Guest Commentaries

Much has been written and will continue to be written about accountable care organizations, whether they are labeled Pioneer, Shared Savings or offered through commercial carriers. There are many respected healthcare leaders who think that ACOs will bring great benefit to patients and providers while bending the cost curve.
FULL STORY »

Hear that? It's the sound of water gently cascading from a decorative fountain in a hospital lobby. But, if the murmur of flowing water is meant to instill a sense of calm among patients, visitors and staff, the reality is far more disquieting. And newsworthy.
FULL STORY »

The new year has just started, but inside the Beltway, all eyes are on the presidential and congressional elections that will take place in November—and the renewed fiscal policy debate that awaits us once the elections are over.
FULL STORY »

During the past decade, U.S. hospitals have made tremendous strides in prevention of hospital-acquired infections, such as central-line associated bloodstream infections.
FULL STORY »

Cutting budgets and healthcare spending are high priorities with many policymakers, but an unexpected success in fighting heart failure raises questions about what saves more: holding down budgets or providing the right treatment.
FULL STORY »

Community cancer centers are the unsung heroes of cancer care. They are where 85% of Americans are diagnosed and treated for cancer. Unlike the large destination cancer centers you read about in national news, community cancer centers dot the country in rural, suburban and city locations as diverse as the U.S. population itself.
FULL STORY »

The Senate Judiciary Committee's Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee recently announced that it will convene a hearing to investigate the proposed merger between Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, two of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit management companies.
FULL STORY »

It's rare these days for Democrats and Republicans to agree on anything. It's even more rare to find consensus in the industry on federal policy. But on one issue—defining which patients would be best treated in long-term acute-care hospitals—we have now seen it on display.
FULL STORY »

Welcome to the final installment of the Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Opinion Leaders Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive.
FULL STORY »

We are rapidly approaching the halfway point between enactment and implementation of the most sweeping provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. While many changes are already under way, the work ahead for the public and private sectors is both daunting and thrilling. It also is abundantly clear that this reformation remains essential.
FULL STORY »

In the 20 months since President Barack Obama signed the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, millions of Americans have already been receiving help they need to improve their health, improve their care and save money. Consider a few key points:
FULL STORY »

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction—the “supercommittee”—is struggling to develop a plan to cut at least $1.2 trillion from federal spending over the next 10 years. And this is just the early round of budget battles that are likely to continue for years.
FULL STORY »

With the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures citing rising numbers of the uninsured, all eyes are again looking at what can be done to help this population. Meanwhile, studies have shown nearly one-third of the estimated 50 million uninsured Americans qualify for free or low-cost government-sponsored health insurance programs but aren't signed up.
FULL STORY »

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has taken an important step in launching the first national effort to give consumers electronic access to their laboratory results. We certainly agree with the secretary that “When it comes to health, information is power.”
FULL STORY »

As the leader of a philanthropy whose founder recognized early on the value of nurses to his own medical care and to healthcare writ large, I welcomed last year's Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, with great expectation. In the coming years, our nation's healthcare system will serve 32 million newly insured Americans as well as rapidly increasing numbers of seniors and people with chronic conditions. And it will do so in the context of changing models and settings for care delivery.
FULL STORY »

For more than a decade, consumers and purchasers have been convinced that financial incentives, such as pay-for-performance, are a key to improving our healthcare system. Results of this concept—a form of extrinsic motivation—have been mixed. For example, a study published this year by BMJ (the online British Medical Journal) determined that a highly incentivized physician pay-for-performance program in the United Kingdom ultimately did not improve outcomes in patients with high blood pressure.
FULL STORY »

I started my work as the new president and CEO of Medical Group Management Association and the American College of Medical Practice Executives about a week ago. What better way to hit the ground running than by attending MGMA's annual conference in Las Vegas this week. I feel fortunate as I take the helm of the associations to see our members in person in my first weeks of employment.
FULL STORY »

Last month, the CMS announced the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement initiative, a unique opportunity made possible by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for physicians, hospitals, post-acute providers and others to come together as partners, to redesign Medicare payments and significantly improve coordination of care.
FULL STORY »

An article in Modern Healthcare's Aug. 15 issue by Rich Daly (“Unsatisfactory marks”) raises some troubling objections to patient satisfaction as a legitimate quality indicator. The objections are nothing new. However, given that the CMS will soon tie reimbursements to quality scores that include patient satisfaction, the doubts need to be laid to rest.
FULL STORY »

Hospital CEOs can do more than just prevent an outbreak of influenza in their facility this flu season: They can and must take action against antibiotic resistance, an urgent public health problem that affects us all.
FULL STORY »

Healthcare leaders are juggling multiple pressures, including evaluation and development of ACOs, and achieving meaningful use. It's easy to be distracted from important changes such as ICD-10.
FULL STORY »

After Hurricane Ike hit in 2008, cities across the Southeast faced a significant fuel shortage. At one point in Charlotte, N.C., only 1 in 7 gas stations was open with as many as 60 completely out of gas. People were desperate to get the gas they needed to function and others tried to make a buck off the situation. Within days, state officials reported hundreds of cases of price gouging by profiteers who sought to capitalize off others' misery. In some cases, prices more than doubled, hitting $7.30 a gallon!
FULL STORY »

Near midnight on Friday, August 26, as Hurricane Irene menaced North Carolina on its direct path to New York City, NYU Langone Medical Center made an urgent call to Greater New York Hospital Association's desk at the City's Office of Emergency Management. One of seven hospitals ordered to evacuate in advance of the hurricane, NYU Langone desperately needed to locate beds for three extremely ill ICU patients.
FULL STORY »

Like death and taxes, healthcare-associated infections have long been considered one of those unpleasant, but inevitable, things in life. No longer. Years of research have yielded solid proof that these deadly and costly infections can be sharply reduced, and even eliminated, by adhering to a set of evidence-based practices. Findings from a national program to replicate these results in U.S. hospitals is encouraging, with HAIs dropping by an average of one-third. But more participation by small and midsized hospitals is needed.
FULL STORY »

Granted, humans are not perfect, but fortunately, recent technological innovations are proving critical for ensuring patient safety.
FULL STORY »

The leader of post-acute services of a major hospital system in the Midwest was almost giddy with excitement in a recent meeting of her home healthcare peers from nearby states.“With Medicare readmission penalties on the horizon, the rest of my system is suddenly noticing me,” she said. “We're being engaged with a level of urgency and interest I've never seen before. Now, instead of being seen as a drag on the system's bottom line, they're recognizing our potential as a major profit center.”
FULL STORY »

On Feb. 22, as the 15th anniversary of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act approached, HHS' Office for Civil Rights fired off the health information privacy equivalent of the shot heard round the world: It actually fined someone for violating the law. In fact, the Office for Civil Rights pretty much threw the book, in the form of a $4.3 million civil penalty, at Cignet Health, a Maryland-based health plan, for failing to allow patients access to their medical records and especially for not cooperating with its investigation. Shortly thereafter, 907-bed Massachusetts...
FULL STORY »