Tiny camera, big picture The 35 mm Polaroid Cube is a tiny but powerful camera designed to support Micro SD up to 32GB. It’s weatherproof, shockproof and mountable, and the built-in battery allows the user to record for up to 90 minutes at a time. For use when water skiing, scuba diving and more, the 1.34 x 1.34 inch, cube-shaped Polaroid Cube with Wi-Fi also can connect with … [Read more...]
Medicare Spending
A look at where the dollars are going Educate your customers, dazzle your boss, by reciting recently released data from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), an independent agency established in 1997 to advise the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program. Total spending Overall spending. In 2015, total national health care spending was … [Read more...]
‘Meaningful Use’ Grows Up
By David Thill New EHR reporting program accommodates practices’ unique patient populations. MACRA – the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 – replaces the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) with the Quality Payment Program (QPP), in an effort to emphasize the quality – over quantity – of services provided to patients. (Read Repertoire’s February … [Read more...]
What it Takes to Survive
By bringing urgent care centers into its fold, Banner Health believes it will serve more patients with higher quality care In our April issue, Repertoire wrote about urgent care centers, including a recent trend in which IDNs acquire and operate urgent care centers. One recent example is the 2016 acquisition of Urgent Care Extra’s 32 Arizona locations by Phoenix-based … [Read more...]
Planning Ahead
By David Thill IDNS must have a merger and acquisition project plan in place prior to acquisitions Banner Health’s recent acquisition of a chain of urgent care centers affected Banner’s supply chain “on various levels,” says Raymond Davis, senior director of supply chain medicine division and non-acute services at Banner. But the Phoenix, Ariz.-based IDN was ready for the … [Read more...]
Healthy Reps: A Good Night’s Sleep
The benefits, and risks, of sleep “As far as I know, the only reason we need to sleep that is really, really solid is because we get sleepy,” William Dement, retired dean of sleep studies at Stanford University, said in an interview for a 2010 National Geographic article, “The Secrets of Sleep.” Unfortunately, continued writer D.T. Max, “the reverse is not always true; we … [Read more...]
CMS Payment Update
By Linda Rouse O’Neill, Vice President, Government Affairs HHS ups hospital payments, while MedPAC seeks to Limit extended care payments In April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its first payment update since President Trump took office, increasing payments to hospitals and offering insights into the White House’s priorities. The rule also … [Read more...]
What Do You Stand For?
By Randy Chittum, Ph.D. What do you stand for? This may be the most important question any of us will answer in our lifetimes. It is even more critical for leaders to be “in” this question. We make a basic distinction between beliefs and values. For our purposes, beliefs are ideas that you support. Beliefs do not necessitate action. Values, on the other hand, are … [Read more...]
Publisher’s Letter
The Next 100 Days For the past few weeks all we have heard about is President Trump’s first 100 days. Frankly, who cares? Let’s talk about the next 100 days. Summer is always a good time to reset and get ready for selling season when kids are back in school, but this year, what if you worked on the basics in your territory? My guess is it would help your customers, and … [Read more...]