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Tag Archives: Health System
Marin hospital could be first in state to allow medical marijuana
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Marin-hospital-could-be-first-in-state-to-allow-9216208.php
If Dr. Larry Bedard has his way, Marin General Hospital would become the first acute-care medical center in California to allow patients to openly consume medical marijuana in the hospital.
Patients wouldn’t be allowed to smoke it, since smoking is prohibited. But Bedard, a retired emergency physician at Marin General who now serves on the Marin Healthcare District board, says he knows of no other legally prescribed drug that cannot openly be used by patients in a hospital.
“I know that it happens that it’s being used in the hospital, but it’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Bedard said. “It’s kind of wink-and-nod medicine.”
The doctor is taking steps toward bringing it out into the open by introducing a resolution at Tuesday’s board meeting for Marin Healthcare District, which governs Marin General. The resolution, if approved, would direct the hospital’s administrative and medical staff to review and research the clinical and legal implications of using medical marijuana in the hospital and report back to the board.
Bedard initially planned to introduce a resolution to allow patient use in the hospital but stepped back from that last month after the Drug Enforcement Agency declined to remove marijuana from its list of dangerous drugs, keeping it in the same category as such drugs as heroin and LSD.
One of the Biggest Challenges Workers Face While On the Job? Caregiving at Home
Two out of every five adults are the family caregiver of a loved one – that is tens of millions of family caregivers across the country. You probably know someone who is caring for an elderly mother with Alzheimer’s, or a child with autism, or a partner with cancer. You might be a family caregiver yourself.
What might surprise you, though, is that most of the people who are caring for someone at home are also working a full- or part-time job. In fact, most family caregivers (62%) are between the principal working ages of 25 and 54. Workers who are family caregivers are as common as workers with brown eyes.
They do not have it easy. Caregiving takes a toll on their jobs and their livelihoods. In fact, a majority of caregivers (52%) feel their career is negatively impacted by their caregiving situation. Studies show that this belief is justified – the impact of caregiving on the lives of caregivers is very real.
CBO’s Analysis of Financial Pressures Facing Hospitals Identifies Need for Additional Research on Hospitals’ Productivity and Responses
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/51920
Key Findings and Limitations of This Analysis
Our analysis of hospitals’ profit margins incorporates the effects of the cuts in Medicare’s hospital payment updates specified in the ACA, other reductions in federal payments to hospitals specified in the ACA and in other recent laws, and demographic changes (which will put downward pressure on hospitals’ margins as more patients shift from higher-paying commercial insurance to lower-paying Medicare coverage). The analysis also incorporates the effects of the expansion of insurance coverage under the ACA, which will improve hospitals’ finances by reducing the number of patients who are uninsured. The analysis focuses on about 3,000 hospitals that provide acute care to the general population and are subject to the reductions in Medicare’s payment updates; it thus excludes most rural hospitals and all of Medicare’s “critical access” hospitals.
As a starting point, we estimated that the average profit margin of the hospitals included in the analysis was 6.0 percent in 2011 and that 27 percent of them had negative profit margins (in other words, they lost money) in that year. That share may be surprisingly high but is similar to the shares of hospitals with a negative annual profit margin over the past two decades. Although some hospitals have closed over that period, others have opened, overall access to care remains good (as measured by indicators such as service use and hospital capacity), and the quality of care may have improved.
Value-based Care is Ripping Into Health System Profits
Large health systems and hospital operators are reporting falling profits, revenue, income, and share value. The promise of population health management may eventually restore financial order, says one industry expert.
How a bite from a stray dog shows the sick state of U.S. healthcare
Jan Kern was bitten by a stray dog while traveling abroad and ended up with a jaw-dropping illustration of why the U.S. healthcare industry is completely sick.
That’s because she underwent a series of rabies shots in three countries at four medical facilities. What that revealed, and which will surprise no one, is that Americans pay way more for the exact same treatment than people in other nations.
Moreover, her experience highlights the lack of uniformity for drug prices, including commonly used medications. One facility might charge a few bucks for the same drug that costs thousands of dollars at a U.S. hospital.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to our medical system,” said Rick Kern, 61, who contacted me about his 62-year-old wife’s global healthcare adventure after reading my recent column on drug prices.
What’s great about his story as well is that, after I shared it with about a dozen healthcare experts, the consistent reaction was one of utter disbelief. We’re accustomed to shaking our heads at U.S. healthcare costs. Things become significantly more absurd when a couple of overseas medical facilities are stirred into the mix.
“It’s obvious that our system is unlike any other health system,” said Uwe Reinhardt, a healthcare economist at Princeton University. “Other systems were set up to care for patients. Ours was set up by the providers — the hospitals and drug companies — for their own benefit.”
Surge in hospital-owned physician practices poised to increase healthcare costs
- Independent physicians and physician-owned practices could soon become a rare breed, suggests a new analysis by Avalere Health and the Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI) released Wednesday.
- The study found the percentage of physicians employed by hospitals or health systems rose 86% from 2012 to 2015, from 95,000 to more than 140,000.
- As of mid-2015, 38% of all U.S. physicians were employed by hospitals and health systems, findings show.
- Also from 2012 through 2015, hospitals acquired 31,000 physician practices, resulting in one in four medical practices being hospital-owned.
How some providers are stoking entrepreneurial fires to ensure healthy financials
In an era of falling inpatient rates and value-based reimbursement, hospitals and health systems are seeking new ways to grow their revenue streams. For some, that has meant wearing an entrepreneurial hat and marketing home-grown solutions.
One example is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which two years ago created UPMC Enterprises to develop and commercialize novel technologies.
Cleveland Clinic details hits to operating margin
http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/cleveland-clinic-details-hits-to-operating-margin/425703/
- The Cleveland Clinic’s latest financials show the hospital system ended the first half of 2016 with a significantly lower operating margin than at the same time in 2015, landing at 1.2% after the six-month period that ended June 30, 2016 vs. 5.6% in June 2015.
- Although the system’s revenue went up 17% during this period compared to last year, reaching $3.93 billion, that revenue failed to keep pace with a 23% increase in expenses.
- The system had anticipated a smaller margin this year, Cleveland Clinic chief financial officer Steve Glasstold Modern Healthcare, partly as a result of increased investments in new care-delivery models and consultants to manage those projects, as well as providing raises to medical and other employees to retain in-demand clinicians.
Is the CQO Position Needed?
HENRY KOTULA 