One In Three Beneficiaries Now In Medicare Advantage Program

Medicare Advantage hit a milestone this year, with 19 million beneficiaries enrolled in an MA plan. Enrollment has increased 71% since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. Read More   

The March Of Rising Healthcare Costs Has Slowed, But It's Still Unsustainable

While the era of double-digit growth in healthcare costs seems to have ended, the "new normal" pace of around 6% to 7% a year is still unsustainable, according to a new study. Read More   

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For the eighth time, Kindred Healthcare has been named by Fortune as one of the World's Most Admired Healthcare Companies. Each year, Fortune partners with Korn Ferry Hay group, a global organizational advisory group.

 

Together they survey top industry minds and leaders, including executives, directors and securities analysts. These industry elites span 680 of the world's highest-revenue companies in 28 countries and across more than 51 industries. Additionally, each company's score must be in the top 50% of the industry survey in order to be listed.

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It's the time of snow and ice, trees and tinsel, naughty and nice. Yes, the holiday season has arrived, and with it, a unique set of accidents and hospital visits. The most recent revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) was recently released by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The updated lists holds more than 14,000 codes, 16,000 with optional sub-classifications, of diseases, symptoms, complaints and external causes of injury or disease. But we have narrowed this down to the top ten potential codes that our clinicians may need to know during the holiday and winter months.

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ICD-10 One Year Later: The Terror is Over, the Rewards Yet to Materialize

It's been a year since the big lift of converting the entire claim stream for the healthcare industry to the larger and more granular ICD-10 family of diagnostic and procedural codes. Read More   

Hospitals Add Nearly 7,000 Jobs in September

Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.1% in September to a seasonally adjusted 5,110,200 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Read More  

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For some, Thanksgiving is about family and giving thanks, for others it is about football or shopping. Regardless of what or why you are celebrating, there are plenty of accidents that land people in the emergency rooms, from deep-fried chicken incidents to Black Friday stampedes.

Luckily, in 2015, the most recent revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) was released by the World Health Organization (WHO). The updated lists holds more than 14,000 codes, and 16,000 with optional sub-classifications of diseases, symptoms, complaints and external causes of injury or disease.

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To continue our efforts of constantly improving our patients' care and outcomes, we are investing in new ways to support our physicians - a Pillar of Clinical Excellence here at Kindred. Kindred's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marc Rothman, addressed our company-wide commitment to our physicians in a recent video.  

As noted, our world and the healthcare landscape are constantly changing, so we must adapt with it, ensuring our physicians have the tools and resources they need to be successful.

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The eighth annual Kindred Clinical Impact Symposium has officially come to a close. Luckily, we live-blogged the whole event, so you can always find that content right here on the Kindred Continuum. Here's a look at each of the speakers and panels in order: 

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If you're in the room with Tori Murden McClure it's hard not to feel like an underachiever. Currently the President of Spalding University in Louisville, she has worked for the Mayor of Louisville and Muhammad Ali. She graduated from Smith, has a master's degree in divinity from Harvard, a law degree from the University of Louisville, and an MFA from Spalding.

Along the way, she's climbed mountains, traveled to the South Pole, and rowed alone across the Atlantic. She didn't need to tell us her story about her ocean voyage. Instead, she shared a TED Talk video with singer/songwriter Dawn Landis, who turned McClure's story into a song. Landis called it "A song for my hero, the woman who rowed into a hurricane."

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As you may already know, palliative care is the management of physical, emotional, social and spiritual suffering. It also involves directed treatments related to chronic, life-threatening or terminal pain and disease. Most important, palliative care means improving the quality of care through communication and informed decision making. It is a HOLISTIC approach.

Palliative care is NOT a single treatment algorithm and not limited to end-of-life care or restricted to pain management, nor is it only appropriate for cancer-related diagnoses.

"It has been the biggest battle with healthcare providers to separate the differences between hospice and palliative care," explained Dr. Riar. He then clarified that hospice is an insurance-provided service and palliative is a way of improving quality of life.

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As part of Kindred's celebration honoring veterans in our country, Divisional Vice President Selece Beasley paid tribute to the men and women who have served over the years, including both her father and grandfather.

The service and sacrifice of these veterans, she noted, is humbling. She is proud that Kindred is able to help care for veterans and proud of the employees who provide that care. She shared the story of Julius Lenhbeuter, a World War II veteran and Kindred hospice patient in St. Louis.

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