Category: “Training”

Almost $700 million in hospital spending – are you a good enough salesperson to earn some of that money?
1. Billings Clinic plans $1.4M inpatient pediatric unit
2. Alegent Creighton Health plans $35M medical complex
3. Norton Healthcare opens pediatric, emergency services units
4. Baystate Franklin Medical Center plans $23M construction project
5. University of Pennsylvania Health System plans $1.5B tower
6. Ukiah Valley Medical Center plans $41M expansion
7. Great Falls Clinic begins construction on $23.5M center
8. Cleveland Clinic plans $276M cancer care building
9. Ocean Springs Hospital completes $16.5M renovation
10. Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Stephenville builds $14M ED
11. Cole Memorial Hospital begins $8.3M expansion, renovation
12. Children's Hospital at Dartmouth plans $1.8M renovation
13. Midtown Medical Center begins $5.25M renovation
14. Covenant Health Plainview to undergo $40M remodel
15. Lawrence General Hospital to begin $56M surgical construction
16. Spearfish Regional Hospital to complete $6.2M expansion, remodel
17. Memorial Hospital of Carbondale begins $52M upgrade, expansion
18. Cooper University Hospital unveils $30M new patient wing
19. Memorial Health Care Systems to undergo $9M expansion, renovation
20. St. Joseph Hospital breaks ground on new Milford facility

Health sector economic indicators that we need to be aware of. For example: drug prices are up while hospital charges are down. Good news if you're in the pharm business; not good news if you sell high dollar capital equipment to hospitals. Since the recession in 2007 Healthcare costs are up 14.5% while the economy as a whole deflated 10.5%. That means healthcare spending will be forced to constrict. This and many other useful facts are in this whitepaper.

Here are 50 things to know about Aetna, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint — five leading health insurers in the U.S

Are service providers and in-house programs at war?

A very thoughtful overview of why the Healthcare system isn't working and ACA wasn't the reform needed.

The rep-less model is being driven by pressures on hospitals to lower costs—declining reimbursement rates, lower patient volumes, financial risk arrangements with insurers, and employers and consumers seeking lower-cost procedures. The hospitals most likely to employ this model are academic medical centers, which have some of the most stringent policies on sales reps' access to clinicians and operating rooms. Some hospital officials say they favor the rep-less model because they are tired of paying “selling, general and administrative,” or SG&A, costs as part of the price of an implantable device. Those costs can make up nearly 40% of the price. Another reason is that they believe sales reps have become too heavily involved in clinical procedures.

This article points out that the consolidation of physician practices has not demonstrated either cost savings or better clinical outcomes despite conventional wisdom. As independent physicians disappear private practice has become an endangered species. Nearly two-thirds of US office-based physicians work in practices of fewer than seven physicians. It is often assumed that larger practices provide better care, although there is little evidence for or against this assumption. What is the relationship between practice size—and other practice characteristics, such as ownership or use of medical home processes—and the quality of care?

The independent, private physician practice model will be largely, though not uniformly, replaced.

Ever wonder how the ACA became law or how it remains law despite how the American public feels? Healthcare leaders almost without exception support Universal Healthcare. Their only criticism of the ACA law is that it didn't go far enough - they want a single payer system. When Harry Reid makes the list of most influential voices in healthcare you know there is serious liberal leaning. Shameful really. Instead of honest debate and genuine reform we get a game rigged by partisanship.