360° of Healthcare with Dr. Stan

Sage Transparency: The Hospital Transparency You Want is Here — If You Know How to Use It.

Stan and Gloria discuss the work that she and her organization, The Employers’ Forum of Indiana, are doing in the realm of hospital transparency, and their mission to improve the value employers and patients receive for their healthcare expenditures. 
Sage has brought together five separate data sources (RAND Corporation, NASHP, Quantros, Turquoise Health and CMS Hospital Compare) into one integrated dashboard. Now it's possible to drill into individual hospital performance in a way not previously available.
Dr. Sachdev talks about how employers and consultants have used Sage and its data source to determine whether they are getting favorable rates.
 
Important Links:
Sage Transparency Home Page
Sage Transparency Dashboard
Employers' Forum of Indiana
National Academy for State Health Policy 
Rand 4.0 (EmployerPTP)
National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions
Houston Business Coalition on Health
RAND Hospital Price Studies are Nationally Recognized
Analysis: Inconsistencies Within Hospital Price Transparency Data Make Cost Comparisons Difficult
 

Frontier Medicine In The USA Today: Yes, Depending On Where You Live

Mention “Frontier Medicine in Colorado” and you might conjure up a vision of TV’s Jane Seymour as Dr. Michaela Quinn in 19th century Colorado Springs.  But you may be surprised to learn that Colorado still has four “Frontier and Rural Area” levels as defined by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
These areas vary by degree of remoteness and difficulty in travel for health needs. Indeed, dealing with a major health problem in the middle of a winter storm when the nearest specialty location is across a mountain range isn’t a simple 911 response.
An easily dealt-with injury such as a broken leg or head injury can be fatal when care is impossible to reach.
Today we talk with Dr Clifford Brown, the Director for the Custer County (Colorado) Public Health Agency. Dr Brown is a Doctor of Optometry who gravitated into public health after stints in the United States Air Force and Army. His career brought him to this sparsely populated area nestled between two major mountain ranges and many long miles from the nearest tertiary care. 
Dr Brown and I discuss the imperatives of public health in a frontier area and how technology is providing some solutions. Individualism and self-sufficiency are challenges for public health workers that require not only deft and empathy but also a realization to meet people where they are.

Do you have a primary care strategy...really?

Join Dr. Stan and his guest Scott Conard, MD, as they discuss the pivotal role of primary care in population health.  Employers offering healthcare need to be particularly intention about assuring they have a true primary care strategy to provide covered members with quality care. 
 
That care should be as free as possible from financial and access barriers.
 
The doctors discuss the characteristics of advanced primary care,  the role of non-physician advanced providers and the looming shortage of family and internal medicine physicians.
 
Employers purchasing healthcare also need to understand the payment model of the PCPs their members see. Are those providers paid for the volume of patients they see? Only paid for face-to-face contact?  Paid based on patient outcomes and overall health achievements?
 
With the American population experiencing higher rates of obesity, overweight, diabetes, hypertension and other "diseases of civilization," a primary care strategy must include more than periodic sickness visits. 
 
Dr. Conard offers a template for creating a primary care strategy.
 
Resources:
Primary Care in the United States: a Handbook of Charts and Facts
Advancing Primary Care: a  Purchaser Playbook for Action (National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions)
Primary Care Collaborative
Achieving Value through Advanced Primary Care (National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions)
Converging Health (Dr. Conard)

Minerals and Medicine: Talking Affordable Healthcare To The Mining Industry

Mining has changed a lot from the days of pickaxes and lanterns, and so has the challenge of delivering affordable care to miners and families in rural and underserved areas of Appalachia.
These covered members are a unique population with distinctly different needs from urbanites.
Stan talks with his guest Doug Schram, MD, Alliance Resource's Medical Director, about their comprehensive self-funded, self-administered and very affordable healthcare plan.

What A Gas Station Learned After One Year Of Being A Healthcare Provider

A few years ago, a gas station/convenience store chain decided to parlay their success in delivering high customer service into a new healthcare endeavor: urgent care.
We interviewed them in February 2021 to hear their plans and aspirations. They were entering a fiercely competitive market seemingly saturated already with urgent care facilities.
There's a lot in common between running a convenience store and running a gas station, but there's a whole lot more that isn't in common.
We catch up with their journey and discuss what they learned, what they expected and what they didn't expect. They also have a lot to say about the state of primary care access and a new-found realization on the social determinants of health.
Links:
February 2021 360° of Healthcare: Why a gas station decided to start delivering healthcare
medwiseuc.com
quiktrip.com

Yes, You Can Transform Healthcare at the State Level — and Here’s How Washington State is Doing It

Don't think you can make healthcare costs truly transparent? Just do what Washington Health Alliance did: bring together employers, health plans and providers, get a fired-up board of directors, partner up with some experts and build a "Total Cost of Care" online tool that covers all of the counties in the state.
Join us in a conversation with Nancy Giunto, Executive Director and Mark Pregler, Director, Data Management and Analytics, as they tell us how this project was incubated and brought to their members. The Alliance also has big plans to provide employers and other stakeholders cost and quality data they need to be good shoppers and good stewards of healthcare resources through use of a new value composite tool.
 
Learn more about Washington Health Alliance:
Total Cost of Care online tool 
Washington Health Alliance home page Community Checkup 
 
 
 

Accreditation: You’ve Heard The Term But What Does It Really Mean?

Join Shawn Griffin, MD, President and CEO of URAC and your host Stan Schwartz, MD as they discuss what "accreditation" means, who does it, how it should be used by purchasers, and what providers are suitable for accreditation. URAC is one of the nation's most important accrediting agency that looks at diverse services such as pharmacy, telehealth, primary care and more.
Dr. Griffin also tells us about his remarkable journey to the leadership of URAC.

Lessons from Maine: an Interview with Peter Hayes, an Expert on Purchasing Employer-Sponsored Healthcare

Join Dr Stan Schwartz as he interviews Peter Hayes, President and CEO of the the Health Purchaser Alliance of Maine. Peter parlays his 27 years of experience into sound advice for self-funded employers that purchase healthcare for their employees and dependents.
We talked about the present and future RAND studies of regional price variation, direct contracting, benefit advisors and getting employers engaged in a single voice.
Peter also presents a vignette of what a successful employer has actually done to reduce costs but keep quality high.
We also discussed how the fragmentation of primary care (divided among the traditional PCP, telehealth and urgent care) can affect decisions that impact an employer's bottom line on health.