New Healthcare Policies/Regulations Which Affect Private Practices

Whether your private practice is in the health sector or not, it still will be affected by the health policies developed and changed. Below are some of the health regulations that affect the private practice.

No Lifetime Or Annual Limits On Coverage

There are varying health plans available for employees to take advantage of, some more generous than others. But even the most generous plans had maximum coverage limits of several million dollars prior to the passing of the health law. Some plans even feature annual coverage limits. The health law has since eliminated the coverage limits on these plans.

No Waiting Before Joining A Plan

Employers in the past could make their new employees wait for an indefinite period of time before they became eligible for coverage under the company’s plan. This is now a thing of the past. New health policies have made it that the waiting time for joining company coverage is nothing more than 90 days from the date of joining the company/business.

External Appeal Rights Are Guaranteed

Those consumers who for any reason disagree with the decision of a health plan to deny payment or benefits for their services, can proceed to appeal the said decision to an autonomous review panel. This health policy applies to new health plans without exception. This includes those that are provided by self-funding companies that cater to the claims of their workers directly and who were previously not included in the policy.

Coverage For Adult Kids Expanded

The health policy allows all workers to include their children in their health plans until they reach 26 years of age. This is irrespective of the fact that they may be married, living in a different state, or financially independent.

Standardized Plans Should Be Described

The health policy requires that all plans come with a summary of their coverage and benefits in a standardized format which allows consumers to understand the coverage and make comparisons between their plans.

These are some of the health care policies that will affect private practices. There are several but these are the main ones affecting private businesses and that to a large extent, favor consumers of health plans.

Leading Management Solutions is a healthcare management solutions company providing assistance and resources to healthcare management. Contact us today at (407) 674-1916 or visit www.lmshealthpro.com. to learn more.

About the Author:
Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

Cheap and Quick Medical Equipment

According to AdvaMed, (Advanced Medical Technology Association), it’s a known truth that healthcare equipment is very expensive. Overall spending upon medical devices within the United States reached around $150 billion within the year 2010, or around 5¢ of every healthcare dollar. Thereby, 3D-printing splints that healthcare facilities may utilize prior to surgeries or additional necessary healing means might result in saving large sums of money. Plus, there already are brilliant examples in the marketplace on how you can do it!

Finger splints

A Steinert High School senior, Ian McHale, crafted blueprints for generating finger splints.  One low-end three-dimensional printer may print the splint affordably and quickly, around two cents worth of plastic within roughly 10 minutes! For developing countries, in which splints often can only be ordered from overseas in bulk, it might mean the most affordable solution for poorer communities. It could easily serve personal needs at the same time.

Tumor models

Also, 3D printing may assist medical research and the results of complicated operations and particularly difficult cases. Scientists in the US and China both have three-dimensional models of cancerous tumors to help discovery of fresh anti–cancer drugs, as well as to better comprehend how tumors spread, grow, and develop.

Organ models

Also, researchers have utilized animal heart scans to develop printed models, and then added, on top of these models, stretchy electronics. This material may be peeled off a printed model and then wrapped around an actual heart for the perfect fit. Another step includes enhancing the electronics using several sensors.

How does 3D printed medical equipment save lives?

In 2011, Kaiba Gionfriddo was born prematurely. After eight months, the development of his lungs caused concerns, even though Kaiba was released to his parents when his breathing was normal. Kaiba, six weeks later, stopped breathing and turned blue. His caregivers printed a three-dimensional bioresorbable device which immediately helped him breathe.

Leading Management Solutions is a healthcare management solutions company providing assistance and resources to healthcare management. Contact us today at (407) 674-1916 or visit www.lmshealthpro.com to learn more.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

How to Improve Productivity in Healthcare

Originally published on February 28, 2017 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

The movement from volume to value based care, as well as alternative payment models are going to require institutions to discover new methods of increasing productivity.

"In healthcare today, an increase in productivity is a skill" writes Joe Flower in an article for Hospitals and Health Networks.

