Dear Healthcare Intelligence Network Client,

Completing a quality-of-life questionnaire at a healthcare provider’s office could help patients live longer and better, according to a statement from the American Heart Association (AHA).

Patient surveys can help reveal depression, which can significantly worsen cardiovascular health, but is often underdiagnosed despite being common among cardiovascular (CV) patients, researchers say. Healthcare providers can assess their patients’ CV health by using standardized patient surveys, which focus on a patient's quality of life. These surveys can directly measure the impact of heart disease on patients, including their symptoms, quality of life, and ability to function physically and mentally. lead to cardiovascular (CV) disease, researchers say. For those patients diagnosed with heart disease, the surveys can directly measure its impact, including their symptoms, quality of life, and ability to function physically and mentally. They can also predict other events, including future cardiac episodes, and should become a part of routine care.

In another example of integrated care, new Behavioral Health Home Certification from the Joint Commission will make many patients’ lives better. Designed as part of a nationwide effort to expand and improve healthcare services, behavioral health homes integrate physical and behavioral healthcare services to provide treatment to address the needs of the whole person. The certification program will provide a framework for this, emphasizing care coordination and quality. Health home providers do not need to provide all the services themselves, but must ensure that the full array of primary and behavioral healthcare services is available and coordinated.

Postponing mammography screenings could help women live longer and better, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.

Data shows that routine screening in women younger than 40 increases rates of cancer detection in young women, but only reduces mortality risk by a very small percentage. Instead, the tests are more likely to result in over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment, including biopsies, lumpectomies and mastectomies, and weeks of radiation and potentially toxic drugs. And false positives could result in avoidable procedures and psychological trauma.

Despite these findings, and recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to postpone mammography screenings until age 50, younger women continue to undergo the routine breast cancer test.

The fact that insurance companies continue to pay for these mammograms for women in their 40s is most likely the reason for the persistently high rate of screening, researchers state.

Examining Medicare prescription plan benefits more closely could help beneficiaries to manage their money and health better, according to a new Walgreens survey.

Prescription drug costs are among the top concerns for more than one-third of Medicare Part D beneficiaries, with one in five admitting they’ve had to delay filling a prescription or skip doses to help manage medication costs.

Survey respondents revealed that only half realized that co-pays for Part D prescriptions can vary by pharmacy; and less than one fourth were aware of whether their plan offered a preferred pharmacy option. Beneficiaries can save hundreds of dollars each year on co-pay costs by using a preferred network, researchers state.

Care to tell us how case managers are helping to make your organization run better? There are only a few more days before we close out our survey, so why not take a moment and fill it out; we will send you a free executive summary of the compiled results.

Your colleague in the business of healthcare,
Cheryl Miller
Editor, Healthcare Business Weekly Update

Please send comments, questions and replies to [email protected].

May 20, 2013
Vol. XV, No. 19

Sponsored by:
Patient Engagement and Provider Collaborations Across the Healthcare Continuum to Improve Care Transitions

This week's industry news:

1. Patient Surveys Can Help Improve Quality of Life, Outcomes
   
2. 2012 Benchmarks in Patient Registry Use for Accountable Care
   
3. Despite New Recommendations, Women in 40s Get Routine Mammograms At Same Rate
   
4. Guide to Population Health Management
   
5. Healthcare Business White Paper: Mobile Health in 2013
   
6. Prescription Drug Costs Among Top Concerns for Medicare Beneficiaries
   
7. New Chart: Top Ways to Identify Health Coaching Candidates
   
8. 2013 Healthcare Benchmarks: Improving Medication Adherence
   
9. Joint Commission to Offer Behavioral Health Home Certification Option in 2014
   
10. Healthcare Trends & Forecasts in 2013
    
11. 7 Key Consumer Engagement Objectives
    
12. Guide to the Patient-Centered Medical Home
    
13. High-Risk Patient Roster Helps Atrius Pioneer ACO ‘Beat the Benchmark’
    
14. Lowering Medicare Readmission Rates With Interventions Focused on Patients, Providers