Professional Medical Documents: Master Your 'Word' from Nurse Together

Remember typewriters? We sure have come a long way since then. Granted, those clunky old machines were wonderfully straightforward—a few keys, the occasional bottle of Wite-Out®, and you were all set. But before you start getting nostalgic for the good old days, consider this: contemporary word processing programs such as Microsoft Word offer countless ways to compose, organize, and enhance written documents quickly and more efficiently in the workplace. And in the healthcare setting, its high degree of usability makes Word the premier choice for creating professional-quality documents for a broad range of purposes.

For the full article please go here.

Countering Conflict in the Workplace from Nurse Together.

The following is an excerpt of the NurseTogether.com Community members’ online chat with Dr. Catherine Garner, Dean of Health Sciences and Nursing at American Sentinel University.

NT.com: Today, we are hosting a chat session focused on "Countering Conflict in the Workplace." Our special co-hosts today are Dr. Catherine Garner, Dean of Health Sciences and Nursing at American Sentinel University, and Pam Broyles, Senior Manager for Education and Training at Sarah Cannon Research Institute. Pam is also a graduate student in American Sentinel University's Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. I feel very passionate about this topic, and I'm glad that we are addressing it today.

For the full article please go here.

8 key issues for population health management in 2012 from HealthIT.com

Recently, the Care Continuum Alliance, an advocate for population health management, surveyed industry leaders to assess the market and predict key issues for 2012. According to the alliance’s white paper, two predominant themes were brought to light as a result of the survey.

“First, significant market movement will occur toward accountability and value creation in healthcare, driven partly by new physician-guided and collaborative models,” according to the report. “And second, population health management is well-positioned to add value to and support these emerging models, but must continue to build the case for wellness and prevention.”

Here are eight additional key issues, identified in the report, that could affect population health management in 2012.

1. Accountable care and the Medicare Shared Savings program. Many comments from survey respondents centered on accountable care and collaborative models, as well as federal support for both. According to the report, population health has a lot to offer collaborative care, such as health risk assessment and predictive modeling, HIT infrastructure, data analytics, care coordination and other core competencies. “But tempering optimism around accountable care models were caveats,” the report noted. One respondent summed it up: “If ACOs become a reality and are structured in a way that provides a real incentive for managing health, they could be a major market opportunity. If they just become HMOs redux, not much will change."

For the full article please go here.

When Medicare Isn't Medicare from Huffington Post

Let's say you have a Ford and decide to replace everything under the hood with Hyundai parts, including the engine and transmission. Could you still honestly market your car as a Ford?

That question gets at the heart of the controversy over who is being more forthright about GOP Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to "save" Medicare, Republicans or Democrats.

If you overhaul the Medicare system like you did your Ford and tell the public it's still Medicare, are you doing so honestly?

As I noted last week, PolitiFact, the St. Petersburg Time's fact checker, decided that the Democrats' claim that Ryan's plan would mean the end of Medicare was so blatantly untrue it merited designation as the 2011 "Lie of the Year." Republicans, whose erroneous claims about health care reform garnered "Lie of the Year" prizes in 2009 and 2010, cheered. Democrats, as you might imagine, jeered -- as did some journalists and pundits.

For the full article please go here.

Things Medicare Won't Tell You from Yahoo News

1. "We fork over millions for unproven procedures."

Medicare spends millions of dollars each year on treatments that many medical experts deem unnecessary. One example: Digital mammograms. These are often more expensive than traditional mammograms but not necessarily better for older women. A five-year clinical trial conducted by the National Cancer Institute found that digital mammograms were no more effective in finding cancers in women 50 and older than traditional mammograms. But the number of digital mammograms that Medicare paid for has risen from 426,000 in 2003 to nearly 6 million in 2008 -- a jump that increased the cost of breast cancer screening by more than $350 million, according to an analysis by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization.

Medicare also often pays significantly more for liquid-based cytology, a screen for cervical cancer, than it does for routine pap smears, even though a large 2009 study found that the expensive test is no more effective than the traditional procedure when it comes to detecting cancer. Using the newer, more expnsive test costs Medicare an extra $90 million since 2003, according to The Center for Public Integrity. Another point of contention is that Medicare pays for screening colonoscopies for people over 75 despite the fact that the United States Preventative Task Force "recommends against routine screening for colorectal cancer in adults age 76 to 85 years."

For the full article please go here.

A New Threat: Patient Predatory Lending Claims from Medical Malpractice Blog

Michael J. Sacopulos, Esq.

An doctor was sued several weeks ago for her use of a healthcare financing company. The suit was brought as a class action and is based upon consumer fraud laws. The allegations center around the way the credit application was presented and when it was signed by the patient. The patient claims that she did not understand that she was signing a credit application and that the practice performed unnecessary work in an effort to collect the entire amount of her line of credit. The doctor needs to prepare for a long, painful process. This is not a medical malpractice case, so normal professional liability policies will not cover it. Further, given the general public’s current hostility towards finance firms, there is a risk to taking the case to a jury.

Basically, this is a predatory lending case. Predatory lending is a general description for activities that violate consumer laws. A common element to most predatory lending cases include the lender or lender’s agent engaging in fraud or deception to conceal the true nature of the loan obligation from an unsuspecting or unsophisticated borrower. This means that a practice could be sued based on what information was presented to a patient or for how a signature of the application was secured.

For the full article please go here.

Sun's UV Rays May Stop Spread Of Chickenpox from Medical News Today.

If you look at the evidence to date from a different perspective, a virologist at St George's Hospital, University of London in the UK believes it suggests the sun's UV rays inactivate the chickenpox virus on the skin before it has a chance to transmit to another person, thus explaining why the disease spreads less readily in tropical countries. Dr Phil Rice told the press last week he hopes his findings will lead to new ways to prevent chickenpox and its more severe cousin, shingles.

The idea that ultraviolet (UV) rays can inactivate viruses is not new, but this is the first time that such firm conclusions have been made in connection with the varicella-zoster virus, the herpes virus responsible for chickenpox and shingles.

