Articles by Industry Expert

Healthcare Revenue Cycle and Finance December 16, 2015

Traditional Healthcare BPO Sourcing Will be Tested as Never Before

By Rohan Kulkarni – Growth in healthcare spending in the United States is slowing down, however it’s still growing and continues to outpace gross domestic product (GDP) spending by several points. Revolutionary trends are emerging for all healthcare service providers (i.e., payers, providers and pharmaceuticals), that will guarantee radical shifts in how these providers serve their patients, as well as how business process outsourcing (BPO)vendors serve their healthcare clients.

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Health Innovation December 14, 2015

2015 In Review

By John Halamka MD – It’s now December and as each year ends, I always look back on the challenges and achievements of the past 12 months. Here’s my sense of 2015.

Healthcare Revenue Cycle and Finance, Regulatory Issues, Value Based Reimbursement December 10, 2015

Continuing the Shift from Volume to Results in American Healthcare

By Dr. Patrick Conway – Almost a year ago, the Administration announced a vision for the future of the Medicare program, including clear goals and a timeline for shifting Medicare payments from volume to value. CMS is continually working to turn this vision into reality through annual rulemaking and the CMS Innovation Center, building on bipartisan ideas, initiatives and legislation from both Congress and the states.

Care Coordination, Patient Portal December 10, 2015

How Do We Achieve Coordinated Health Care?

By Robert Rowley MD – A recent study of healthcare organizations showed that most are not prepared to deliver standardized longitudinal care across multiple provider systems. Shared care plans will be the centerpiece of coordinated care delivery, incentivized by the move from fee-for-service to value-based care.

EHR Adoption, Health Innovation December 10, 2015

AHRQ Touts EHRs, But is There Any Data?

By William A. Hyman – A recent press release and report from AHRQ asserts that 87,000 lives and nearly $20 billion in costs have been saved as a result of safety improvements. This reduction in hospital-aquired conditions (HAC) is said to be “thanks in part to provisions of the Affordable Care Act”, and Medicare incentives.

Patient Engagement, Patient Portal December 8, 2015

Conversations About Coordinated Care in Rural Arkansas

By Dr. Gary Bevill & William Taunton – Initially a four-doctor practice, SAMA Healthcare Services is breaking ground in coordinated, patient-centered health care in rural El Dorado, Arkansas. Although SAMA doctors had known early on that this is how they wanted to practice medicine, they could do only so much until they got support from the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, an Affordable Care Act program. Dr. Gary Bevill and SAMA patient William Taunton recently talked about the initiative.

Health Innovation December 8, 2015

What to Do with Health Data

By Matt Fisher – A Shakespearean Tangle: The current state of medical data is very complicated. The amount of medical data being created is exploding all of the time. The explosion is being facilitated by the always increasing number of ways of creating it and a broadening array of people or entities how want access to it.