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Unraveling Medicare: A look at Medicare Advantage plans
As Medicare Part D gets under way, attention has largely focused on the prescription drug benefits offered through stand-alone prescription drug plans, or PDPs. Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans (MA-PDPs) are an alternative that could provide seniors an opportunity to save on premiums and co-pays for hospital and doctor fees in addition to gaining a prescription drug benefit.
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Pay-for-performance measurement helps set the bar for quality, efficient care
It is documented that the cost of healthcare has been soaring over the past decade. This could be considered acceptable or at least understandable if the quality of care were improving at the same time. However, evidence shows that quality of care has not been improving, at least not in a significant way. As a result, high healthcare costs accompanied by variable healthcare quality have become a key political issue, a major concern for consumers, and a business worry for health plans and employers who know that improved healthcare quality will result in healthier patients with lower healthcare costs.
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Challenges of pulmonary hypertension make it an ideal candidate for DM
Today's approach to interventions that address chronic disease and conditions is both broader and deeper than ever before. But there is another group of patients who rarely, if ever, directly benefit from these programs. According to Alan Wright, MD, former chief medical officer of TheraCom, these are patients who might use more than $100,000 a year in pharmaceutical spending and/or resources, patients who have a disease that is progressive with no known cure.
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Computerized order entry brings practice protocol off the shelf
Ask Brian Jacobs, MD, director of technology and patient safety at Cincinnati Children's Hospital to outline the benefits of the hospital's new computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system, and be prepared for a lengthy conversation. It's not that Dr. Jacobs is verbose. Rather, the benefits are far-flung and, two years after the system was implemented, are still being uncovered.
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