Writing about his work earlier this year in Virology Journal, Rice shows how chickenpox is much less common in parts of the world with high levels of UV rays compared with places where the levels are low, and why in temperate zones, the disease peaks in winter and spring, when UV rays are at their lowest.

For the full article please go here.

Hospitals Try To Control Readmissions, Even When It Hurts Profits from Health.com

This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes WNYC, NPR and Kaiser Health News.

What doesn’t kill you only makes you a repeat customer.

So says Prescott Pharmaceuticals, fictional and macabre sponsor of The Colbert Report.

But it’s no joke to the health care system. Repeat customers in hospitals are seen as a big problem – not to the hospitals themselves, which can profit from some patients’ frequent visits, but to the entities that pay for the care: Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, especially, is taking hospitals’ repeat customers very seriously. Almost one out of five Medicare patients discharged from a hospital is back within 30 days. Research suggests as many as 75 percent of those return visits could be prevented with better treatment in the hospital and better care once people are back home.

For the full article please go here.

Reduce Misunderstandings in Patient Care from Nurse Together

For the full article please go here.The patient, Carol, was a 36 year-old married woman with two young children. She did not see her doctor much in the last two years. She was feeling fine.

Carol was admitted to the hospital with a serious leg infection. The staff tried to save her leg but were unsuccessful. Her leg needed to be amputated below the knee.

Carol had insulin dependent diabetes for over ten years. She knew how to check her blood sugar and how to give herself insulin. She could return-demonstrate those skills quite well. But a few months before the infection started, she felt a tingling in her fingers and thought it was a side effect of the insulin; she stopped taking her daily shots.


Her husband was not aware of her finger-tingling symptoms or her decision to stop taking her insulin. He felt guilty for not having intervened. He left for work every day before she woke up. There is no record that Carol had ever been evaluated for depression.

Berwick: Don’t Blame Medicare, Medicaid. It’s The Delivery System from Kaiser Health News

Dr. Donald Berwick, who oversaw Medicare and Medicaid until earlier this month, defended the programs Monday, but said they are trapped in a U.S. health system that promotes wasteful spending and inefficient care.

"Health care is broken," Berwick said in an interview with Kaiser Health News. "… We have set up a delivery system that is fragmented, unsafe, not patient-centered, full of waste and unreliable. Despite the best efforts of the workforce, we built it wrong. It isn't built for modern times."

Berwick said the 2010 federal health law is changing how doctors and hospitals are paid and deliver care through such new arrangements as accountable care organizations, which are designed to improve coordination and lower costs.

For the full article please go here.

Infection Prevention and Control: The Next Hot Career from Nurse Together

Review of chat session with Dr. Catherine Garner, Dean of Health Sciences and Nursing at American Sentinel University and Alice Maciarelli, medical practice administrator and DNP student at American Sentinel University.

NT.com: Today, I am proud to welcome Dr. Catherine Garner with American Sentinel University as my co-host for this chat. I am also excited to welcome Alice Masciarelli, who is a medical practice administrator and DNP student at American Sentinel, as a second co-host. She can give us real time/real life insight into this topic. Alice, I think it's wonderful that you are currently enrolled in American Sentinel's DNP program, and I think your current role in a medical practice will give us more insight about the opportunities available.


For the full article please go here.

Disease Registries: Improving Care and Lowering Costs From H and H Networks

By Matthew Weinstock

Effective use of disease registries could dramatically improve clinical outcomes and reduce health care costs, according to a study published yesterday in Health Affairs. Researchers from the Boston Consulting Group and three Swedish institutions studied 13 registries from Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the U.S. and interviewed 32 health care professionals to assess not just the application of registries, but their effectiveness.

They found that "by making outcome data transparent to both practitioners and the public, well-managed registries enable medical professionals to engage in continuous learning and to identify and share best clinical practices. The apparent result: improved health outcomes, often at lower cost. For example, we calculate that if the United States had a registry for hip replacement surgery comparable to one in Sweden that enabled reductions in the rates at which these surgeries are performed a second time to replace or repair hip prostheses, the United States would avoid $2 billion of an expected $24 billion in total costs for these surgeries in 2015."

For the full article please go here.

My ER Doctor Is Billing Me For What Insurance Didn't Pay, What Can I Do? from Kaiser Health News

KHN's "Insuring Your Health" consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers a question about what to do when you're billed by an out-of-network doctor for an in-network hospital visit - a practice known as balance billing. She says negotiating is a good way to address the problem.

For the video please go here.

When 'Critical Access Hospitals' Aren't So Critical from National Public Radio

Hood Memorial Hospital, in Amite, La., hasn't been full in at least two decades. Some people say that makes it's a perfect target for efforts to reduce federal spending.

On an average day, fewer than four of the hospital's 25 beds are occupied. Last year, Hood posted a $700,000 loss on its $7.5 million in total operating expenses. One of the few bright spots on Hood's balance sheet: the extra money it receives from the federal government through a program for critical access hospitals — small facilities that receive a higher Medicare reimbursement rate to help keep them afloat.

In the ongoing deficit reduction talks, critical access hospitals have been singled out at least twice as a program ripe for cutting: in President Obama's budget proposal and by the Congressional Budget Office.

For the full article please go here.

Obesity And Diabetes Undermining America's Overall Health From Medical News Today

America's overall health is being undermined by obesity and diabetes, other chronic diseases, and child poverty; these detriments have been deemed greater than the benefits from improvements in cardiovascular deaths, preventable hospitalizations and smoking cessation, says a new report titled 2011 America's Health Rankings.

The Rankings is a collaboration between United Health Foundation, the America Public Health Association, and Partnership for Prevention.

No improvement in overall health - while the country's overall health improved by an average of 0.5% from 2000 to 2010 and 1.6% since the 1990s, the rate was unchanged from 2010 to 2011, the authors wrote.

For the full article please go here.

Excellent podcast on informing patients about residents' role.

H&HN Daily Contributing Editor Richard Hill talks with experts about implementing a new rule from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education.

For the video please go here.