Even though it might not be simple to do more with less, it’s possible to discover methods of being more productive. Below are some of his recommendations:

If you change your structure of payment, be certain your productivity metric will match it. It’ll make it simpler to notice productivity problems. Flower utilizes the example of an institution which moves a pain office from a model that is fee-for-service to a per-employee-per-month agreement for a warehousing business. If the institution performs an MRI on all patients, it’ll raise costs and lower productivity.

Redesign all EHRs to reflect clinical workflow. Many systems are not built around patient needs or clinician workflow. The poor interface and poor structure causes productivity problems.

Be certain new technologies help with productivity. Newer technology, like robotics and artificial intelligence, actually can slow productivity if it makes clinicians adapt to this technology rather than being certain the technology meets the necessities of clinical workflow. However, if utilized in the right way, it may decrease administrative tasks and mistakes. Flower states great examples of technologies which have increased productivity are IBM Watson and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Oncology Expert Advisor.

And last but not least, lobby against all increased regulations. It is hard for any institution to completely comply with all the regulations presently in place. Joe Flower advocates for providers to organize and lobby to persuade state and federal agencies and additional regulators to take data from a standardized information set derived right from each institution’s electronic records.

For more details contact Leading Management Solutions at (407) 674-1916.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

5 Predictions for Healthcare in 2017

Originally published on www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

Join us as we gaze into our snow-covered crystal ball for 5 predictions for healthcare in 2017.

Video games that promote health and wellness are going to make waves

Everybody was abuzz in 2016 about Pokemon Go’s capability of getting individuals outdoors. We expect this success to run over into the healthcare sector in which “gamification” long has been a buzzword, yet there has not been enough understanding that surrounds its possible impact, which only led to half-hearted attempts. We expect even more games to be introduced in 2017 which build upon this principle. If you need some inspiration, I recommend peering across the pond to the Netherlands in which the organization Grendel Games has been developing healthcare-facing games which feel like actual video games. Here’s one example of making rehabilitation exercises a joy by permitting individuals to play as a gryphon, and here’s a puzzle game which stimulates surgery functions and may be utilized to maintain and train laparoscopic skills. Our guess for 2017 (which piggybacks on TechCrunch’s piece): huge strides in games utilizing virtual reality that promotes mental health.

Someone is going to raise a lot of funds to create WeWork/WeLive for the elderly

We think in 2017 a company is going to make inroads in reimagining the concept of assisted living by developing a community concentrated housing choice for seniors. We witnessed how WeWork took the movement of co-working and turned it upside down by making huge real estate investments and developing a certain experience for its users. Since then they’ve moved into co-living for young, hip professionals using WeLive, yet where’s the solution that targets the 60 and up crowd? By this time in 2018, we believe the leader in this area is going to become a lot more clear and we’ll be better off for it.

Infrastructure failing will cause a public health disaster that is similar to Flint, Michigan

The water crisis in Flint is a horrifying and well-documented case of the possible population health concerns of a crumbling infrastructure, and we do not think it’s the last. It’s a case of the piper coming by to collect his debts and more neighborhoods are going to be rocked before enough focus is put on investing in our infrastructure around the nation to prevent catastrophes in the future. This author’s hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin currently is handling a massive issue of lead in water pipes and we foresee likewise stories popping up all throughout 2017.

Medical diagnostic devices for in-home use revolutionize Telemedicine and will become ubiquitous such as Fitbit

Groups such as Tytocare finally have gained approval by the FDA to bring consumer-facing, clinical grade, easy-to-use devices allowing patients to administer readings on loved ones and themselves that may be utilized by caregivers. We foresee a skyrocketing of such devices in houses countrywide over the course of this new year.

We’ll witness a substantial increase in voluntary healthcare/services for the wealthy

We have witnessed the cryotherapy trend explode in the fitness community, as well as subscription healthcare services such as Parsley Health are starting to target the Lululemon-and-pressed-juice consumer, and offer advanced wellness and health coaching beyond the traditional primary care doctor. We foresee more entrepreneurs developing healthcare-facing options that just target America’s wealthiest. 

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927