Category: Legislative Strategy
The “Red Flags” Rule
August 11, 2009
The Red Flags Rule, a law the FTC will begin to enforce on August 1, 2009, requires certain businesses and organizations — including many doctors’ offices, hospitals, and other health care providers — to develop a written program to spot the warning signs — or “red flags” — of identity theft. Is your practice covered by the Red Flags Rule? If so, have you developed your Identity Theft Prevention Program to detect, prevent, and minimize the damage that could result from identity theft?
- Categories: Legislative Strategy
Volunteers make healthcare work?
August 10, 2009
CNN’s Dan Rivers looks at Thailand’s health care system where almost a million volunteers play a crucial role.
Obama: “Please submit Healthcare Ideas” – (Video)
July 17, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/27/obama-asks-for-your-quest_n_221878.html
The white house wants to crowdsource some new ideas from the public. You can submit your suggestions at the whitehouse.gov site or follow the link above.
- Categories: Legislative Strategy, Uncategorized
Rural Healthcare battles
July 16, 2009
- Categories: Legislative Strategy, Uncategorized
Obama Finds $150 Billion
July 8, 2009
Man can this guy and his team find money and get concessions when they want it. Today the Obama administration announced they have “found” 150 Billion in cost savings from hospitals to help pay for the overhaul of our healthcare system. This is on top of the 200 Billion cut in reimbursements to hospitals. Hate it or Love it, Obama is on his way to finding the proposed 1 Trillion dollars he believes it will take to make our system current.
What does this mean to us? Today more than ever the competency of our clinical workers will be tested. If someone runs a non essential test, a patient needs to be readmitted or, heaven forbid, a Never Event happens your hospital is stuck with the bill. The average cost of a Never Event is $40,000-45,000! Do that three, four or ten times a quarter and watch your bottom line sink even lower. Today we need to look at our staff and figure out who we are willing to bet on. If we are not willing to bet on certain employees it’s time to find someone that you will.
- Categories: Legislative Strategy, Uncategorized
Obama moderates Healthcare stance
July 7, 2009
- Categories: Legislative Strategy, Uncategorized
Prepare for the Mutiny – Healthcare’s Whistleblowers.
June 4, 2009
Home Health and Security Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, and Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced they would be forming a joint task force which would be tasked with tracking and sharing real-time data for more efficient identification of fraudulent billing patterns. In addition to this task force, the Whistle Blower protections have been accompanied by a “finders reward” for any individual who reveals fraudulent activity within organizations. What does this mean for Healthcare systems?
Underpaid and overworked employees are now agents for transparency and an integral part of this task force that has intimate knowledge of billing practices and procedures. Whistleblowers receive protection from legal ramifications as well as a portion of the recovered funds when they reveal fraud within an organization. With the recovered funds totaling $14.3 Billion since the program started, it wouldn’t be a surprise if people take notice and act accordingly.
- Categories: Legislative Strategy, Uncategorized
Hurdles remain in Obama’s push to revamp health care
June 3, 2009
This year’s fast-track timetable on health care calls for leaders of key congressional committees to unveil legislation this month, debate it next month and pass it before leaving for the summer recess in August. Final passage would follow in September or October, before next year’s elections start to complicate things.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-05-31-hurdles_N.htm
- Categories: Legislative Strategy, Uncategorized
Video: Nurse Shortage as High as 500,000 by the Year 2025
May 27, 2009
Nurses are increasing in demand due to a perfect storm of increased demand and decreased supply… but why? The aging population of Baby Boomers need caretakers (demand increase) combined with low nursing school acceptance rates (supply decrease) leads to a storm that leaves a large shortage. Some Nursing schools have a 4 year waiting list and that list is getting longer and longer. The problem seems to be an imbalance of compensation for teachers vs healthcare practitioners. A Nurse makes an additional $50,000 more than a nurse instructor per year so the decision to work in a hospital rather than a classroom, seems to be a no-brainer. Where is the Nurse Education Bailout?
- Categories: Employee Engagement, Legislative Strategy, Uncategorized
IT & Healthcare and Possible Impacts
May 21, 2009
Lately there have been many articles about healthcare IT spending and the impacts that it could have on organizations, the government, and the American healthcare system. 3 are included below.
- Categories: Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Legislative Strategy, Technology