Marketing: Coupons For Healthcare

Healthcare providers are getting into social marketing, using newer electronic content forms to reach new patients. For their part, consumers don't see much of a problem cashing in a coupon with an unknown provider, at least for some types of procedure.
Responding to a promotion for optometrist and optician services, one customer says that "The timing was right so I jumped on it," referring to an offer through Groupon, a daily coupon emailed to tens of thousands of people in the Baltimore region and millions more nationwide. "I'd be more cautious about laser surgery or hair removal. That would take more research. But this worked out..." Groupon's "Deal of the Day" targets consumers who sign up for the daily offers, which tend to promote restaurants, hotels, spas, and the like. But healthcare providers are gradually learning to use the new promotional venue, and with good results reported so far. I myself wear glasses -- glasses that I purchased through a coupon from a provider I had never visited before. Read an article in the Baltimore Sun...

$727 Million to Health Centers

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration announced $742 million from HHS will go to community health centers nationwide to build new medical clinics and bring technology in older clinics up to speed. This is in addition to the more than $2 billion already allocated to health centers from stimulus funds.

New Web-based Tool Improves Chronic Care

Say you're a physician caring for diabetes and heart disease patients. Would you like to have a tireless chronic care expert elf poring over your patients' records every night, comparing their care with evidence-based practices, looking for things you might not notice? Kaiser Permanente's lead author of an American Journal of Managed Care study, Adrianne Feldstein, MD, thinks maybe you should. "Patients in the U.S. receive only about half of the preventive and follow-up care now recommended by national guidelines," says Dr. Feldstein. A new web-based Panel Support Tool (PST) extracts information from the electronic medical record and compares it to care recommended by national guidelines. Read the article in Healthcare IT News.

Software List Released by Feds

The Office of the National Coordinator (of health information technology transformation) has released the first list of certified EHR systems. “Only those EHR technologies appearing on [our list] may be granted the reporting number that will be accepted by CMS for purposes of attestation under the EHR incentive program,” says the federal office in charge of certifying electronic health record systems. What does the wonk-speak mean? Only the listed EHRs will qualify physicians and other heathcare providers for Medicare and Medicaid incentives under the HITECH act - worth substantial reimbursement boosts to providers who have installed the systems. Not on the list = no bonus bucks. The certified EHR products are listed here.

Primary Care Providers' Role in Mental Health Increases

Reaching the mental heathcare provider may mean casting a wider net. The Center for American Progress published a study last month finding that more than 50% of patients treated for a mental illness are being treated for part of their condition by a primary care provider. The study, reported by the Associated Press, shows that more than a third of mentally ill patients in the health system are going only to primary care providers. Read the article...