Bad Grades On New National Health Report Card from Kaiser Health News

Ahead of the unveiling Tuesday of the latest United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings, Reed Tuckson, a foundation board member, had a scary message for the nation: We’re facing “a tsunami of preventable illness,” Tuckson said. “We aren’t prepared for the consequences of that.”

In an interview with KHN in advance of the release of the rankings, Tuckson characterized the state-by-state report card of health stats as a grim call to arms. After improving an average of 1.6 percent a year since the 1990s, the annual index remained flat this year for the first time in its 22 years of existence. And, as Tuckson bluntly asserts, a sicker nation means a more expensive nation at a time when health costs are already stretching consumers and employers beyond their limits. He warned: “You’re going broke!”

For the full article please go here.

4 debatable points on the delay of ICD-10 from HealthIT.com

Fighting words were heard from both sides of the ICD-10 debate after the AMA called for a delay of the Oct. 1, 2013 deadline for conversion. LinkedIn and Twitter were bustling with yea or nay responses, which is why we asked Steve Sisko, IT consultant and avid ICD-10 blogger, and Rob Tennant, senior policy advisor at the MGMA, to weigh in.

1. The effect ICD-10 implementation will have on physician practices.

Sisko:

It won’t be as bad as they think. According to Sisko, some practices will be burdened more than others with the switch to ICD-10. “But specialists only need to learn a subset [of codes],” he added. “They say ’70,000 ICD codes we’ll have to know,’ well, that’s BS because if you’re an orthopedic surgeon, there are subsets you don’t need to know; you don’t need to learn about other specialties’ codes.” He added, though, facilities will be impacted to a greater extent than professionals, due to the fact institutions have to collect, “Present on Admission and discharge diagnosis that professionals do not have to collect. They’ll have to lean on existing resources or hire external assistance.”

For the full article please go here.

High Level Of Waste In Health Spending, Says Medicare And Medicaid Boss from Medical News Today

Dr. Donald M. Berwick, head of Medicare and Medicaid until last Thursday, stated that up to 30% of spending on health is wasted with absolutely no benefit to beneficiaries (patients). He added that his agency's cumbersome and archaic regulations are partly to blame. He claims too many resources and too much time is dedicated to things that do not help patients one bit; something doctors are fully aware of too.

In an interview last Thursday, Dr. Berwick said:

"Much is done that does not help patients at all,
and many physicians know it."



During the interview, Berwick talked about the previous 17 months, while he was at the helm as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, his failures, successes and frustrations, and dealing with criticisms from Republican lawmakers.

For the full article please go here.

Physicians must learn how to put patients in the center from HealthIT.com

WHITE OAK, MD – Physicians need to learn "patient-centeredness" as one of their core medical skills so they can incorporate it into their daily practice. But many clinicians are unfamiliar with what is involved in practicing with the patient at the center of his or her care, despite it being a foundation for improved quality and new delivery models.

Some physician professional organizations are stepping up to offer teaching aids about patient-centered care.

Patient-centeredness should be a part of education in medical schools, training for residency and included within competencies for certification and re-certification, according to physician executives of professional organizations.

[See also: Patient-centered healthcare is essential healthcare.]

To be certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), physicians must demonstrate medical knowledge, patient care and procedural skills, interpersonal communication skills, professionalism, systems-based practice and practice-based quality improvement, said Eric Holmboe, MD, chief medical officer for the ABIM. Patient-centeredness fits into all these competencies.

For the full article please go here.

Medicare Offers Expanded Coverage To Battle Expanding Waistlines from Kaiser Health News

Keeping off the pounds is tough at any age. Now seniors are getting a helping hand from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which has announced that it will cover screening and counseling for obesity as a free preventive service for Medicare beneficiaries.

Coverage is effective immediately.

Advocates hope that CMS’ decision may encourage private insurers and Medicaid to begin covering obesity screening and counseling as well.

“I think it’s fantastic,” says Dr. Marijane Hynes, a primary care physician at George Washington Medical Faculty Associates Weight Loss Clinic.

For the full article please go here.

Cholesterol-Lowering Lipitor: FDA Okays First Generic Version from Medical News Today

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Wednesday that it has approved the first generic version of the world's top-selling medicine, the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), currently marketed by Pfizer Inc.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, India's largest pharmaceutical company, has gained FDA approval to make generic atorvastatin calcium tablets in 10 milligram, 20 mg, 40 mg, and 80 mg strengths. The tablets will be made by Ohm Laboratories in New Brunswick, New Jersey, says the FDA.

A statement from Raxbaxy says Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, will be marketing the generic atorvastatin in the US.

Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told the press the agency was "working very hard" to ensure patients get generic drugs as fast as the law will permit:

For the full article please go here.

Researchers Examine Role of Inflammatory Mechanisms in a Healing Heart from ScienceDaily

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have found that an inflammatory mechanism known as inflammasome may lead to more damage in the heart following injury such as a heart attack, pointing researchers toward developing more targeted strategies to block the inflammatory mechanisms involved.

Following a heart attack, an inflammatory process occurs in the heart due to the lack of oxygen and nutrients. This process helps the heart to heal, but may also promote further damage to the heart. The mechanisms by which the heart responds to injury are not fully understood, so researchers have been examining the cellular pathways involved to gain further insight.

For the full article please go here.

Patients Very Happy With Their Physicians, Especially If They Experience Short Waits And Long Consults From Medical News Today

Patients overall in the United States are very satisfied with their physicians and with treatment they receive in outpatient settings, according to new information which challenges common public perceptions about outpatient medical treatment.

"Particularly surprising is that even a lot of patients who reported average encounters with physicians, such as average national wait times and average physician encounter time, seem to be giving full marks to their physician in terms of visit satisfaction," said Rajesh Balkrishnan, lead study author and associate professor in the University of Michigan School of Public Health and College of Pharmacy.

The study analyzed data from an online survey tool*, where 14,984 patients ranked visits from 2004-2010 on a 10-point scale, with 10 being the highest. The study included only physicians with 10 or more ratings, and patients could rate a particular doctor only once every three months, to prevent skewed scores.

