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From the editor Dear Healthcare Intelligence Network Client,
The cost of medication non-adherence is great: in 2009, the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) blamed it for $290 billion in 'otherwise avoidable medical spending' in the United States alone each year. One area researchers are looking at more closely than ever is care transitions, as we report in this issue. Research shows that patients transitioning from one care facility to another are driving up related healthcare costs because of the gaps and resulting errors that can occur. This is an important shift in perspective, given that researchers have long thought that complex patients with multiple conditions/medications are primary causes for non-compliance. We also explore pharmacists’ role in medication adherence in a new chart of the week. It illustrates the top five areas pharmacists are being reimbursed for their efforts in this area. Compiled from the Healthcare Intelligence Network’s own research, the findings reveal that while patient education numbers among the top five actions incented, the majority of pharmacists are not reimbursed for their efforts in this area. The healthcare costs of tobacco-related diseases rivals medication adherence; every year, an estimated 443,000 people in the United States die from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million people suffer from a serious smoking-related illness. Annually, costs associated with smoking-related illness account for billions in medical expenses and lost productivity, and 5.1 million years of potential life lost in the United States, the CDC reports. California has been proactive in reforming smokers and disparaging tobacco companies; according to a report from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), a decades-long campaign in that state cost $2.4 billion, but reduced healthcare costs by $134 billion, and reduced the sales of cigarette packs by 6.8 billion, amounting to a loss of $28.5 billion in sales to cigarette companies. We also address the high cost of hospital readmissions; according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), one in eight Medicare patients was readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of being released after surgery in 2010, while one in six Medicare patients admitted to hospitals for non-surgical reasons were readmitted within 30 days. Both rates were unchanged from 2008. The report, “The Revolving Door: A Report on U.S. Hospital Readmissions,” was based on new data that includes readmission rates for states, hospital referral regions, and more than 3,000 hospitals from the Dartmouth Atlas Project, largely funded by RWJF. It finds that readmission rates vary markedly across regions and hospitals. And finally, a new tool empowering Medicare beneficiaries and hopefully reduce healthcare costs is now accessible from UnitedHealthcare and Novu. An online portal enables patients to create their own personalized wellness programs, by registering and completing a confidential holistic health evaluation that helps them measure their fitness, nutrition and overall life balance. Based on their responses, a tailored health and wellness program is recommended that features customized coaching, nutrition and fitness goals that can be achieved in specific, manageable steps. Have any of your mHealth tools helped to reduce healthcare costs? Studies are showing that mHealth technologies could save from $1.96 billion to $5.83 billion in healthcare costs by the year 2014. Describe how your organization uses mHealth technologies by March 5, 2013 and you'll receive a free executive summary of survey results once it is compiled via e-mail or an mHealth-powered text message. Your completed survey also enters you into a drawing for a $25 Itunes gift card. Your colleague in the business of healthcare,Cheryl Miller Editor, Healthcare Business Weekly Update Please send comments, questions and replies to cmiller@hin.com.
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This week's featured download: Healthcare Trends in 2013 — Industry Shows More Faith in Healthcare Reform
Healthcare Trends in 2013 — Industry Shows More Faith in Healthcare Reform
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February 25, 2013
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This week's industry news
1.) Portal Lets Medicare Beneficiaries Create Personalized Wellness Programs Online
2.) Integrated Health Coaching: Reducing Risk and Empowering Change across the Health Continuum
3.) 1 in 8 Medicare Patients Readmitted to Hospital Within 30 Days of Surgery: Report
4.) Guide to Reducing Medicare Readmissions, Vol. II
5.) Healthcare Business White Paper: Accountable Care Organizations in 2012 — ACO Participation Doubles in 12 Months
6.) California’s Tobacco Control Program Generates Significant Healthcare Savings
7.) New Chart: Top Incentivized Coaching Activities
Click here to view the chart.
8.) 2011 Benchmarks in Tobacco Cessation and Prevention
9.) Healthcare Law Expands ‘Essential Health Benefits’ to Include Mental Health Comparing and purchasing health coverage plans will be easier for consumers, and states and insurers will have more flexibility and freedom to implement the ACA, according to a final rule from the HHS. Get the full story. >>Return to this week's industry news
10.) The Financial Professional’s Guide to Healthcare Reform
11.) Medication Adherence During Care Transitions Getting Closer Look
12.) 33 Metrics for Care Transition Management
13.) Infographic: How Social Networks Predict Epidemics
14.) Improving Population Health Management Through Effective, Efficient Data Analytics
Thank you for your readership! Please urge your colleagues to subscribe by forwarding this email or visiting http://www.hin.com/freenews2.html or by calling (888) 446-3530 or visiting the HIN Web site. While we encourage you to forward this email to your colleagues, these articles may not be redistributed in any other publication, reproduced for publication in any form, distributed on an intranet or network or by e-mail distribution or distributed for commercial purposes without the expressed written permission of the Healthcare Intelligence Network. |
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This resource describes how HealthFitness aligns individuals with the right coaching service at the right time, leveraging individuals’ intrinsic motivation to address underlying lifestyle issues that may impede health status and drive up healthcare spend.
This resource examines innovative interventions to reduce preventable admissions, rehospitalizations and ER visits by high-utilizing Medicare beneficiaries, including four multidisciplinary collaborative interventions aimed at key factors fueling readmissions in this population — and that support an accountable care vision.
Participation in accountable care initiatives has more than doubled in the last 12 months, according to 200 healthcare companies who completed the second annual Healthcare Intelligence Network survey on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The typical ACO is smaller, too, as the number of active ACOs with 100 to 500 physicians dropped almost 50 percent in the last 12 months. This year’s survey provided new data on other healthcare professionals in the ACO, ACO reimbursement models, and ACO impact.
Health coaching and the tools and technologies supporting it are critical elements of a population health management approach. Telephonically, face-to-face and increasingly powered by mHealth, health coaches are instrumental in reducing health risk across the care continuum, often working within new care delivery models such as the patient-centered medical home and the accountable care organization. We wanted to see which activities are incentivized in health coaching programs.
This resource documents the efforts of more than 80 companies to curb and prevent tobacco use, compiled from responses to a 2010 survey on this topic. It provides data on a wide range of tobacco prevention and cessation trends.
This resource explains the healthcare law for individuals and businesses alike, what to expect from it and what actions they need to take to comply, providing examples of what the impact of the law might look like.
This resource provides a graphic compendium of performance benchmarks in key areas impacting care transitions — from key tasks performed at hospital discharge to the prevalence of home visits in programs to improve medication adherence.
Enhanced reporting and efficiency, significant reductions in readmissions in congestive heart failure patients and added leverage at contract negotiation are just a few advantages Bon Secours is deriving from its EHR-based data collection tools, explains Robert Fortini, vice president and chief clinical officer at Bon Secours. Fortini talks about the health system's shift from home-grown methodologies to the sophisticated IT knowledge base powering its population health management program, resulting in data that has a "compelling" effect at contract time.