Midmark trade-in program results in nearly 1,000 exam tables donated to World Vision
Midmark Corp., announced its 2021 trade-in program collected 1,000 eligible exam tables. The tables were donated primarily to World Vision, where they are refurbished and delivered to clinics that provide healthcare to children and families in remote areas of developing countries. The donation, valued at approximately $500,000, is the largest one-time donation of tables from Midmark’s trade-in program.
“At Midmark, we believe that all patients deserve accessible, quality healthcare and are committed to doing our part to make this happen,” said Kurt Forsthoefel, director of medical marketing, Midmark. “Through our unique trade-in program and our longstanding relationship with World Vision, Midmark is helping provide better care and improve medical services that impact lives around the world.”
As part of its trade-in program, Midmark offers customers rebates on eligible products purchased with a valid equipment trade-in. Eligible products purchased include Midmark IQecg, Midmark HEINE diagnostic instruments and Midmark Barrier-Free exam chairs. Midmark has donated approximately 10,000 tables to World Vision since the beginning of its relationship with the organization in 2005. These tables have been given to clinics all around the world, including in Ghana, Nicaragua, Zambia and Burundi.
“We value our relationship with Midmark and appreciate everything the company and its teammates do to help ensure the equipment continues to play a role in providing quality care to those in need,” said Jack Laverty, director of corporate engagement, World Vision. “This year’s donation was especially challenging given the logistical constraints being felt around the globe. Midmark and its customers really stepped up, covering freight charges and donating labor to help the equipment get to where it needed to be.”
Along with increasing access to quality care in remote areas, there is also a sustainability benefit to this year’s donation of 1,000 exam tables. Each exam table weighs about 400 pounds, which means 200 tons of equipment was saved from being placed in landfills.
Cardinal Health introduces new RCM solutions
Cardinal Health is launching a new, robust suite of revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions and consulting services to help specialty physician practices simplify payer contracting, streamline prior authorization and maximize financial performance. These solutions will help practices achieve their financial goals and create efficiencies so staff members can increase their focus on patient care. Initially, the RCM suite will be offered to rheumatology and ophthalmology practices, with plans to expand to other therapeutic areas in the future.
Cardinal Health is collaborating with PayrHealth and eBlu Solutions to offer a payer contracting solution and prior authorization solution respectively. The full RCM suite will build on technology that Cardinal Health already offers to customers. Advanced Practice Analytics combines clinical, financial, and operational data to provide actionable insights through up-to-date dashboards with drill down capabilities, allowing practices to isolate root cause issues that impact revenue cycle performance. This comprehensive data helps providers improve their operational processes, cash flow, reimbursement performance and payer negotiations.
“Payer contracts and prior authorization processes are complicated, and specialty physician offices spend significant time navigating changing requirements, gathering data for payer contract negotiations, supporting prior authorizations, and keeping track of where the process stands for each payer and each patient,” said Amy Valley, vice president, Clinical Strategy & Technology Solutions at Cardinal Health. “We are very excited to partner with PayrHealth and eBlu Solutions – companies that keep patients at the heart of what they do – to bring meaningful efficiencies and cost savings to practices so they can focus on patient care.”
OraSure to supply “Together Take Me Home” HIV self-testing initiative sponsored by CDC
OraSure Technologies announced that it has been selected to provide its OraQuick® In-Home HIV tests in support of the CDC “Together Take Me Home” HIV self-test program. Under the program, the CDC will provide $41.5 million over a five-year period to support community testing. Emory University will manage the program and closely collaborate with a number of partner organizations, including OraSure, to supply tests to communities not equitably reached by HIV testing services across the United States.
Almost 1.2 million people aged 13 and older have HIV in the United States, including an estimated 158,500 who don’t know they have it. Identifying these individuals and linking them to care is a crucial element of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative and empowers these individuals and their communities to take control of their healthcare. The “Together Take Me Home” program helps address testing barriers, including stigma, privacy concerns, cost, and lack of access to traditional HIV clinics by offering HIV self-tests through mail delivery. This program follows a successful collaborative pilot program by the same name, for which OraSure also supplied tests.
As part of the program, OraSure will provide up to 1 million OraQuick® In-Home HIV tests over a five- year period. Emory University and partner organizations will manage the program and provide logistical and distribution services for the tests. A free HIV self-test will be mailed in discreet packages to people who enroll through its website. The program will target populations that are disproportionately affected by HIV and less likely to have access to key prevention services.
“We are proud to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Emory to help support broader HIV testing and awareness in underserved communities across the United States,” said Lisa Nibauer, President of Diagnostics for OraSure Technologies. “Programs such as the Together Take Me Home initiative show that the government can take an active role in making a difference against the major public health crises that we face as a country and to support marginalized populations. We firmly believe that these programs reduce the spread of diseases that disproportionately affect marginalized communities and lower overall cost to the healthcare system by identifying patients early, connecting them to care, and allowing for successful interventions that lead to empowering lives informed by ones HIV status.”
Study shows that administrative waste comprises 15% to 20% of healthcare spending
New research from Health Affairs finds that “between 15% to 30% of all medical spending in the US is attributable to administrative spending, which totaled between $285 million and $570 million in 2019.” The report also found that a lot of this money doesn’t contribute to patient care or health outcomes in any way.
Healthcare Finance News writes “Some of the estimates contained in the data encompass only billing- and insurance-related expenses and, as a result, are lower than those that include both billing- and insurance-related and non–billing- and insurance-related costs. But even at the lower end of estimates, U.S. spending on administrative costs annually accounts for twice the spending on care for cardiovascular disease and three times the spending for cancer care.”
In this area, the U.S. is spending more in healthcare administration than its peers – one estimate found that the U.S. spends $1,055 per capita on administrative costs. From the same data, the country with the next highest spending per capita is Germany at $306.
The authors of the study found that the federal government will likely need to advise on how to move things in the right direction, saying “No single intervention is likely to make a significant dent in the system’s administrative burden, and efforts to address administrative waste are only effective if they do not impose greater costs than they save.”