Tag Archives: Health System

Hospitals add $2.8 trillion to US economy, AHA report says

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http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/hospitals-add-28-trillion-us-economy-aha-report-says

American Hospital Association estimates that each hospital job supports about two additional jobs.

Hospitals support 16 million total jobs, or one in nine jobs in the United States, according to an annual survey from the American Hospital Association. They also support more than $2.8 trillion in economic activity.

Those numbers don’t reflect direct hospital employment, but rather the “ripple effect” the AHA said hospitals exert across the broader economy. Directly, hospitals employ about 5.7 million people. That’s good enough to make them one of the top sources of private sector jobs, according to the AHA.

The group calculated the ripple effect by factoring in the $852 billion that hospitals spend on goods and services from other businesses. The AHA estimates that each hospital job supports about two additional jobs, and every dollar spent by a hospital supports roughly $2.30 of additional business activity.

According to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare added more than 35,000 jobs per month in 2016. In 2015, hospitals treated 142 million people in their emergency departments, provided 581 million outpatient visits, performed close to 27 million surgeries and delivered nearly 4 million babies, the AHA said.

The healthcare industry added about 18,300 jobs last month.

Debunking the Argument that the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Program (BPCI) Contributed to Higher Procedure Volumes

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Click to access BPCI_Report_Final_0.pdf

Debunking the Argument that the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Program (BPCI) Contributed to Higher Procedure VolumesDebunking the Argument that the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Program (BPCI) Contributed to Higher Procedure Volumes

A recent study linked Medicare’s Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) focusing on lower extremity joint replacements to lower costs of care. An accompanying editorial disputed the findings claiming that a reported rise in the volume of procedures between baseline and performance years for the intervention cohort, relative to a comparison group, indicated that total spend may have increased instead of decreasing.

Our analysis of Medicare fee-for-service data from 2010 through 2015 by hospital, for all lower extremity joint replacements in the entire United States, indicates no evidence that participation in the BPCI was responsible for any increase in the volume of procedures between baseline and performance years, thus reaffirming the original paper’s findings. We also find that trends in regional demographic and market characteristics explain the change in volume over time.

 

4 Specific Areas of Focus and Responsibility

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http://blog.americashealthcareleaders.com/mark-solazzo-4-specific-areas-of-focus-and-responsibility/?utm_source=AHL+Blog+Subscribers&utm_campaign=de789c1dad-AHL_ESSENTIAL_RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_aab606a0e1-de789c1dad-117304501

Every organization has vision, which requires focus in order to achieve. The focused pursuit of vision is what truly sets apart a successful organization from another. In today’s featured segment, Mark Solazzo, EVP & COO of Northwell Health, discusses his focused pursuit of Northwell’s vision and mission.

According to the bio referenced in this clip, Mark Solazzo is “responsible for integrating the strategic plan of the organization through its operations and maintaining an organizational culture that recognizes the importance of strategic change leadership, excellence in execution, accountability and the ongoing commitment to long-term growth and innovation.”

In reference to this, Dan Nielsen asks Solazzo:

“What are the actions that you take or the decisions that you make to make sure that those are embedded in your organization on a daily basis?”

Solazzo answers by discussing how strategic change leadership and long-term growth and innovation go hand in hand. “It starts with the team you select.”  Solazzo emphasizes the importance of picking a diverse team and then trusting them to get the job done.

In regard to “excellence in execution and accountability,” Solazzo states: “We have a very well-developed system of metrics and accountability reporting.” This is system wide and monitored closely.

To view the full segment and hear the rest of Solazzo’s response, click below.

Counsel’s Corner: President Trump, Potential Conflicts and Health System Boards

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https://www.bna.com/counsels-corner-president-n57982083221/?utm_campaign=LEGAL_NWSLTR_Health+Care+Update_020317&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elqTrackId=0fe48d4501e044f0a1358b0e9518ca3d&elq=257cee302d8f4e8cae5761612eb6e82b&elqaid=7556&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=4506

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Political biases aside, the transition process for the new administration—both as to President Donald Trump and his Cabinet nominees and White House advisers—does a great service for nonprofit health systems by highlighting critical conflict-of-interest concerns. The last several weeks’ headlines provide health system general counsel with a rare opportunity to offer practical board education based on current events.

The president’s personal asset divestiture plan, announced on Jan. 11, along with the broader public scrutiny of key administration members’ business interests, present an important teaching moment on identifying, resolving and managing conflict-of-interest issues. And that’s a subject on which many health system boards could use continuing guidance, given the strictures of the duty of loyalty.

Neither the particulars of the administration’s potential conflict issues nor the details or adequacy of the president’s divestiture plan needs to be addressed here. Instead, the issues themselves provide something of a checklist that can help health system boards ensure their internal conflict-of-interest policies and processes are as fulsome as possible. Strong conflict-of-interest inquiries are critical to protect the reputation of the organization and its board members, and to sustain key business arrangements.

It is important to note that the rapid growth of health systems, the equally rapid diversification of their businesses and investment portfolios, and the expanding diversity of board members’ backgrounds in board membership significantly complicate the conflict-of-interest review process.

