August, 2014

The Service Employees International Union-Healthcare Workers West is stepping up its campaign to block the sale of Daughters of Charity Health System to Prime Healthcare Services, which is accusing the union of racketeering and extortion.

I've read most of the books on this list. Many are must reading if you want to be informed on healthcare.  "Reinventing American Health Care" by Ezekiel Emanuel was not a overtly political diatribe as Dr. Emanuel is want to do, but rather a thoughtful explanation (slanted of course) of how we got here and where reform should take us. Overtreated is excellent. Anything by Dr. Atul Gawande is a must read. Some are dated. Some are business fluff - Blue Ocean Strategy and Christensen's works come to mind. However as many of their concepts have passed into the lexicon of business the ideas should at least be familiar to you.

Will commercial insurers exist in a few year? Doubtful as more hospitals and providers enter the insurance business being both insurer and provider.

Dr. Nobel was a remarkable man. He was also my first boss after leaving the service. Dr. Nobel changed the Medical Device Industry by founding and leading ECRI. He has left a lasting legacy.

Very important trend if you sell into this space.

Glendale Adventist's settlement is the third Los Angeles has filed so far this year. In January, 102-bed Beverly Hospital in Montebello, Calif., paid $200,000 in a patient-dumping case. Pacifica Hospital of the Valley, a 231-bed facility in Sun Valley, Calif., agreed to a $500,000 settlement. The city has been working with the Hospital Association of Southern California to help hospitals communicate with all patients and carry out proper discharges for them.

St. Luke's is the largest private employer in Idaho and the state's only locally owned, locally governed health system. St. Luke's is the state's first and only accountable care organization through its participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. This year, the health system was recognized as one of the country's Top 15 Health Systems by Truven Health Analytics.

After 18 years as executive vice president and CIO of Pittsburgh-based University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Dan Drawbaugh has resigned.

The SGR, Sustainable Growth Rate, was passed into law in 1997. It was supposed to limit physician reimbursement by CMS by linking payments to a reasonable growth rate. What's reasonable has never been agreed upon. Known as the 'doc fix' Congress has over-ridden the SGR every single year. All of the projected savings in CMS is expected from the SGR limits - not reform, according to the CBO. If Congress doesn't allow this limit (fair or not) how will any savings be realized? They won't - but ACA was really never about saving money was it. Interesting facts in this article about how Radiologists got the most reductions but in 2014 were thrown a bone.

Sales has moved from solving problems to consultative selling and now to co-venturing selling under ACA. Here is a good example of a company that has had great success changing from selling 'boxes' to really partnering with healthcare providers. Perhaps all venders can learn something from these efforts.