Washington Healthcare News Archive of Prior Editions
New! April 2010 Edition: Northwest Health Insurers Report Profits in 2009
Northwest health insurance companies continued their profitable ways in 2009 despite the region's difficult economic conditions. Year-end membership for the six largest companies decreased, and underwriting gains, the profit an insurance company makes on business aside from investments, income taxes and other non-operations related revenues and expenses, were lower at 19 of the 24 companies reviewed. Net income increased as investment gains offset the reduction in underwriting gains. Total adjusted capital, or net worth with adjustments for insurance industry accounting rules, increased considerably due mainly to investment gains.
Read the complete newsletter...
March 2010 Edition: Board Governance: The Fun is Just Beginning
The start of a new decade brings a number of challenges to hospitals and their governing boards. In addition to the numerous issues now facing governing bodies, 2010 will include a greater focus on board governance, including, for starters, the possible implementation of healthcare reform, increased oversight of patient safety and quality of care, and the prevention of fraud and abuse. Hospital governing boards are up to the challenge.
Read the complete newsletter...
February 2010 Edition: Lean in 2010: Are Healthcare Systems There Yet?
Best known as the driving force beyond car manufacturer Toyota’s success, Lean production practices “consider the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.” (Wikipedia) In healthcare organizations, using a car manufacturer’s method, however successful, to address operational issues may have once seemed like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. That’s no longer the case.
Read the complete newsletter...
January 2010 Edition: It Takes a Physician: Achieving the Value Equation in Healthcare
In July 2009, I had the honor to represent The Everett Clinic in Washington D.C. at a symposium sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement titled “How Do They Do That? Low-Cost, High-Quality Health Care in America.” Dave Brooks, CEO of Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, and Rich Maturi, Senior Vice President of Healthcare Delivery Services at Premera Blue Cross, joined me at the conference to represent Everett, which was selected as one of 10 communities across the country identified as providing relatively low cost and high quality care.
Read the complete newsletter...
December 2009 Edition: State Medicaid Rate Cuts: Legal Challenges and Possible Solutions.
The largest recession in recent history has forced many states to drastically cut payments for health care services provided to Medicaid enrollees. Medicaid, which provides coverage to indigent patients, is a jointly funded state/federal program in which the federal government matches a percentage of the funds expended by a state on Medicaid services.
Read the complete newsletter...
November 2009 Edition: HITECH Health Reform
Health IT Funding, HIPAA 2.0 and the Impact of the HITECH Act
While the debate heats up again in Washington D.C. over healthcare reform, those tracking developments in the health information technology space know that an initial wave of health reform arrived back in February. When President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ("HITECH") Act provisions, the administration scored an initial victory in its efforts to reform the U.S. healthcare system.
Read the complete newsletter...
October 2009 Edition: Community Health Centers: Vital to Healthcare's Present and Future
"For every one percent increase in unemployment, more than one million people lose their health insurance and another million enroll in Medicaid and SCHIP." The final statement of the National Association of Community Health Center's (NACHC) one-page summary on the economic stimulus probably should be the first. If more people could truly absorb that, perhaps the concept of healthcare reform wouldn't be so controversial.
Read the complete newsletter...
September 2009 Edition: Patient Safety: Demand for Change in Anatomic Pathology
Today, more than ever, health care providers are facing increased demands to control costs and address patient safety issues. One attractive area for all medical specialties is to reduce errors. Published data indicate that laboratory services, while consuming about 10% of the health care budget, drive 60% to 70% of health care decisions. In no area is this more apparent than Anatomic Pathology, where patients experience surgery, radiation, chemotherapeutic and other treatments - all critically dependent on the accuracy of pathologic diagnosis.
Read the complete newsletter...
August 2009 Edition: Human Resources in the New World - Globalization, Technology and Outsourcing
"Never in the field of human endeavor was so much owed by so many to so few," was directed to the Royal Air Force as they fought in the skies over the English Channel during WWII. Winston Churchill did not have human resource professionals in mind when he said it. But the quote did pop to mind as I read through another study suggesting an erosion of the HR to employee ratio.
Read the complete newsletter...
July 2009 Edition: Certificate of Need Strategy
Lessons Learned from Recent Washington Court Cases
Washington courts have recently issued several significant decisions relating to the state's Certificate of Need (CN) laws. Collectively, these decisions illustrate that a CN applicant must fully understand each step of the CN process, and how each step relates to the others, in order to adopt the correct strategies, avoid procedural pitfalls, and maximize the likelihood that its application will be granted and survive legal challenges.
Read the complete newsletter...
June 2009 Edition: Taking Rural Healthcare to Heart
Creativity, collaboration and Commitment Bring Specialist Care to the Peninsulas
Forks, Washington is lucky. Not because it boasts a lush green landscape fed by nearly 100 inches of rain annually. Or even because of its recent claim to fame as the setting for the popular Twilight books. It's lucky because the residents have access to specialist care - locally.
Read the complete newsletter...
May 2009 Edition: Electronic Medical Records: Friend or Foe?