The “Trump Transition” conflicts checklist logically could include the following:

CONCLUSION

The landscape that encompasses the totality of the president’s family business interests and those of his Cabinet appointees—and their relationship to the ethics of government—is many layered. It nevertheless offers certain valuable analogies for the health system board—for which the duty of loyalty is sacrosanct. It isn’t all that great a leap to go from Trump’s transition issues to the conflict-of-interest policies of a nonprofit health system board. And it should be noted that the breadth of scrutiny of transition-related conflicts of interest likely hasn’t gone unnoticed by health-care industry regulators, including but not limited to state charity officials. Regulators may be far more likely than before to apply greater sensitivity to issues and relationships that may present conflict issues and their broader legal implications.

1K docs, nurses urge Cleveland Clinic to cancel fundraiser at Trump resort

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http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/healthcare/1k-docs-nurses-urge-cleveland-clinic-to-cancel-fundraiser-at-trump-resort?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&mrkid=959610&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWm1NMVpqTmpZbVpqWldFMSIsInQiOiJVZEpvenlWYkp2QW40NE1uNnZUWlZNcWhicE1sWEZrRmd5SVwvZGx0M3hGTUNpVWN3cFwvWnNCMlpoQ25ycTlUMnhnQ0ZGWmcyem5ZdXZ1SzhsMHB3MWU2TlNuQzJkbDNjNDlTbkNVdWN2Z0wyOXB6M1NnU1MwSUs3SFR4b3ptRXlxIn0%3D

Photo: Inside the Mar-a-Lago, courtesy of The Mar-a-Lago Club website.

More than 1,100 doctors, nurses and medical students are urging the Cleveland Clinic to cancel an annual fundraiser planned at a resort owned by President Donald Trump in the wake of his executive order on immigration.

Over the last three days, 1,141 medical professionals have signed an open letter to Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Toby Cosgrove asking him to cut the perceived ties to Trump in light of the executive order that led to a first-year internal medicine resident at the organization being detained and forced to return to Saudi Arabia because her visa was issued in Sudan, one of the countries on Trump’s list

Suha Abushamma, M.D., has sued the Trump administration, CNBC reports, and a federal judge has ordered the White House to explain why she shouldn’t be allowed to return to the United States.

The ban also had a direct impact on nine patients scheduled to receive care at the Cleveland Clinic over the next 90 days.

Many of the medical professionals who signed the letter are students at Case Western Reserve University, which runs the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

The letter asks Cosgrove to:

  • Reschedule the lavish fundraiser planned at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida
  • Release a public statement that condemns the immigration ban
  • Pledge to use his power to protect Cleveland Clinic employees from deportation and allow patients to continue to receive care
  • Emphasize that Cleveland Clinic values diversity and relies on immigrants to provide medical care

DOJ charges ex-Tenet Healthcare exec with role in $400M fraud scheme

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http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/healthcare/doj-charges-ex-tenet-healthcare-exec-role-400m-fraud-scheme

DOJ

Six months after Tenet Healthcare reached an agreement to pay $514 million in penalties for an alleged kickback scheme, one of its former executives has been indicted for his part in the plan to pay bribes for patient referrals.

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has indicted John Holland, 60, of Dallas in his role in a $400 million scheme to defraud the government, Georgia and South Carolina Medicaid Programs, and prospective patients of Tenet hospitals.

Holland, the former senior vice president of operations for Tenet Healthcare Corporation’s Southern States Region and the former chief executive officer of North Fulton Medical Center Inc. in Roswell, Georgia, was charged with mail fraud, healthcare fraud and major fraud against the United States.

The indictment alleges Holland was involved in a scheme to pay bribes for patient referrals. which helped Tenet bill the Georgia and South Carolina Medicaid Programs more than $400 million and obtain more than $149 million in Medicaid and Medicare payments based on those patient referrals.

The scheme began in 2000, according to the indictment,  when Holland circumvented internal accounting controls and falsified Tenet’s books, records and reports to conceal payments of bribes and kickbacks in return for the referral of patients to North Fulton Medical Center Inc. and other Tenet hospitals, including Atlanta Medical Center Inc., Spalding Regional Medical Center Inc. and Hilton Head Hospital.

Holland pled not guilty to the charges during a court hearing, Reuters reported. His lawyer, Richard Deane, said Tenet’s agreement in August to settle criminal charges and civil claims, should have resolved this issue.

“Mr. Holland is not guilty and we now look forward to presenting this case to a jury,” Deane said in a statement to Reuters.

But Acting Assistant Attorney General Blanco said in a statement from the DOJ that “these charges underscore our continued commitment to holding both individuals and corporations accountable for their fraudulent conduct.“We will follow the evidence where it takes us, including to the corporate executive ranks.”