For the full article please go here.

Risky release Uninsured patients discharged earlier from Nurse.com

Patients without insurance have significantly shorter hospital stays than patients with insurance, raising concerns that hospitals may have incentive to release these patients earlier to reduce their own costs of uncompensated care, according to a study.

Researchers analyzed nationally representative data on a weighted sample of more than 90 million hospitalizations between 2003 and 2007 of patients ages 18 to 64. They found that across all hospital types (for-profit, nonprofit and government), the average length of stay for preventable hospitalizations — those thought to be avoidable with the use of appropriate preventive care and disease management — was significantly shorter for individuals without insurance (2.77 days) than for those with either private insurance (2.89 days) or Medicaid (3.19 days).

For patients hospitalized for other diagnoses, the average length of stay was also shorter for uninsured patients (2.74 days) than for those with private insurance (2.86) or Medicaid (3.13).

For the full article please go here.

Are electronic health records becoming common place in healthcare? From HealthIT.com

Electronic health records will become the norm, sooner than later, experts said at a summit hosted Friday by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

The bottom line, said many of the speakers at ONC's Grantee and Stakeholder Summit, is that consumers are demanding EHRs. The government is helping with adoption, but this is not nearly as influential as the healthcare consumer's pressure on providers.

National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD, said the patient is not just "a ticket holder crammed into economy."

"The patient is the copilot" with his or her healthcare provider, Mostashari said. "Increasingly, we'll hear patients, consumers, people expecting more out of their interactions with others. So we're going to see all of the pieces come together for this."

For the full article please go here.

Report: ICD-10 presents challenges, opportunities for CMS from HealthCare IT

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has its work cut out in transitioning to ICD-10. As the largest payer and the force driving the new code sets in the United States, CMS has a task at least as intimidating as anyone else when it comes to implementation.

“Given the extent to which the code set is built into many business and operating processes and systems, the size of CMS operations, and the complexity of its systems,” the challenges CMS faces are indeed formidable, according to a report published last week from the National Research Council, which CMS assigned to help it better understand how to modernize CMS’ own IT.

For the full article please go here.

6 golden rules of EMR implementation from Health Care IT News

A few months ago, we chronicled the 7 most deadly sins of EMR implementation. From ignoring nurses to declining help, these offenses can be hard to make right.

But, in an effort to help big and small practices alike avoid the most common EMR faux pas, we followed up with Rosemarie Nelson, principal of the MGMA Consulting Group, and asked for her opinion on the best practices for implementing an EMR system.

Here are Nelson’s six golden rules of EMR implementation:

For the full article please go here.

The “3-Day DRG Payment Window”

11/15/2011
The “3-Day DRG Payment Window”
Legal News Alert: Health Care


On November 1, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the final rule for the 2012 Physician Fee Schedule, to be published in the Federal Register on November 28, 2011. One of the anticipated sections of the Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule was a clarification of the application of the 3-Day DRG Payment Window for pre-admission non-diagnostic services. The 3-Day Window was long interpreted as applying to diagnostic services furnished in a hospital's provider-based departments or entities. This 3-Day Window required the bundling of all pre-admission diagnostic services furnished within three days of an inpatient admission in the inpatient claim. Medicare also required the bundling of pre-admission non-diagnostic services furnished within three days before the inpatient admission only if there was an exact match of the principal ICD-9 CM diagnosis code for the outpatient encounter and the inpatient admission.
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Nurses At the Forefront of Change

As the nation continues its historic effort to overhaul health care under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, nurses have been working quietly for the last decade to implement their own brand of reform. Nurses have been redefining and expanding their roles, championing quality of care improvements, spearheading research innovation, advocating for patient rights, and challenging the status quo..
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Mystery disease diagnosed at clinic of last resort from MSNBC

Thanks to the medical detectives at the nation’s first mystery disease clinic, Louise Benge now knows why her legs feel like they’ve turned to stone.

The 57-year-old Kentucky woman finally has an explanation for the strange disorder that began crippling her — and her four siblings — nearly three decades ago, making it hard to walk, first a few blocks, then any distance at all.

“Oh, goodness, it’s very hurtful,” said Benge, a retired food stamp clerk from Brodhead, Ky. “Our calves and legs just get as hard as rocks. Sometimes, I just have to stop, period.”

There’s still no treatment or cure for the problem, which also causes severe pain in her hands, Benge acknowledges. But at least there’s a name for the first completely new ailment discovered through the fledgling Undiagnosed Diseases Program begun in 2008 by the National Institutes of Health.

It’s ACDC, or arterial calcification due to deficiency of the protein CD73. Through extensive testing, scientists discovered a genetic glitch that allows bone-like calcium deposits to build up in the blood vessels of victims’ hands and lower limbs. They published their findings earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine.

For the full article please go here.

Medical Malpractice reform losing doctor support? from Medicaljustice.com

Michael Kirsch, M.D. – author, MD Whistleblower

With regard to physicians’ support for medical malpractice reform, the times they are a changin’. These iconic words of Bob Dylan, who has now reached the 8th decade of life, apply to the medical liability crisis that traditionally has been a unifying issue for physicians.

The New York Times reported that physicians in Maine are going soft on this issue, but I suspect this conversion is not limited to the Pine Tree State. Heretofore, it was assumed that physicians as a group loathed the medical malpractice system and demanded tort reform. The system, we argued, was unfair, arbitrary, and expensive. It missed most cases of true medical negligence. It lit the fuse that exploded the practice of defensive medicine. Rising premiums drove good doctors out of town or out of practice.

What happened? The medical malpractice system is as unfair as ever. Tort reform proposals are still regarded as experimental by the reigning Democrats in congress and in the White House. The reason that this issue has slipped in priority for physicians is because our jobs have changed. Private practice is drying up across the country for the same reasons that family owned hardware and appliance stores are vanishing. Look what has happened to independent bookstores? If you want to find one in your neighborhood, you may need to hire a private investigator. Private physician offices are being squeezed out by surrounding medical institutions that, using Ross Perot’s famous phrase uttered in the 1992 presidential campaign, have created a ‘giant sucking sound’ as it vacuums up patients from private doctors’ waiting rooms.

