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According to ConnextionsHealth, growing losses of
individual and group plan members are eroding acquisition costs,
profitability and competitive advantage at all major health plans,
making member retention a strategic priority for 2009. At some health
insurers, member turnover is running as high as 40%. Further, McKinsey
& Co. found that health plans capture less than 10% of members lost
through job termination, early retirement and elimination of
employer-funded coverage. This “employee transition” market segment
alone is estimated at $40 billion annually.To address this
emerging market need, ConnextionsHealth and World Health Care Congress
are hosting a first-of-its-kind Leadership Summit on Member Retention
for Health Plans scheduled for March 18-19, 2009 in Orlando, FL. 
Designed for health plan senior executives, the Summit will provide an
insider’s look into the underlying issues and successful strategies for
retaining individual and small group plan members and building brand
loyalty. More information is available at www.worldcongress.com/retention.

What's fair in managed care? Get involved. Join the conversation. FAIR
is an emerging national grassroots movement focused on changing the
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responsible for their behavior.  Supported by patients, hospitals,
physicians, business owners and policy makers, FAIR brings a unified
voice to the table at the peak of a national discussion on health care
reform.

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By Val JONES MD

Rumor has it that Sanjay Gupta
is no longer in the running for the office of Surgeon General. Many
peopl
e had voiced their concerns about his potential nomination
(including Paul Krugman, Maggie Mahar, Gary Schwitzer, Dr. David Gorski, and myself)
and it looks as if his lack of experience or training in matters of
public health, along with a history of industry ties has put the kabosh
on his nomination.

So who will be our next Surgeon General? It’s hard to say, but a petition is circulating on behalf of Dr. George Lundberg – a fine nominee for the position in my opinion. Let me explain why.

A review of Dr. Lundberg’s curriculum vitae easily
establishes his professional qualifications for the position. Not only
has he been one of the longest standing Editors-In-Chief of all the
American Medical Association journals (including JAMA), and the founder of the world’s first open-access, peer reviewed online medical journal (Medscape Journal of Medicine)
but has served in an advisory capacity to everyone from the World
Health Organization, to AHRQ, the Joint Commission, Harvard’s School of
Public Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, Food and
Drug Administration and the Surgeon General of the US Navy. He is also
a prolific and influential writer, having authored 149 peer-reviewed
articles, 204 editorials, and 39 books or book chapters. Dr. Lundberg
has a large and devoted national and international audience and is
highly esteemed by all who know him.

Continue reading…

By Val Jones MD

Pretty much everyone agrees that we need to improve the quality of healthcare delivered to patients. We’ve all heard the frightening statistics
from the Institute of Medicine about medical error rates – that as many
as 98,000 patients die each year as a result of them – and we also know
that the US spends about 33% more than most industrialized country on healthcare, without substantial improvements in outcomes.

However, a large number of quality improvement initiatives rely on
additional rules, regulations, and penalties to inspire change (for
example, decreasing Medicare payments to hospitals with higher
readmission rates, and decreasing provider compensation based on quality indicators).
Not only am I skeptical about this stick vs. carrot strategy, but I
think it will further demoralize providers, pit key stakeholders
against one another, and cause people to spend their energy figuring
out how to game the system than do the right thing for patients.

There is a carrot approach that could theoretically result in a $757
billion savings/year that has not been fully explored – and I suggest
that we take a look at it before we “release the hounds” on hospitals
and providers in an attempt to improve healthcare quality.

Continue reading…