UnitedHealth’s working paper examines rural health care under the ACA
Posted on July 31, 2011 | No Comments
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“Modernizing Rural Health Care: Coverage, quality, and innovation” documents the health needs of rural populations and how well the health care system can respond to these needs. The paper presents data on rural health care quality, the views of people living in rural areas regarding health care delivery, and what physicians identify as major rural health challenges to overcome. The paper also addresses how Medicaid and health insurance Exchange expansion will affect the rural patient population beginning in 2014.
October 22, 2011
Patient-centered medical home models offer accessible, coordinated, comprehensive care focused on the needs of the patient. One of the most notable attributes of medical homes is the care coordination, which, if executed effectively, results in better health outcomes, reduced waste and duplication, and higher patient satisfaction. Yesterday, the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, an arm of the Commonwealth Fund, released a guide outlining seven key strategies to help health systems measure care coordination within medical homes. The seven strategies are 1) Work with a broad stakeholder group to reach consensus on measures; 2) Clarify purpose of measurement: quality improvement, accountability, evaluation; 3) Use standardized measures; 4) Incorporate patient feedback in assessing quality of care coordination; 5) Develop a tracking system that facilitates ongoing monitoring of performance; 6) Build and nurture relationships with providers outside of your medical home--the "medical neighborhood"--to facilitate data sharing, monitoring, and improvement; and 7) Use the data to improve care coordination. Share results at the practice and care-team levels.
October 18, 2011
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released new proposed rules today that would save hospitals and health care providers nearly $1.1 billion each year. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius explained that the proposals "eliminate unnecessary and obsolete standards and free up resources," thus allowing providers and hospitals to focus on patient care. One proposed rule would update the Medicare Conditions of Participation, the rules for hospitals that treat Medicare and Medicaid patients. Another NPRM would eliminates redundant, outdated, and conflicting regulatory requirements for health care providers and suppliers. These efforts are part of the wider-ranging reforms that the Obama Administration hopes to implement. The goal is to improve the quality of health care delivery and lower the associated costs for Americans.
For a summary of the rules, click here.
September 1, 2010
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will enroll up to an additional 20 hospitals in the Rural Community Hospitals Demonstration. Ten hospitals are already participating in the program created by the health reform law, which provides enhanced reimbursements for inpatient services. The agency's announcement explains, "The goal of the program is to test the feasibility and advisability of cost based reimbursement for small rural hospitals that are too large to be Critical Access Hospitals."
April 15, 2010
Permanently authorizes, and provides funding for, the Community Health Centers program and the National Health Service Corps.





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