For the full article please go here.

ESRI names top 10 healthcare tech dangers from HealthcareIT

November 14, 2011 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA – Hazards from clinical alarms top the list of 10 technology hazards for 2012, according to the ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care.

Now in its fifth year of publication, ECRI Institute bills its annual Top 10 hazard list as a comprehensive report designed to raise awareness of the potential dangers associated with the use of medical devices and systems. Most significantly, the report includes action-oriented recommendations on addressing these risks.

The top 10 hazards on ECRI Institute’s 2012 list are:

For the full article please go here.

Making Sure Discharged Patients Stay That Way from H and HN

By Bill Santamour November 08, 2011

Nurses closely monitor medication use, reduce readmissions.

Marcy left the hospital with a lot of paper work, a container of pills and an appointment to see her physician the following month. The instructions were thorough and the discharge staff were patient and pleasant. But Marcy was still a little weak from the infection that had landed her in the hospital in the first place, and flustered by the whole experience. And, she had to admit, these days she got confused more easily than she had in the previous 83 years of her life; neither her memory nor her sight were what they used to be.

A few days later, Marcy mistakenly thought she had forgotten to take her morning medication and swallowed a day's worth all at once. The overdose nearly killed her, and she landed back in the hospital.

Her experience is not unusual, but with the renewed emphasis on improving quality of care and reducing readmissions, it has to become a lot more rare.

For the full article please go here.

10 IT challenges for physician practices in 2012 from HealthIT

By now, we know physician practices have slightly different rules when it comes to their IT, and just as their technology is different, so are the challenges they’ll face in the upcoming year.

Whether it’s meaningful use or simply finding the right personnel, 2012 promises to be chock-full of tricky IT issues for physician practices. Bob Dean, vice president of technology at ChartLogic, gives us the top 10 challenges for physician practices in the new year.

1. Choosing the right technology. According to Dean, physicians will face a significantly increased number of data reporting requirements in 2012 and 2013. "For practice leaders, the decision is not whether to purchase an EHR, but what type is right for their office," he said. “In addition to the technology, customer service will play a key role, since many small medical groups are unable to hire a full-time, or even part-time, IT staffer.” And when it comes to meaningful use requirements, Dean said providers should keep in mind they’ll have to collect vital signs during patient visits, in addition to nurses and medical assistants. “The surgeon will need to document his evaluation of the patient. So, surgeons should look for an EHR system that can speed up the data entry process through dictation or click minimization.”

For the full article please go here.

Be careful when writing a letter of recommendation From Medical Justice

Michael J. Sacopulos, Esq.

A Louisiana physician was fired for diverting Demerol from his patients and reporting to work under the influence. Upon the dismissal, a colleague wrote a letter of recommendation for the physician. The discharged physician took his glowing recommendation and found a new job thousands of miles away in Washington State.

About a year into working at this new job, the physician was caught “under the influence.” Further, he was caught after he failed to properly administer anesthesia and his patient fell into a permanent vegetative state, according to court records. The patient’s family filed a malpractice lawsuit against the physician and the medical center where the surgery took place. The case was settled with the physician paying $1 million and the medical center paying $7.5 million.

For the full article please go here.

Brain Parasite Directly Alters Brain Chemistry from science daily

ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2011) — Research shows infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10-20 per cent of the UK's population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain.

Findings from the University of Leeds research group are the first to demonstrate that a parasite found in the brain of mammals can affect dopamine levels.

Whilst the work has been carried out with rodents, lead investigator Dr Glenn McConkey of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences, believes that the findings could ultimately shed new light on treating human neurological disorders that are dopamine-related such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Parkinson's disease.

For the full article please go here.

The Case For A 'Check In' Instead Of A Checkup from NPR

by Michelle Andrews

It can't hurt to ask if that blood test is really necessary.

People who visit their primary care doctors for routine care often find themselves poked, prodded and advised in all kinds of unnecessary and unhelpful ways.

Add it all up, and the cost of the dubious tests and medical interventions runs to about $6.8 billion a year. The annual checkup, an American medical tradition, is a prime offender.

Some of the waste seems so obvious. We're talking about doctors ordering blood tests when a patient has no risk factors or symptoms of illness, for example, or prescribing a brand-name cholesterol-lowering drug without first making sure a generic won't do the job.

For the full article please go here.

Got Psoriasis? 7 Signs You Have Arthritis Too from health.com

By Amanda MacMillan

Psoriatic arthritis, a type of arthritis that affects people with the skin condition psoriasis, can attack the joints and tendons.

About 22% of people with psoriasis who have not been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis appear to have symptoms of the condition, such as joint pain, swelling, and warmth, according to a 2011 survey by the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF).

For the full article please go here.

5 top ways to attract health care employees from Health IT news

Implementing the latest health IT is a challenge in and of itself, but having a competent team makes it that much easier. Fred Pennic, senior advisor with Aspen Advisors and author of the blog Healthcare IT Consultant, suggests five ways to attract the best health IT employees.

1. Having a strong employer brand and culture. According to Pennic, top IT prospects are attracted to companies with a well-established and respected brand that also coincides with their own personal brand. "Employers must continue to establish and/or maintain a strong brand that will attract the best HIT talent,” he said.

For the full article please go here.

A Quarter of all drug plans on medicare received a poor rating from Kaiser Health News

Nationally, more than a quarter of Medicare’s rated prescription drug plans that will be available to seniors in 2012 get poor ratings from federal officials. And in the Washington metro area, 36 percent rate unacceptably low, according to an analysis of Medicare data.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is putting these plans on notice that, unless they take steps to improve their performance over the next few years, they face expulsion from Medicare.

CMS this month revised the way it rates Medicare drug plans to focus more on quality, and many plans’ ratings fell from 2011 to 2012. The criteria changed to stress clinical outcomes, such as whether a patient takes his medication the way he is supposed to, in addition to process measures, such as how long a patient is kept on hold when calling the plan. In judging 2012 plans, CMS for the first time considered whether patients kept up with medications for diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol, and it also considered complaints lodged against plans, and the numbers of people who choose to leave plans.

