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This week's industry news

1.) New Hospital to Home Initiative Improves Strategies to Prevent Readmissions

Participation in a new hospital to home quality improvement initiative has helped to improve hospital readmission strategies, including tracking discharged patients and partnering with local hospitals, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

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2.) 2014 Healthcare Benchmarks: Reducing Hospital Readmissions

This resource documents the latest key initiatives and partnerships to reduce readmissions by patients with costly conditions and others by more than 100 healthcare organizations. This 60-page report, now in its fourth year, for the first time provides details on partnerships with post-acute care to reduce readmissions from these care sites.

Learn more about this resource.

3.) HSAs Growing, Health Reimbursement Accounts Declining for First Time

While account-based health plans continue to expand, a shift in account types may suggest a change in how the accounts are funded, according to new research from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

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4.) Mastering Healthcare Reimbursement Systems Report: An A to Z Guide to Navigating Payment Models in Healthcare

This resource provides case managers and care coordination professionals an easy to reference guide to help you master healthcare reimbursement.




Learn more about this resource.

5.) Healthcare Business White Paper: Care Transitions in 2013 - Interventions Surge in Response to Payor Scrutiny; Home-Grown Approaches Trump Traditional Models

In its third annual e-survey on Care Transition Management, the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN) captured efforts by 86 organizations to strive for Triple Aim goals of better care at improved cost during transitions of care. Conducted in April 2013, the survey measures existing and planned programs, targeted transitions and populations, transition team members and responsibilities, and much more. This HINtelligence Report provides data highlights on care transition program components, the most successful tools for care transition management, results and ROI; and much more.

Download this complimentary white paper.

6.) Care Managers in Medical Homes Contribute to Improved Diabetes Outcomes

Patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) are an effective way to help care for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, and placing care managers in them further improve patient outcomes for high-risk diabetes patients, according to a study conducted at Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

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7.) New Chart: Top Behavior Change Tools in Health Coaching

Motivational interviewing (MI) is the top behavior change tool being used in health coaching, say 68 percent of healthcare companies that responded to HIN's fourth annual Health Coaching e-survey. We wanted to see which other behavior change tools are being used in health coaching.

Click here to view the chart.

8.) Essentials of Embedded Case Management: Hiring, Training, Caseloads and Technology for Practice-Based Care Coordinators

This resource documents the experiences of Aetna and Bon Secours in the recruitment, education, workload management and IT support of practice-based case managers.



Learn more about this resource.

10.) AIS's Health Insurance Exchange Directory and Factbook

This resource provides health industry guidance to health insurance exchange implementation and stakeholder strategies, with in-depth coverage of every big-dollar business issue related to the new marketplaces - including technological infrastructure, consumer support tools, benefit design, marketing and much more.

Learn more about this resource.

11.) 40 Percent of Health Plan's Star Rating Attributed to Regional Variation

Nearly 40 percent of a health plan's CMS Five-Star Quality rating can be explained by the quality of the providers in a given county or region, says Joseph Johnson, vice president of L.E.K. Consulting. Here he points out where those pockets of excellence are, and discusses other factors leading to five-star performances.

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12.) Formula for CMS Five-Star Quality Population Health Management

This resource examines star quality improvement strategies, including Kaiser Permanente's successful care management efforts that have made it a leader in the five- star space.



Learn more about this resource.

13.) HINfographic: 7 Care Transition Models for High-Risk Patients

Many current care transitions models support safer transitions for patients with complex comorbid conditions - initiatives aimed at the patient, hospital, community, or in some cases, a state or region of the country. One initiative reduced 30-day all-cause readmissions by 21 percent, according to a new infographic from the Healthcare Intelligence Network. This HINfographic takes a high-level look at seven popular care transition programs.

 Read this blog post.

14.) Three Key Benefits to Prudent Sharing of Physician Performance Data

There are three key benefits to prudent sharing of performance data among physicians, notes Cynthia Kilroy, senior vice president of provider strategy and business development at Optum, who suggests a four-step systematic approach for data dissemination that moves companies away from simply creating "metrics in a box." Besides the electronic health record, she recommends three other data sources to mine for provider performance metrics.   

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