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In a move with implications for not-for-profit (NFP) healthcare business models, Kaiser Permanente (KP) has announced plans to acquire Geisinger and form a new organization. Upon acquisition, Geisinger will join [...]

In the past several months, healthcare organizations have been inundated with results from a variety of quality-rating agencies. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released star ratings for [...]

Approvals of specialty medications continue to outpace those of traditional medications each year, and with the approval of the first biosimilar this spring, the specialty market is only gaining momentum. [...]

The business of health care faces unprecedented challenges. The combined, related costs of materials management, staffing, tracking, and maintenance make optimizing medical assets a major budget concern for hospitals. And [...]

Across the country, innovations in care delivery models at organizations of varying size and type are enhancing continuity of care, changing utilization patterns, and reducing costs. Almost every healthcare organization [...]

Health system leaders should view any steps they take to prepare for their state's Medicaid reform initiatives as integral to their organization's evolution toward value-based care and population health. More [...]

Objective. To provide the first nationally based information on physician practice involvement in ACOs. Data Sources/Study Setting. Primary data from the third National Survey of Physician Organizations (January 2012-May 2013). Study Design. We conducted a 40-minute phone survey in a sample of physician practices. A nationally representative sample of practices was surveyed in order to provide estimates of organizational characteristics, care management processes, ACO participation, and related variables for four major chronic illnesses. Data Collection/Extraction Methods. We evaluated the associations between ACO participation, organizational characteristics, and a 25-point index of patient-centered medical home processes. Principal Findings. We found that 23.7 percent of physician practices (n = 280) reported joining an ACO; 15.7 percent (n = 186) were planning to become involved within the next 12 months and 60.6 percent (n = 717) reported no involvement and no plans to become involved. Larger practices, those receiving patients from an I PA and/or PHO, those that were physician-owned versus hospital/health system-owned, those located in New England, and those with greater patient-centered medical home (PCMH) care management processes were more likely to have joined an ACO. Conclusions. Physician practices that are currently participating in ACOs appear to be relatively large, or to be members of an IPA or PHO, are less likely to be hospital-owned and are more likely to use more care management processes than nonparticipating practices. Key Words. Accountable care organizations, care management, physician practices, Affordable Care Act, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is expected to extend health insurance coverage for up to 25.3 million Americans by 2022 (Holahan et al. 2012). A major policy question is whether [...]

Improving data capture is a strategic priority for many hospitals and health systems. By accurately and comprehensively documenting and coding to reflect each patient's condition, these organizations have the potential [...]

Learn strategies for improving the patient financial experience, negotiating payer contracts, going beyond point-of-service (POS) collections, and more from winners of the 3014 MAP Award for High Performance in Revenue [...]

Taking the right approach to ICD-10 testing can help organizations turn a potential drag on cash flow into a strategic advantage once the new coding system takes effect in October [...]

Revenue cycle management literature is replete with methods for measuring team performance, whether in patient access, health information management (HIM), patient accounting, or physician practice areas. Various articles within hfm [...]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Today, most healthcare organizations aim to manage professionals' motivation through monetary incentives, such as pay for performance. However, addressing motivation extrinsically can involve negative effects, such as disturbed [...]

Charles R. Evans, FACHE, is president of the International Health Services Group (IHSG), based in Alpharetta, Georgia, and senior advisor at Jackson Healthcare, in Atlanta, Georgia. IHSG is a social [...]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Success factors related to the implementation of change initiatives are well documented and discussed in the management literature, but they are seldom studied in healthcare organizations engaged in [...]

In this article ... Check out the results of an ACPE survey that looks at physician leaders' views of measuring performance and the quality of individual doctors. A majority of [...]

In this article ... Examine five steps health care organizations can take to improve physician communication skills. With increasing stress and complexity in today's health care environment, appropriate and effective [...]

Although the number of acute care hospital mergers declined from 94 transactions in 2012 to 79 in 2014, the development of new regional partnerships, collaborations, and joint ventures that can [...]

Verizon's relocation specialists place a high value on flexibility when choosing a relocation vendor. That's because no matter how well-planned employee relocations are, unexpected events can happen. Take, for instance, [...]

After speaking with management teams of AmerisourceBergen (ABC) and Cardinal Health (CAH), Leerink analyst David Larsen said in a research note earlier today that he was surprised to hear Amazon [...]

WHEN SIMULATION, LEAN, AND SIX Sigma are aligned to achieve thorough results in process management, benefits can include streamlined processes, minimized risk, and breakthrough performance. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While process management [...]

> THE PROGRAM Medicaid is the state-federal program that provides health benefits to lower-income children, pregnant women, parents, people with disabilities, seniors and others. > THE PROBLEM Medicaid spending in [...]

The impact of interorganizational collaboration among health care and government organizations on their governance is discussed.

Investor trust is valuable to health care organizations. Without it, they may face higher capital costs. This study explores recent cases of fraud and the appearance of impropriety by health [...]

This paper examines how the managerial labor market in nonprofit hospitals has adjusted to the financial pressures induced by HMO penetration. Using a panel of about 1,500 nonprofit hospitals over the period 1992-96, the authors find that top executive turnover increased following an increase in HMO penetration. Moreover, the increase in turnover was concentrated among the hospitals that had lower levels of economic profitability. While the link between top executive pay and for-profit performance measures was on average very weak, HMO penetration tightened that link: as HMO penetration increased, top executives were compensated more for improving the profitability of their hospitals. These results, while of limited economic magnitude, are qualitatively consistent with the view that HMO penetration has increased the weight assigned to for-profit performance in the management of not-for-profit hospitals.

Abstract. In this article, the authors discuss the problematic issue of transformational change in the face of cultural conflict between the worlds of clinical care and organizational leadership, and describe [...]

Further evidence in favor of the clinical IT business case is set forth in Kaiser Permanente's cost/benefit analysis for an electronic hospital information system. This article reviews the business case [...]

The shift of control of its system of the New Mexico Health Center to a community health center network, led to the centralization of the purchasing and financial systems, thus enabling it to improve patient care and cut down its administrative costs. The approach of 'go slow, train well' adopted by Kevin Kearns, CIO of the Health Choice Network, has made him successful in selling new IT systems to doctors and nurses in large part.

Abstract. For healthcare organizations to survive in these increasingly challenging dines, leadership and management must lace mounting interpersonal concerns. The authors present the boundaries of' internal and external social networks [...]

The Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved was formed in 1997 with the purpose of giving health care insurance to all Coloradoans by 2007. The coalition is looking to put its policy suggestions into practice, primarily through a ballot initiative that would fund health coverage for the poor by increasing taxes on cigarettes.

Dr. Sidney Garfield, who established the first prepaid health plan in 1933, teamed with industrialist Henry Kaiser to insure a group practice prepayment plan known as Kaiser Permanente. The plan is the largest nonprofit health maintenance organization in the United States, with more than 8.4 million members as of December 2003.

This article explores the current state of the law governing partnerships and other collaborations between tax-exempt health care organizations and private health care providers. The author sets out the regulatory [...]