-
The single biggest challenge with health care reform is "the increased resources needed to implement this legislation," says Leslie Clement, administrator of the Department of Health and Welfare's Division of Medicaid. "Idaho is currently experiencing budget deficits. Projections do not indicate that this will change much in the near future."
-
Several initiatives designed to slow current cost trends in long-term care spending are highlighted in Medicaid Long-term Care: The Ticking Time Bomb, a report from the Washington, DC-based Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.
-
Increased funding for Community Health Centers included in the health care reform legislation is expected to nearly double the number of patients seen by the centers over the next five years to nearly 40 million.
-
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) puts considerable focus on reducing hospital readmissions. Here are some excerpts and key provisions from the bill on this subject:
-
Hospitals will need to get used to the idea of reporting their 30-day readmission results as the new health care reform bill expands on this initiative of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
-
-
The new patient-centered communication standards issued by The Joint Commission support the work patient education managers already have been doing, according to Amy Wilson-Stronks, MPP, the project director on health disparities in the Division of Quality Measurement and Research.
-
Partnerships between health care systems and literacy groups would be a good way to improve communication between patients with low-health literacy and health care providers, says Jeff Burkhart, MS, executive director of the Literacy Network of Dane County, a nonprofit organization in Madison, WI.
-
In the treatment chapter of "Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient-and Family-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals," issued by The Joint Commission, hospitals are told that patient education materials should be written at a 5th grade or lower reading level.
-
Use of the Internet has exploded in the past 10 years in all areas: retail, communications, research, socialization, and even health information. In a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, data show that 51% of American adults living with chronic disease have looked online for information about a specific disease, a certain medical procedure, prescription or over-the-counter drugs, or health insurance.