Hospital leaders support keeping many elements of ACA

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http://www.revenuecycleinsights.com/news/hospital-leaders-support-keeping-many-elements-aca?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWWpCaU1USXhZbVEzWkRCaiIsInQiOiJURzlCeG5tb05KNjN5QU9UMGIrVFBoZkxiS3Q2WHdPZDZRNXJ0TFQzemdXdVwvS3pPa3UrcWNOQTVxanpaVW5mMFFoUzk4OXc0ejg2dSs2SkRGWHErZDlqUjlhd1dTQit3c2VBaXdGSDdPK1IzQXEwdWNNaWt6YjFRQ2xyR3JZNloifQ%3D%3D

An overwhelming majority of hospital C-suite and pharmacy executives support preserving the protections in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for patients with preexisting conditions, according to a post-election survey.

Member-based healthcare performance improvement company Vizient conducted the survey to assess how member hospitals were reacting to the planned repeal of the ACA by the Trump administration and Republican leaders in Congress. Vizient also asked executives about their top concerns for the future as well as their priorities for 2017.

Nearly 90 percent of C-suite leaders (89.5 percent) and 96 percent of hospital pharmacy executives surveyed said the ACA’s protections for patients with preexisting conditions should be kept in place.

Other findings from the survey show:

  • 68 percent of hospital C-suite leaders and 35 percent of hospital pharmacy executives want to keep incentives for expanding Medicaid coverage
  • 56 percent of hospital executives and 46 percent of hospital pharmacy leaders want to continue subsidies to help consumers pay for insurance
  • 52 percent of hospital C-suite leaders and 39 percent of pharmacy executives want to continue value-based reimbursements.

The top three priorities for all executives this year were 1) reducing clinical variation across care delivery 2) migrating toward value-based models, and 3) the integration of existing technology systems, Vizient said.

“In reviewing the survey results, central themes come through: uncertainty and concerns about financial viability,” Byron Jobe, president and chief administrative officer for Vizient, said in a statement. “There are many open questions about the future of the ACA, and what a repeal and replacement strategy could look like. As Congress wrestles with these decisions, it’s important to ensure reimbursement levels are enough to allow hospitals to continue their mission of caring for patients in their communities. Equally important, hospitals must quickly gain a clear understanding of where health policy is heading so they can begin to prepare.”

Senate committee advances Price nomination without Dems present

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In an unprecedented, dramatic step, the Senate Finance Committee this morning suspended its rules and voted without Democrats present to send Tom Price’s nomination as head of the Department of Health and Human Services to the Senate floor.

The quickly scheduled meeting today took place less than 24 hours after Democrats managed to postpone a planned vote by boycotting the meeting. Under the committee rules, 13 members—including at least one Democrat—must be present for the vote.

Republicans were furious, calling the boycott “amazingly stupid” and “pathetic.” But Democrats said they wanted more information before they vote in light of a new report this week in The Wall Street Journal that Price received a special discounted offer to buy stock in a biomedical company, which contradicted his testimony during congressional hearings.

Rep. Price, R-Ga., an orthopedic surgeon, has served as a member of the House of Representatives for seven terms. But despite his ties to Congress and his medical background, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead HHS has been controversial from the beginning due to Price’s support for dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

But Democrats also raised ethical and conflict-of-interest concerns over reports of insider trading and purchase of thousands of dollars in stock in healthcare, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies while sponsoring legislation that could have influenced those companies’ shares.

The Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), said in a prepared statement Tuesday following the boycott that he “asked Congressman Price directly if he got an exclusive discount on stock in an Australian biomedical firm, and he said no. From the committee’s investigation to company documents to the company officials’ own words, the evidence tells a different story. It looks more and more like Congressman Price got special access to a special deal.”

Asking the Right Questions: Why Healthcare Predictive Analytics Often Don’t Predict Anything Meaningful at All.

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/asking-right-questions-why-healthcare-predictive-dont-cousins-phd?trk=v-feed&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BgC0bModjFFl7I4auAFAWBQ%3D%3D

Healthcare organizations collectively waste billions of dollars every year by focusing on the wrong problem to solve. This isn’t unique to healthcare, of course. A recent, must-read article in Harvard Business Review, “Are You Solving the Right Problems” by Thomas Wedell explains how organizations that are good at problem solving often focus on the wrong ones to solve. It’s often human nature.

Healthcare analytics offers a particularly good example. Today, health plans, hospital systems, post-acute care companies and other provider organizations are keenly focused on identifying those patients who are at highest risk of adverse events, such as readmissions and post op complications. They then invest precious resources trying to reduce that risk through home visits, additional pre-op or post-operative care, and so on.

Yet, despite the apparent logic, according to our research, 50% or more of patients identified as high risk cannot be impacted by the interventions provided to reduce that risk.

Yet, despite the apparent logic, according to our research, 50% or more of patients identified as high risk cannot be impacted by the interventions provided to reduce that risk.

On the face of it, this seems like a logical approach to improving care and reducing costs. Yet, despite the apparent logic, according to our research, 50% or more of patients identified as high risk cannot be impacted by the interventions provided to reduce that risk. In some cases, they can’t be impacted at all. Our research is consistent with that conducted by others, including a randomized controlled study of telephone care management and study on nurse-led home-based intervention. In short, a lot of the money spent trying to avoid adverse events is wasted.

https://hbr.org/2017/01/are-you-solving-the-right-problems