Jul 10, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
List of recommendations based on UnitedHealth’s extensive database and experience
Every sector of the healthcare industry is offering both Congress and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) advice on how to reform the system to improve quality of care, while reducing costs. Too often, the search for ways to save money that can be redirected to covering uninsured is a game of taking money from one existing health service and shifting it to another.
Recently UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) stepped into this debate over how to save money. In important ways, it is better positioned to provide this advice than most other entities. For example, UnitedHealth Group is the nation’s largest insurer in terms of revenue. UNH funds and organizes care for 70 million Americans. It arranges $115 billion in health care services provided by 5,000 hospitals and 650,000 physicians nationwide. Because of this, UNH’s Center for Modernization and Reform has collected more data on clinical services provided and resulting healthcare outcomes than anyone else.
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Jul 1, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Blame it on informed, well-off consumers who pursue wellness and optimum health
Informed consumers may be shifting the healthcare paradigm even as Congress prepares to hammer out its vision of a radically-reformed healthcare system. At least that’s the view of one healthcare expert, who observes that the steady growth in the number of consumer home test kits, patient self-testing devices, and point-of-care tests is a major factor enabling this trend.
People today increasingly get their healthcare outside of the physician-centered healthcare system, stated Mary Kate Scott, Principal at the Los Angeles consulting firm, Scott & Co., in her recent report to the California HealthCare Foundation. (more…)
Jun 29, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Uncategorized
Health reform plan preserves patient choice and requires no new government funding
As Congress gets down to the nitty gritty details of healthcare reform, a unique bipartisan proposal presented by the Rolling Hills Group, a group of Tennessee healthcare experts and community leaders, is gaining support on both sides of the aisle.
This healthcare reform proposal, initially developed for a statewide program in Tennessee, has captured Congress’ attention because it meets top health care reform priorities—universal coverage, lower costs, improved care and safety, but doesn’t require any new funding sources.
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Jun 17, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories can provide that missing education about CDHPs to patients
Even as enrollment in Consumer-Directed Health Plans (CDHPs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) climbs steadily year after year, a new study reveals that most physicians are unprepared to help their patients understand and better use these forms of health insurance. This is a barrier to CDHP acceptance and an opportunity for clinical laboratories.
CDHPs—and their close cousins, HDHPs (high-deductible health plans_—are designed to shift more responsibility for healthcare decisions to patients. Many physicians, however, are unprepared to advise patients enrolled in CDHPs about cost-effective treatment options. This is the finding of a 2008 survey of 525 randomly selected doctors published in the American Journal of Managed Care . Nearly half, 43%, of doctors responding to the survey admitted knowing “a little” or “not at all” about CDHPs or HSAs. At least 33% of surveyed physicians said they are “somewhat” knowledgeable. Only 24% of physicians surveyed claimed “much” or “a great deal” of knowledge about CDHPs.
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Jun 8, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Concern about lower reimbursement sparks MD interest in concierge practice model
Fear about the far-reaching consequences of healthcare reform-and the potential for dramatic reductions in physician reimbursement-has triggered a surge in physician participation in concierge medicine.
Concierge medicine, sometimes also called boutique medicine, has been around since 1996. However, with healthcare reform now eminent, more doctors are choosing this option. A New York Times article published in 2005 estimated that 250 doctors with 100,000 patients participated in concierge medicine at that time. Today, approximately 5,000 U.S. primary care doctors operate a concierge practice, according to the Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design, a professional association of concierge physicians.
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