For the full article please go here.

Smarter Money Management in the Health Care Sector from Hospitals and Health News

By Howard Larkin

With the financial vise already tight and sure to get tighter, hospitals search for ways to survive on less.

Fiscal Fitness, cost reduction, money management, efficiency, variation, Medicare, payment, reimbursementFrom the Papal Nuncio's compound overlooking Port-au-Prince, Chris Van Gorder was struck by how beautiful the Haitian capital looked nestled by the sea. But as the president and CEO of San Diego-based Scripps Health descended into the city with his medical response team after the January 2010 earthquake, his impression shifted radically. "I had never seen such death and devastation in my life," Van Gorder recalls.

The jarring contrast between how the city appeared from above and on the ground, helped crystallize some long-developing notions Van Gorder had about his own organization. First, it threw into sharp relief the need to make health care more affordable, effective and responsive to all patients' needs. Second, it made it clear that accomplishing this would require looking at — and managing — Scripps horizontally rather than vertically.

For the full article please go here.

Premiums, deductibles and cost sharing all on the rise from Kaiser Health News

Signing up for health insurance during your company's annual enrollment period, which for many plans is right now, may feel like taking a nasty dose of medicine: You know it's good for you, but it sure doesn't go down easy.
More From This Series Insuring Your Health

On the plus side, nearly two-thirds of companies are still offering health insurance to their employees, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual survey of employer health benefits. That's worth a lot.

But that coverage won't come cheap, as premiums, deductibles and cost sharing continue to rise, sometimes even more steeply than in previous years. More employers are also moving to high-deductible plans that shift increasing expenses onto their employees, requiring them to pay more before benefits kick in. And companies are making it pricier to insure spouses and children.

For the full article please go here.

Can Coffee taken daily prevent skin cancer? From MSNBC

Drinking copious amounts of coffee may reduce the risk of the most common type of skin cancer, a new study finds.

Women in the study who drank more than three cups of coffee a day were 20 percent less likely to develop basal cell carcinoma, a slow-growing form of skin cancer, than those who drank less than one cup a month.

For the full article please go here.

Do providers need more EHR training? From HealthcareITnews.com

Yesterday we floated a question about the proper role of government in facilitating system-wide change.

A new report raises an issue on which, in our view, there’s only one good answer.

The issue is the amount of training physicians are getting with new EHR systems. The standard recommendation, apparently, is “that doctors receive three to five days of initial training to adequately use their EHRs.”

And a new survey indicates that’s not happening.

The survey data was gathered over the course of a year from more than 2,300 physicians, and there’s definitely food for policymaker thought. For the full article please go here.

"Medical Minds" by author Jerome Groopman from Kaiser Health News

Medical decisions can seem overwhelming, especially when you’re sick and scared. In their new book, "Your Medical Mind: How To Decide What Is Right For You," oncologist and New Yorker writer Jerome Groopman and his wife, endocrinologist Pamela Hartzband, team up to help readers recognize the many influences on their medical decisions and encourage them to chart their own path. They recently discussed their book with me. To read the full article please go here.

15 step game plan to reach patients via social media.

ROCHESTER, MN – A social media guide for physicians is being released Monday by Avvo at the Third Annual Health Care Social Media Summit, which kicks off at the Mayo Clinic.

Avvo, which touts itself as the world’s largest online directory for doctors and lawyers, is making its free guide, “Being Influential Online: Social Media Tactics for Physicians,” available to attendees who drop by its sponsor table at the conference. For full article please go here.

October H&HN: Fiscal Fitness for Hospitals

October H&HN: Fiscal Fitness for Hospitals

Great Video on Cost Savings for Hospitals

Can Better Patient Discharges Reduce Readmissions?

Can Better Patient Discharges Reduce Readmissions?

By Tina Spector October 03, 2011

A hospital builds a new patient discharge process around education, communication and community outreach.

Video Interview online

access here

Payers and providers need to play together to make accountable care organizations successful

The ACO Team
By David Ruppert September 29, 2011
Payers and providers need to play together to make accountable care organizations successful.


When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and private sector payers join in support of the accountable care organization, providers can expect big changes. "Thought-leading providers are glad to see a congruent and coherent message coming from both the private and public payers," said Scott Sarran, M.D., chief medical officer at Health Care Services Corp., the parent of nonprofit Blue Cross plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

For full article: access here

PCMA: PBMs Will Save Nearly $2 Trillion in Prescription Drug Costs over the Next Decade

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) will save consumers and payers almost $2 trillion in prescription drug costs - a 35 percent savings - over the next decade, according to new research from Visante. The research also indicates that another $550 billion could be saved if payers used the full array of savings-tools that PBMs offer. Full Article: click here

Personal Health Records and the Nurse Informaticist

By Thomas Piotrowski The nurse informaticist can lead the way in bringing the personal health record to the forefront of care. For more than 60 years, personal health records have been used to capture, store and aggregate information on individuals' health, helping them make health care decisions and allowing them to actively manage their own health and health records. PHRs vary significantly, but some of the more typical products include information related to diagnosis, medication, immunizations, allergies, test results and other aspects of personal health. Other, more sophisticated Web-based PHRs allow for additional services that are more interactive, such as setting appointments, refilling prescriptions and making payments. Access full article

Managed Care Forum November 2011

Managed Care Form
November 2011
Las Vegas

Link to access information: link

Video: Upside to an Uncertain Health Care Climate

The Upside to an Uncertain Health Care Climate
By Mary Grayson August 08, 2011
In today's chaotic health care world, opportunities abound.

Access Video

Rules Requiring Contraceptive Coverage Approved

Rules Requiring Contraceptive Coverage Approved

From Targeted News Service (August 1, 2011)
Link to article online: access

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 -- Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine (1st CD), issued the following news release:

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree welcomed a historic announcement today that the Obama Administration will require all new insurance policies to provide coverage for women's health care--including well-woman visits, breastfeeding support, domestic violence screening, and contraception--without charging a co-payment, co-insurance or a deductible.

