NEW YORK (Reuters)—U.S. hospitals urged antitrust regulators this week to consider whether health insurer Anthem Inc’s planned acquisition of rival Cigna Corp would boost healthcare costs. In a letter to the Department of Justice, the hospital industry’s largest lobbying group said combining the No. 1 and No. 5 health insurers threatens to reduce competition in…
Precision Medicine in Rheumatology May Improve Diagnosis, Disease Classification
In an interview with The Rheumatologist, J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, discusses the benefits and complications of precision medicine for rheumatologists and their patients, including advances in genetics, diagnostic tools and targeted treatments…
Medicare Rule May Needlessly Extend Some Hospital Stays
(Reuters Health)—A decades old Medicare rule requiring a three-day hospital stay before patients can transfer to skilled nursing facilities may needlessly prolong hospitalizations, a study suggests. Researchers compared the average time patients were hospitalized between 2006 and 2010 in privately administered Medicare Advantage health plans that either stuck to this rule or allowed people to…
37,000 U.S. Infection-Related Deaths Preventable Over 5 Years
(Reuters)—Closer coordination between healthcare facilities and public health departments could save 37,000 U.S. lives over five years by preventing infections from antibiotic-resistant germs and from Clostridium difficile, according to a government report released on Tuesday. Germs that no longer respond to antibiotics cause more than 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths each year in the…
Fulfilling ‘Three Wishes’ Helps ICU Staff Honor Dying Patients
(Reuters Health)—Doctors and nurses in a Canadian intensive care unit found that asking dying patients—or their families—to make three simple wishes, and then fulfilling those wishes, helped bring peace to the end-of-life process and ease grief. Patients and families were invited to participate in the “Three Wishes Project” after a decision was made to withdraw…
Bigger May Not Be Better for China’s ‘Super Hospitals’
ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters)—Just before midnight, the pavement outside the glowing high-rise towers of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University is littered with slumbering bodies. Splayed on colourful mats or tucked into folding cots, these are patients’ relatives. Inside, beds line hallways and crowd elevator lobbies, while relatives share gurneys with patients and doze in…
Prepare NOW for ICD-10 Medical Coding Transition
The ICD-10 page on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website features a countdown clock that shows the time left until Oct. 1, 2015, the date on which compliance with the new code set becomes mandatory. By the time this issue goes to press, the clock will read 90 or fewer days. Time…
Healthcare Office Design Can Make a Positive Difference for Rheumatology Patients
When designing healthcare spaces to foster wellness, you should first understand the particular patient illness being served and then determine that population’s fundamental needs. “Providers who serve patients with rheumatoid conditions should identify the range of clinical presentations specific to their patient population,” advises Sharon E. Woodworth, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, Healthcare Practice Leader, Perkins+Will Architects,…
How to Launch Successful Rheumatology Patient Advocacy Programs
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a two-part series showing how a busy office-based practice can incorporate patient advocacy into its standard workflow. In Part 1, we looked at the reasons for incorporating patient advocacy into your practice and offered an outline for implementing it. Part 2 amplifies the concepts explored in Part…
How to Deliver Difficult News about Patients’ Diagnoses
Telling a patient that he or she has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis, fibromyalgia or another debilitating, painful and/or chronic condition can be upsetting for a patient to hear and difficult for a rheumatologist to convey. Given this, it’s important to prepare for the appointment. “Take a few minutes beforehand to contemplate…
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