Hypothetical: A medical malpractice lawsuit alleges a failure to diagnose the aortic dissection that caused the sudden death of the patient.
Read the complete newsletter...
April 2009 Edition: Northwest Health Insurance Industry Capital Drops $959 Million in 2008
Drop is temporary if stock markets rebound in 2009
It wasn't long ago that many regulators, legislators, providers and other interested parties viewed the statutory capital held by some of the larger health insurance companies as excessive.
Read the complete newsletter...
March 2009 Edition: Maintaining an Effective and Low Cost Compliance Program for Rural Hospitals
The goal of this article is to provide ideas on how to keep your compliance program focused and effective on an organization-wide basis through the use of low-cost means.
Read the complete newsletter...
February 2009 Edition: Employer Beware: 2009 to Bring Significant Employment Law Changes
Healthcare employers will encounter significant changes in the legal landscape as new legislation giving more rights to employees become effective in 2009.
Read the complete newsletter...
January 2009 Edition: DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
CMS Changes Rules for Diagnostic Testing Arrangements (Again)
It is becoming an annual event. Once again the new year brings rule changes from CMS modifying how physician groups may provide and bill for in-office diagnostic tests.
Read the complete newsletter...
December 2008 Edition: Stevens Hospital: Not So Typical and Rather Remarkable
Stevens Hospital is located just north of Seattle in Edmonds, Washington. Like many Washington State hospitals, the competitive issues facing Stevens are different than those faced by hospitals in other parts of the country.
Read the complete newsletter...
November 2008 Edition: Your Insurance Broker: Providing Value Beyond Just Finding Carriers
Even though current financial markets are in a state of flux, and floods and hurricanes have recently wreaked havoc on Midwestern and Southern Communities, the insurance industry is still flush with capacity.
Read the complete newsletter...
October 2008 Edition: Third Party Administrators - Service Providers to Self-Funded Health Plans
The topic of Third Party Administrators of health benefits directly relates to self-funding of health benefits.
Read the complete newsletter...
September 2008 Edition: Community Health Centers Proffer a Comprehensive Plan to Provide Care
For more than four decades, America's Community Health Centers have put care first, serving those who need care regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.
Read the complete newsletter...
August 2008 Edition: New Washington State Law to Create Challenges for HR Executives
Most employer-sponsored group health plans offer coverage for employees, their spouses and dependent children.
Read the complete newsletter...
July 2008 Edition: In Touch and Inspired - Health Care Facility Design has a New Face
Health care facilities traditionally haven't been places people look forward to visiting.
Read the complete newsletter...
June 2008 Edition: Grandview's Birch Street Clinic: Rural Health Care Measures Up
Grandview, in the heart of Yakima Valley, boasts a growing community of 8,700 and truly grand views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams.
Read the complete newsletter...
May 2008 Edition: Inland Northwest Health Services Connects Washington - Grows Nationally
When I first met Kalen Privatsky, President of the Washington State Medical Group Management Association, he told me that health care facilities in eastern Washington had a better infrastructure in place for information sharing with hospitals than health care facilities in western Washington.
Read the complete newsletter...
April 2008 Edition: Health Insurance Industry Profits Down in 2007: Executives Explain Why
Financials from Washington State insurers came in this month and it's evident that the real estate and mortgage industries weren't the only ones feeling the pinch after a rocky 2007.
Read the complete newsletter...
March 2008 Edition: Health Care in Crises: Perspectives of Rural Hospital CEOs
Rural hospitals face difficult times. Patient health status and mix, access to capital, staffing constraints, coordination of care with urban hospitals and other providers, and the percentage of uninsured relative to insured are serious challenges testing some of our most seasoned hospital executives.
Read the complete newsletter...
February 2008 Edition: Cures for our Ailing Healthcare System
Clearly change is necessary, the current system is not cost effective. However, a dramatic overhaul of the current system is not necessary, nor wise.
Read the complete newsletter...
January 2008 Edition: Legislators Rank Cost Greatest Concern of Washingtons Health Care System
Should the health care industry be concerned that both state legislative bodies and both major political parties identify cost as the greatest concern facing the Washington State health care system?
Read the complete newsletter...
December 2007 Edition: Practice Administrators of Today: Champions of Challenge and Change
Sally just returned from a negotiation meeting with a large healthcare organization.
Read the complete newsletter...
November 2007 Edition: Providence Health & Services: Evaluating Our Largest Hospital System
Most of the hospitals and hospital systems in Washington State are medium sized organizations that serve relatively small catchment areas.
Read the complete newsletter...
October 2007 Edition: Community Health Centers - Growing from Movement to Mainstream
Working with community health centers (CHCs) for the past 25 years has convinced me that the existing health center model should be available to everyone in our country.
Read the complete newsletter...
September 2007 Edition: Carrier and Administrator Choices Abundant in Washington State
The major components of the Washington State health care system include:
- Purchasers
- Providers
- Carriers and administrators
Purchasers include consumers, employers, government, insurance brokers and agents as well as others. These are the people and organizations that negotiate payment and/or pay for health care services.
Read the complete newsletter...
|