"Out-of pocket expenses have been on the increase and basic health care services like birth control or check-ups have become unaffordable for a lot of women," Pingree said. "Giving all women access to these services allows them to take charge of their own health care."

Last summer, Pingree wrote to the Obama Administration to recommend full coverage for contraceptive services and basic health care screenings.

The guidelines will ensure women have access to a full range of recommended preventive services without cost sharing, including:

* well-woman visits;

* screening for diabetes;

* human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing for women 30 years and older;

* sexually-transmitted infection counseling;

* HIV screening and counseling;

* FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive counseling;

* breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling; and

* domestic violence screening and counseling.

Under the health care reform law passed last year, the Obama Administration had to decide what services should be classified as "preventive." The health care reform law requires preventive procedures be covered without co-pay in all new insurance policies. The Administration's decision today followed the recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an independent, non-profit organization affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences.

New health plans will need to include these services without cost sharing for insurance policies with plan years beginning on or after August 1, 2012.

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News: Health Care Reform

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati has ruled in favor of the Obama administration, saying a key provision in the sweeping health care reform bill passed last year was constitutional. The "individual mandate" requiring nearly all Americans purchase health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties was challenged in federal courts. The judge panel ruled the requirement was constitutional.
See: CNN.com for more info

Reducing Costs and Improving Patient Outcomes in COPD

Excellent article for Case Managers !

Access full info: click here

Managed Care Survey

THE MANAGED CARE EXECUTIVE GROUP: THE TOP ISSUES FACING HEALTH PLAN IN 2011.

The TOP 10 issues for health plans in 2011 according to the Managed Care Executive Group: 1. Administrative Mandates (Compliance HIPAA 5010, ICD-10, etc.); 2. Care Management, Data Analytics, and Informatics; 3. Health Insurance Exchanges and Individual Markets; 4. New Provider Payment & Delivery Systems (ACOs, PCMHs, etc.); 5. Bend the Cost Trend; 6. Medicare and Medicaid; 7. Health Information Exchanges and EMRs; 8. Consumer's Role in the Modernization of Healthcare; 9. Reform Uncertainties; 10. Payer/Provider Interoperability. (Government Health IT, April 6, 2011)


Marco Colosi, Jr., MBA

President

NSI Nursing Solutions, Inc.

(717) 471-7404

FDA Approves vaccine Zostavax

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the use of Zostavax (product,search), a live attenuated virus vaccine, for the prevention of shingles in individuals 50 to 59 years of age. Zostavax is already approved for use in individuals 60 years of age and older (see also Vaccines).

In the United States shingles affects approximately 200,000 healthy people between the ages of 50 and 59, per year. It is a disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is a virus in the herpes family and the same virus that causes chickenpox. After an attack of chickenpox, the virus lies dormant in certain nerves in the body. For reasons that are not fully understood, the virus can reappear in the form of shingles, more commonly in people with weakened immune systems and with aging.

"The likelihood of shingles increases with age. The availability of Zostavax to a younger age group provides an additional opportunity to prevent this often painful and debilitating disease," said Karen Midthun, M.D., director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Shingles is characterized by a rash of blisters, which generally develop in a band on one side of the body and can cause severe pain that may last for weeks, and in some people, for months or years after the episode.

Approval was based on a multicenter study conducted in the United States and four other countries in approximately 22,000 people who were 50-59 years of age. Half received Zostavax and half received a placebo. Study participants were then monitored for at least one year to see if they developed shingles. Compared with placebo, Zostavax reduced the risk of developing shingles by approximately 70 percent.

The most common side effects observed in the study were redness, pain and swelling at the site of injection, and headache.

Zostavax was originally approved on May 26, 2006, for the prevention of shingles in individuals 60 years of age and older.

Zostavax is manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

New Job Posting

NEW TODAY!



Manager of Care Management

Seattle, WA



The Manager of Care Management is a full time position, responsible for assisting the Director of Medical Care Management in the day to day management of operational, clinical and functional support for the following programs:


Enhanced Concurrent Review - Medical Utilization Management, The Manager supervises staff in multiple locations including remote or telecommuter staff.. Responsibility for hiring, coaching and completion of performance evaluations. Assists with policy and procedures, accreditation and regulatory standards. Offers input and works with the appropriate departments to support
the development and launch of new and existing programs, reporting and/or technology; Works with our internal and external clients to deliver quality products and provide excellent customer service.


Education/License/Certification


Licensed RN with current, unrestricted license required
Bachelor's degree preferred in a health science


Experience


Two-three years clinical experience in care management or acute hospital discharge planning required.
Three years full-time direct clinical or critical care to patients in a medical/surgical setting.
5 years experience in Triage or Utilization Management or Case Management, and/or other managed care or cost management program.
At least 5 years Call Center Management experience preferred.
Experience with application of healthcare criteria systems and programs, e.g. Triage, InterQual, Milliman, CMS.
Must have previous experience with URAC and or NCQA accreditation process.


Knowledge/Skills


Ability to manage and coordinate programs, projects, resources, and staff across multiple company functions;
Strong administrative qualities to analyze goals, products, programs, and processes and make recommendations for changes;
Knowledge of all aspects of the following managed care products: utilization management, case management, disease management and triage;
Organizational and project management skills;
Experience working with clinical documentation programs designed for case management, disease management, utilization management and triage programs;
Strong computer skills and experience with Microsoft Office;
Strong communication, interpersonal and leadership skills.


