<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform</title>
	<link>http://chqpr.org/blog</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:39:49 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	<!-- generator="WordPress/3.0" -->

	<item>
		<title>Putting the Cart Before the Horse on ACOs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Unfortunately, too many discussions about Accountable Care Organizations these days are putting the cart before the horse – defining an ACO based on its ability to participate in a particular payment model, rather than defining the payment system that will best enable an organization to become accountable for the costs and quality of care it [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2010/06/putting-the-cart-before-the-horse-on-acos/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What a Difference a Little Time and the Right Goals Can Make</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In a new article in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, David Mitchell, a hospitalist at Akron General Medicine Center, presents a superb example of the impact on healthcare costs clinicians can make if they&#8217;re willing and able to spend the time to do careful diagnosis and conservative testing/treatment. His example is &#8220;an elderly woman who [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2010/03/what-a-difference-a-little-time-and-the-right-goals-can-make/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The Trouble With &#8220;Shared Savings&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There is a lot of discussion today about using “shared savings” as an approach to healthcare payment reform. Medicare has used it as the key element of its Physician Group Practice Demonstration, and it has been proposed as the key mechanism for encouraging the creation of “accountable care organizations.” The basic concept is fairly simple: [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2009/04/the-trouble-with-shared-savings/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Four Ways that Federal Healthcare Reform Could Improve Healthcare Value</title>
		<description><![CDATA[1. Encourage Reductions in Hospital Readmissions Many people believe that healthcare costs can&#8217;t be reduced without rationing of services, but in fact, there are ways to significantly reduce healthcare spending without taking away anything that consumers want. A perfect example is hospital readmissions. Research shows that 15-25% of people who are discharged from the hospital [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2009/03/four-ways-that-federal-healthcare-reform-could-improve-healthcare-value/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The Network of the Future</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today, most people who are covered by a commercial health insurance plan get their care from some kind of a &#8220;network&#8221; established by the plan.  If they select a healthcare provider that&#8217;s included in the network, they pay less for care than if they select a provider outside the network.  But they generally pay the same [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2009/02/the-network-of-the-future/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Which Comes First &#8212; EHR or Quality Improvement?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Many people seem to believe that the only thing standing between us and a completely transformed healthcare system that has higher quality and lower cost is the lack of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems in every physician&#8217;s office.  That&#8217;s a little like saying that the only reason the country is in a recession is that every [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2009/02/which-comes-first-ehr-or-quality-improvement/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Who Should Manage Your Care?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the goals many people have for federal and state healthcare reforms is to eliminate &#8220;medical underwriting&#8221; by health insurers, i.e., refusals to provide health insurance coverage for those with existing illnesses and conditions. How to do this &#8212; individual mandates, employer mandates, single payer, etc. &#8212; remains controversial, but the goal is widely [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2009/02/who-should-manage-your-care/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Marrying the Medical Home and Hospital Readmissions</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Demonstration projects are underway all across the country to improve the quality of primary care delivery by encouraging implementation of the “patient-centered medical home.”  The most common approach is to convince health insurance plans and/or other healthcare payers to increase their payments to a primary care practice if it meets certain standards, most commonly the medical [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2009/01/marrying-the-medical-home-and-hospital-readmissions/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Healthcare Payment Systems Let Convenience, Not Value, Drive Healthcare Spending</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last fall demonstrates how current healthcare payment systems encourage higher costs with no better value. A retired university professor found that an anti-nausea drug (Zofran) that he was paying $557 per month for at his local Rite Aid was available from an independent pharmacy for $46.58.    This is not [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2009/01/healthcare-payment-systems-let-convenience-not-value-drive-healthcare-spending/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Pay Too Little, or Cost Too Much?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[On December 9, the leaders of three national groups &#8212; the American Hospital Association (AHA), America&#8217;s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) &#8212; jointly released a study by Milliman, Inc. designed to measure the aggregate amount that was being &#8220;cost-shifted&#8221; to private insurance plans due to underpayment by Medicare [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://chqpr.org/blog/index.php/2008/12/pay-too-little-or-cost-too-much/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>
