by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Accountable Care “Smackdown” The American Medical Group Association represents about 400 very large and sophisticated multi-specialty physicians groups, such as the Cleveland Clinic group and Intermountain (Utah) group. The Obama administration had counted on these groups to be the first to create Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), starting […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Human Resources: Coincidence or Trend I have been around a long time, and have worked with and taught many people, so I get calls from people on career and workplace advice (I also have done expert witness work on certain aspects of employment practices). In the past two weeks I […]
Health Care Thoughts: ACO Draft Regulations On March 31st the Obama administration issued the draft regulations for Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). ACOs are to eventually be the centerpiece of cost savings for the entire US health care system. This is the first peak at how the ACOs might be defined. In the “they never […]
Health Care: Defining an ACO Having recently plowed through about hundreds of pages on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and Integrated Delivery Systems (IDSs), I should know how to define an ACO. But I don’t know, not exactly. Using an old Supreme Court standard, I know one when I see it, I think, because of certain […]
Health Care thought: Cost versus Benefit Sixteen year old Wes Leonard made a dramatic last second shot to win a tournament game for Fenville High School in Michigan. Then he fell on the floor and died from cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart. Every year young athletes die during and after games, many in […]
Health care thought for a cold day: If members of Congress feel so strongly about not doing anything about health care costs, perhaps we should stop providing them with health insurance. Let’s credit their pay for the amount that has been paid by the taxpayers, and let them try to buy health insurance in the […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Policy Confusion The Obama administrative, and especially the Department of Health and Human Services, is pushing the notion of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and similar innovative integration strategies to improve the cost-benefit ratio of health care services. This is integral to PPACA (“Obamacare.”) ACOs and other integrated provider […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Social Media: Is the Boss a Bleep? The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) forced a settlement on American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. after AMR fired an employee (and Teamsters member) who went home from work and profanely blasted her supervisor as being mentally ill on Facebook. Other employees posted […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Cameras in the Delivery Room? In the old days the delivery of a baby was a medical procedure and dad was relegated to the waiting room. Then we went all new age, and the delivery became a tribal event. Now we seem to have reached a nice middle […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Privacy and SecurityTechnology both enabled these offenses and enabled the discovery of the offenses. First: Three employees and a contract nurse were terminated from the Tuscon University Medical Center for looking at medical records of the Tuscon shooting victims. None are accused of leaking any information. Second: Darling […]