AHA Urges Congress to Remove Legal Barriers to Value-Based Payment Arrangements

Congress should adopt a single broad exception to federal fraud and abuse laws for financial relationships designed to foster collaboration, efficiencies and improvements in health care, AHA told leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees today. Read More   

How a New Payment Stream Could Come to Senior Care

As baby boomers age over the next several decades, the demand for senior care options will increase-and there currently are limited ways for middle-income earners to pay for these services. Read More  

Have you posted, tweeted, pinned, liked, shared or checked-in today? If so, you're one of over a billion people worldwide who regularly connect to social media. With the benefits and conveniences of social media also come risks. Follow these best practices to protect yourself: 

Not all data breaches are the result of malicious activity. Sometimes well-intentioned employees cause breaches by forgetting to pick up a printout, including the wrong person in an e-mail or by not disposing of a sensitive document properly. Follow the tips below to make sure you don't cause a data breach when delivering sensitive documents - via e-mail, FAX, or regular mail.

Nana Adabie was a relatively new nurse when Arthur was admitted to Kindred Transitional Care and Rehabilitation -- Lawton in San Francisco. Arthur was under her care while he recovered from a below-the-knee amputation as well as from an infection he had incurred. As it would turn out, while Nana was helping Arthur recover and gain strength to go home, Arthur was helping Nana grow as a nurse, and gain confidence.

"I had been working here for a few months as a brand new nurse... but Arthur still managed to make me feel like a very great nurse," Nana recollected. "He was so positive in everything that he did. So positive, that I felt like his energy flowed throughout the whole facility."

The use of mobile devices has helped Kindred to become more efficient, productive and effective in how we do business - from the board room to the exam room. The convenience of having data on hand whenever and wherever we need it has to be balanced with the risks of device or data loss, theft or exposure. Remember to follow these simple security safeguards whenever you use mobile devices:

Federal Agency Offers $15 Million to Support Aging In Place

In yet another move signaling the federal government's intention to increase home health services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is making $15 million available to test a new model to help seniors age in place. Read More    

States Find It Hard and Expensive to Coordinate Care for Duals

States say it's harder and more expensive than initially predicted to coordinate care for the roughly 9 million people who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Read More  

Are Dual-Eligible Demos Succeeding? GAO Says it Will Be Hard to Tell

The CMS needs to do a better job overseeing the 12 state-administered demonstration programs intended to improve care of people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Read More   

AHA Issue Brief Looks at Bundled Payment Initiatives

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Bundled Payment for Care Improvement and Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement initiatives will be important tests of how well Medicare bundled payment efforts can encourage hospitals, physicians, and post-acute care providers to coordinate care to lower spending and improve quality and the patient experience, according to an issue brief released today by the AHA. Read More  

Every day, patients are brought into emergency rooms or other medical scenarios. Often, depending on their symptoms and situations, they are unable to let the clinicians know certain medical information that may be critical to their care and recovery. As medical providers, Kindred Healthcare and our clinicians are familiar with patients' medical information as it pertains to charts, patient interactions and patient advocates. While our facilities generally don't operate typical emergency room settings, we understand the benefits of having your medical information on hand in case of emergency.

Over the years, many of us have been advised to save our next-of-kin or emergency contacts in our contacts list under the moniker "ICE," short for "In Case of Emergency." The problem with this practice in today's world is that many of us lock our phones, so no emergency medical providers or first responders would ever be able to access a full list of contacts.

On October 9th, I was handed an envelope. In it was a story - a patient's story.

"Life is a celebration of that which we can do, not a requiem for which we cannot do," the story began. "Goals are the results toward which our efforts are directed."

The letter, handwritten by former patient Gayle, continued…

Gayle tells the full story of her recovery, beginning with the moment her left arm started to lose feeling. She went through a multitude of tests, x-rays and MRIs which culminated in a cervical surgery the day before her daughter's birthday. The surgery, although successful, was painful for Gayle, and she went home after spending three days in the intensive care unit. 

Healthcare Expected to Drive Big M&A Activity Again in 2016

Healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are expected to produce the most merger and acquisitions activity this year behind only the technology sector, according to a new survey by accounting and consulting giant KPMG. Read More   

Twenty Years in, the Hospitalist Landscape is Shifting-and Prompting New Debates

The drive for efficiency in health care has led to a boom in hospitalists-and growing pains for the profession as hospitals seek to increase efficiency and demonstrate high quality outcomes, reports the New York Times. Read More