broadcast:
Keep tabs on your digital footprint
Is it "disordered" behavior to Google your doctor? An article in JAMA suggests that doctors should be on their guard.
The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published an article about how doctors should be aware of how they are portrayed online and consider taking steps to manage their digital identities.
It is an article that, for the most part, could have been written about any profession with its warnings about “slanderous information published about someone with the same name” or “by a vengeful…colleague or ex-lover.” And the advice given is also familiar: create your own Web page to be sure correct information is available about you and use appropriate privacy settings on social network sites.
