Post Acute State Medicaid agencies fail to report critical information about assisted living services State Medicaid agencies covering assisted living services are failing to report some critical information about beneficiaries’ health and welfare, according to the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), which released a report in January. According to the … [Read more...]
RepCorner: Sarah Alasya
Save a Victim Drunk-driving tragedy spurs Sarah Alasya to help others avoid making a fatal mistake Don’t drink and drive. It’s life-saving advice, which Sarah Alasya takes seriously. In fact, over the past four years, she has helped around 500 people avoid making that mistake. Alasya is Midwest division manager, physician office division, for Medline. For Alasya, it’s … [Read more...]
What if the United States had the best healthcare and nobody showed up?
By Bruce Stanley What happens when care becomes cost-prohibitive? We routinely hear about how great healthcare is in this country, with our state-of-the-art technologies, digital health, and the best labs, doctors, distribution network, products, treatments, medications, innovation, hospitals, etc. Often the pundits say if only we could run it like a “real” business, we … [Read more...]
To Win ASCs’ Business, Understand Their Unique Needs
Smart Selling: Distributor Sales Strategies From HIDA By Elizabeth Hilla, Senior Vice President, Health Industry Distributors Association Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) increasingly deliver complex medical care, as more procedures move from inpatient to outpatient settings. Surgery centers are projected to increase their share of all outpatient surgery types by the end … [Read more...]
Rep Corner: Lee Crane
Sales Pro Unhappy customers have one thing in common: They have long memories. It’s a lesson Lee Crane learned years ago as a golf pro, and one he keeps in mind today as a territory manager for MedPro Associates, the national contracted sales firm specializing in the healthcare industry. Crane lives in Houston and services South Texas and Louisiana, but it’s still … [Read more...]
Stop Making Sense
Industry experts share their insights into recent headlines of acquisitions, mergers in healthcare. “Stop making sense.” The title of the afore-mentioned 1984 Talking Heads movie comes to mind when trying to interpret this winter’s flurry of healthcare-related announcements: CVS Health to acquire Aetna (Dec 3). Advocate Health to merge with Aurora Health Care (Dec … [Read more...]
Fee-for-service still reigns
But alternative payment methods are catching on Fee-for-service may be on a decline, but it maintains a strong grip on physician practices, at least for now. At the same time, participation in accountable care organizations and medical homes is on the upswing. Last fall, the American Medical Association’s Division of Economic and Health Policy Research released the … [Read more...]
The Case for Complexity
By Jim Poggi How to help your physician office customers go from waived to moderate complexity lab One of the customer situations distributor account managers struggle with is taking a customer from a waived lab to a moderate complexity lab. Even though this move can help customers with office efficiency, better patient outcomes and the opportunity for additional revenue, … [Read more...]
Home Care in 2018
Slightly bruised by regulations, home care agencies can use help from their distributors. And they’re getting it. With an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day, it’s a safe bet that home care will play a growing role in the future of U.S healthcare. For one thing, surveys indicate that aging Boomers prefer home care to institutional care. For … [Read more...]
Patients, Payers Cut Costs with ASCs
The cost of medical procedures performed at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) is generally lower than that of procedures performed at hospital inpatient departments. Both the number and range of procedures performed in ASCs has grown substantially in recent years, leading to lower costs for both public and private payers, as well as patients. By one estimate, consumers could … [Read more...]