Job Performance/Responsibilities


Coordinates and manages all Medical Utilization Management, Case Management, and Nurse Triage programs.
Assure job descriptions and staff roles/responsibilities are accurate and current
Responsible for supervision and oversight of staff
Supervise the interviewing and hiring of staff and supervisors for the above programs;
Assist in the licensing and accreditation process for all programs;
Assure that all regulatory and accreditation standards are implemented and met;
Assure that Policies & Procedures, Operational Guidelines, and process workflows are current meet quality accreditation and regulatory standards, and are communicated to and available for staff on the IntraNet;
Develop annual Workplan & Evaluation for each program in conjunction with the QI committee (includes goals, objectives, and planned new processes/enhancements) and communicates the Annual Workplan and previous year's Summary to Senior Management and staff;
Assist the Quality department in the development and evaluation of an annual QI plan for all programs and assures all indicators are met;
Participate in the Quality Committee and assists in related functions;
Analyze all programs to ensure effectiveness, quality, productivity, profitability and patient safety;
Coordinate all programs and work with other Health Integrated Departments and Committees, i.e. Quality Committee, Education, Account Management, etc;
Assist in new product development efforts and assures current products are being delivered as designed;
Assist the Director in plans for growth;
Provide input and direction to Information Services on systems issues and enhancements;
Offer input and assist with development of orientation, education and training programs
Assure delivery expectations of client contracts are being met;
Assist in the development of management reporting capabilities and works with supervisors to ensure they understand and use them to effectively manage the delivery of services; and provide required reports and special projects as needed.
Ensure clinical staff consult and seek advice from a licensed physician with expertise appropriate to the types of services being managed


Please direct all inquiries to David Mara at (804) 402-8088 or e-mail at dmara@nexushc.com. For more information about Nexus Healthcare go to www.nexushc.com

Doctors, nurses focus on caring for patients despite their losses

An interesting story on the grief that health care providers often cope with.

Access here

Diabetes Management

NIH Announces New Strategic Plan to Combat Diabetes

From the PharmaLive.com News Archive (March 18, 2011)

Multiple stakeholders tapped to develop roadmap for preventing, treating and finding a cure

A new strategic plan to guide diabetes-related research over the next decade was announced today by the National Institutes of Health. The plan, developed by a federal work group led by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), identifies research opportunities with the greatest potential to benefit the millions of Americans who are living with or at risk for diabetes and its complications.

"By setting priorities and identifying the most compelling research opportunities, the strategic plan will guide NIH, other federal agencies and the investigative community in efforts to improve diabetes treatments and identify ways to keep more people healthy," said NIDDK Director Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D.

The plan, Advances and Emerging Opportunities in Diabetes Research: A Strategic Planning Report of the Diabetes Mellitus Interagency Coordinating Committee, focuses on 10 areas of diabetes research with the most promise. The goal is to accelerate discovery on several fronts, including:

-- the relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes, and how both conditions may be affected by genetics and environment -- the autoimmune mechanisms at work in type 1 diabetes -- the biology of beta cells, which release insulin in the pancreas -- development of artificial pancreas technologies to improve management of blood sugar levels -- prevention of complications of diabetes that affect the heart, eyes, kidneys, nervous system and other organs -- reduction of the impact of diabetes on groups disproportionately affected by the disease, including the elderly and racial and ethnic minorities

Under the plan, NIH will continue to emphasize clinical research in humans, which already has led to highly effective methods for managing diabetes and preventing complications, Rodgers said.

The NIH strategy for fighting diabetes addresses type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, which affects about 5 percent of individuals with diagnosed diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that most often develops during childhood. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of diagnosed diabetes cases in the United States, and is strongly associated with overweight and obesity. In addition, the plan addresses gestational diabetes, a condition that some women develop during pregnancy, but which usually goes away after their child is born. Women who develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, and the child of that pregnancy may also be at increased risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Today, about 1 in 10 adults in the United States has diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1.9 million Americans aged 20 years or older were newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2010. In addition, an estimated 79 million American adults have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. By 2050, as many as 1 in 3 adults could be diagnosed with diabetes if current trends continue, according to the CDC. The projection assumes that recent increases in new cases of diabetes will continue and people with diabetes will also live longer, which adds to the total number of people with the disease.

Diabetes eventually damages nearly every organ system in the body. People with diabetes are at increased risk for blindness, kidney failure, and lower limb amputation. Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people of similar age without diabetes. In addition, it is a very expensive disease to manage. Total costs of diabetes, including medical care, disability, and premature death, reached an estimated $174 billion in 2007 in the United States.

The plan was developed by the Diabetes Mellitus Interagency Coordinating Committee (DMICC) (http://www2.niddk.nih.gov/AboutNIDDK/CommitteesAndWorkingGroups/DMICC/), a congressionally authorized workgroup chaired by the NIDDK. Established in 1974, the DMICC facilitates cooperation, communication, and collaboration on diabetes research across the federal government. Key elements of the report were identified by multiple public and private stakeholders, including representatives of DMICC member agencies, health advocacy groups and external scientists who are leaders in the diabetes research field. To ensure broad input, a draft of the strategic plan was also posted for public comment prior to publication. The strategic plan is available electronically at <http://diabetesplan.niddk.nih.gov/>. Printed copies can be requested from the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse beginning April 1, 2011, at 1-800-860-8747 and by email at <ndic@info.niddk.nih.gov>. Single copies are free.

The NIDDK, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducts and supports research on diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, nutrition and obesity; and kidney, urologic and hematologic diseases. Spanning the full spectrum of medicine and afflicting people of all ages and ethnic groups, these diseases encompass some of the most common, severe and disabling conditions affecting Americans. For more information about the NIDDK and its programs, see <www.niddk.nih.gov>.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.

CONTACT: Rita Zeidner, 301-496-3583, NIDDKMedia@mail.nih.gov

Spring Managed Care Forum

Check out: upcoming Spring Managed Care Forum

Managed Care Forum

Welcome to our Blog

Welcome to the Blog of the American Academy of Case Management. All of our certified members, students and all health care professionals are invited to join our "blog" community. Please feel free to begin conversations related to the subjects of Case Management and Managed Health Care. We also welcome notices of events, seminars, new books, and any and all information relevant to professional Case Management practice. This blog is monitored by a moderator. Thank you for joining!

Sincerely,
Dominick L. Flarey, Ph.D, MBA, RN-BC, FACHE
Executive Director