Thursday, August 30, 2018
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The 2018 Federal budget includes changes to the Medicare program for individuals with multiple chronic conditions. A new Bipartisan Policy Center issue brief explores the key decisions facing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, health plans and states as they implement those provisions. Medicare Advantage plans will be able to provide some non-health-related services such as transportation. The law also includes language to better integrate care for those who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.
(
Improving Care and Lowering Costs for Chronic Care Beneficiaries: Implementing the Bipartisan Budget Act
)
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Several private equity firms are investing in primary care clinic operators, driven in part by greater employer pressure to lower medical costs. For example, Carlyle Group is investing up to $350 million in One Medical, a national primary care clinic operator with offices in San Francisco and New York City. Investors are focusing on primary care for its potential to help limit costs by keeping workers healthy and out of the hospital, and by providing them with quick access to medical care.
(
Bloomberg
;
Becker’s Hospital Review
)
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Innovation & Transformation
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Many payers are now focusing on social determinants of health in more sustainable and innovative ways, according to
Modern Healthcare
, moving beyond the occasional pilot program. It’s still early and many challenges lie ahead, including how to most efficiently meet these needs, but as the title of the piece spells out, “Payers can't control costs without addressing social determinants.”
(
Modern Healthcare
)
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Walgreens and CVS Health—with Amazon breathing down their metaphorical necks in the health care space—are touting in-person services to customers as a key differentiator. Both have relationships with local health care providers; CVS Health is poised to expand its presence dramatically when its acquisition of Aetna is complete.
(
Forbes
)
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According to OpenNotes, an organization that advocates for patient access to medical notes, more than 27 million Americans now can see what doctors and nurses write about them. But some doctors warn that the records could be confusing or frightening—and they’ll end up spending more time explaining things. Mara Gordon, a family physician, writes of her own mishap with a patient who felt betrayed upon reading a note in her records. (
NPR
)
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Prescribe play. That’s the upshot of a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which states “The importance of playful learning for children cannot be overemphasized.” Play helps build brains and provides a buffer against the negative impact of stress. “Play with parents and peers is fundamentally important for developing a suite of 21
st
century skills, including social, emotional, language and cognitive skills, all needed by the next generation in an economically competitive world that requires collaboration and innovation,” says Michael Yogman, MD, FAAP, lead author of the report. (
Pediatrics
,
announcement
)
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Comparative effectiveness explained
:
A recent
New York Times
piece offers an overview of comparative effectiveness research. It covers the controversy over such studies, but concludes that “without comparative effectiveness research, too many important questions that concern patients will remain unanswered.”
(
New York Times
)
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There’s a place for us
:
Fewer than 20 acute-care hospitals feature dedicated spaces for family caregivers, but that may be changing. Increasingly, such investments make economic sense,
Modern Healthcare
reports.
(
Modern Healthcare
)
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There is no level of daily alcohol consumption that is good for your health, according to statistical research published in
The Lancet
; having one drink a day slightly increases your risk for 23 different conditions. However, Dr. Nasir Naqvi, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (who wasn’t involved in the study) told
ABC News
there’s more to “wellbeing” that could factor in the equation. “If low-level drinking has some benefit to your lif
e;
it enhances your social life and facilitates overall wellbeing, then for some people this may be more important than prolonging your life by every possible means.”
(
ABC News
;
The Lancet
)
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MarketVoices...quotes worth reading
“Employers are trying to be good stewards of their health-care spending and get the most value they can. They’re like, ‘Why have we been asleep at the wheel for so many decades?’”—Mercer’s Jeff Dobro, in
Bloomberg
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Editor
Sandy Mau
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