We’ve known for a few years that income correlates with health in a major way. From the length of life to stroke risk to self-reported health status, the more access, opportunity, and means of upward mobility a person has, the better their projected health outcomes.
Waves of organizations are stepping up to help put things on a better course. Accountable and managed care organizations like Upward Health are working with payers, providers, and local governments to bring doctors, nurses, and
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Social Determinants of Health Trends in 2020: The End of the Beginning?
2020 will mark the end of the beginning of Social Determinants of Health (SDoH).
One would be remiss not to give pause and to consider how much time it has taken to get to this pivotal period in US health and healthcare delivery and, focus on the cornerstone “why” healthcare must, with a fierce urgency, step into the twenty-first century of US healthcare delivery. Meaning, it has taken nearly seventy years to go from the World Health Organization identifying the profundity of SDoH influence on
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Identity and Access Management – Bridging the Efficiency and Security Gap in Healthcare
The healthcare sector is charged with preserving some of the most sensitive information of any industry. Hospitals and clinics are required to securely store data, such as social security numbers, patient medical records, insurance policy details, and credit card numbers. Although healthcare administrators are confronted with copious amounts of sensitive information, it would be incorrect to assume that the industry is a beacon of cybersecurity best practices. In fact, 13.2 million patient
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New Year, New Codes: Best Practices for Keeping Your Chargemaster Up-To-Date
While Q4 is busy for every industry, it is especially taxing for those in the healthcare space. In addition to the quarterly update of HCPCS codes, Q4 brings the release of next year’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and HCPCS codes and also sees the release of the final rules for the prospective payment systems.
On top of the work going on behind the scenes, the end of the year is a notoriously busy time for hospitals as patients make a mad dash to complete their final visits for the year.
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Why HCAHPS Is Archaic In Healthcare Today
Helen Hrdy, SVP of Customer Success at NRC HealthThe Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey hasn’t changed since its inception in 2006. Healthcare leaders have long wanted to see it reformed. Now, hospital groups are making the case for a major HCAHPS overhaul. The cause for the upheaval of a 13-year-old process is due largely in part to the impact on the complete care journey, specifically the patient experience. In order to incite change in today’s
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5 Key Features of Successful Quality Collaboratives
Quality collaboratives are comprised of multiple teams working together from different domains within the healthcare industry. Payors and providers have shown success in working together as a collaborative team sharing the same mission, improving healthcare outcomes in patients within the network each team serves. These collaborative efforts bring focus on improving medical services throughout in-network hospitals under contract with payors whose members are receiving care.
Below are five key
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The Evolution of EHR Workflows: From Counterintuitive to Intuitive Tools for Care
I recall a patient who was drinking heavily, who I was unable to meaningfully convince to reduce his alcohol consumption. He felt that his drinking was no different than his work colleagues and that he did not need to make any changes. When his labs returned, not surprisingly, his GGT and AST were elevated. I turned the screen and showed him the results as well as the upward trending of the result’s graph. He didn’t say much but was clearly taking it all in. When we met next, he
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Rise of Digital Voice Assistants & The Hospital Room of the (Near) Future
Hospital rooms thrum with the steady beat of monitors. And while a patient must quickly adapt to a cacophony of beeps and drips, when a sudden alarm pierces the air, it’s a nerve-wracking experience—especially if a nurse doesn’t step in immediately. The patient must fumble for the nurse-call button, which can usually be found dangling by the side of the bed. But if you’re sick, weak or hugely pregnant, even rolling over slightly to grab the cord can be a herculean effort.
Soon that dangling
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The Future of Whole-Person Care: The Intersection of Tech and Holistic Health
There is a common misconception in the healthcare field that technological innovation is opposed to the philosophy of holistic care. Tech is viewed as artificial, manufactured, and impersonal — it values human experience only for the sake of developing better algorithms and treats the physical body of the patient without care for their personhood.
In contrast, holistic care is seen as organic and natural; elevating the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of an individual and seeing them
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Analysis: November 2019 Health IT M&A Activity, Public Company Performance
– Healthcare Growth Partners' (HGP) summary of Health IT/digital health mergers & acquisition (M&A) activity, and public company performance during the month of November 2019We did a doubletake when we noticed all of the HGP healthcare indices climbed approximately 10% during the month of November. Year-to-date, the S&P 500 is up over 25% and the HGP healthcare indices are all hovering in that range. In the two month period since September, when talk of universal healthcare reached
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