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January 19, 2018 | Healthcare Finance News
Advisory Board will keep its brand and tap into Optum's data and capabilities. The consulting operation, which is largely in the provider space, will merge into the new model as well, since Optum's consulting business is concentrated more in other segments. The research business, however, will remain independent.
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January 8, 2018 | Modern Healthcare
"Finding ways to make these practices financially viable in the current reimbursement environment is tricky," Advisory Board’s Kristen Barlow told Alex Kacik. "But as systems transition to value-based care through ACOs, bundles or Medicare Shared Savings, there is a renewed interest in community-based, smart investments to improve care delivery." Hospital readmissions often occur because of the simplest things—inadequate food sources, loneliness or a lack of access to primary care, Barlow said. Providers are increasingly looking to cross-continuum and cross-industry collaborations to fill those gaps, she said. "There is a lot of unmet need in the senior population," Barlow said. "Community-based ports and non-healthcare service providers can provide a lot of wraparound services that impact their condition in transportation, loneliness, food—all of which are vital to physical well-being."
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January 5, 2018 | Health Data Management
While this is still a developing situation, it’s known that the security weaknesses can enable attackers to access security keys, passwords and files stored in the memory of all types of computing devices, even mobile devices. These bugs have the potential to make secrets accessible to organized cybercriminals, who could steal them without a trace, write Advisory Board’s Bethany Jones and Greg Kuhnen.
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December 1, 2017 | Managed Healthcare Executive
"The big question on everyone’s mind is, what will become of the ACA?” Advisory Board’s Zach Hafner told Karen Appold. “Addressing this question at this point requires more precision because the government is deconstructing the broader legislation and taking on various components of it."
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November 22, 2017 | Healthcare Finance News
Though hospitals and health systems have been improving important portions of their revenue cycle performance over the past two years, they continue to be dogged by elevated risks from increased denial writeoffs, bad debt and inefficiencies revealed by their persistently high costs to collect, according to Advisory Board's latest Revenue Cycle Survey.
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November 14, 2017 | Health Data Management
The truth is many executives in the healthcare industry are guilty of leaving chief nursing executives out of conversations about the HER, writes Advisory Board’s John Kontor, MD. But the reality is this stakeholder group is key to driving EHR implementation, adoption, optimization, and performance improvement.
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November 1, 2017 | Managed Care
The verdict is in: Transforming health care is harder than it looks, in part because we are navigating toward a mirage—a fuzzy vision of an idealized future state where low cost, high quality, ubiquitous access, and extraordinary customer experience are the norm, writes Advisory Board’s Zach Hafner. The challenge of course has been the absence of a roadmap for crossing the gulf between here and there, resulting in a proliferation of pilot programs and point solutions that touch different parts of the elephant but fall short of actually unifying the vision.
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September 18, 2017 | Healthcare IT News
The secret is to approach interoperability on a smaller scale and address the changes you can make more locally to move the needle forward. Interoperability is a spectrum, and the right answer for one health system may not be the same for another, Advisory Board’s Rob Barras writes.
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September 15, 2017 | Modern Healthcare
Unnecessary care is one of the biggest drivers of healthcare spending, amounting to about $350 billion a year, Advisory Board’s Braxton Millar told Alex Kacik. Technology and data are key pieces to solving the equation but ultimately, a cultural change is needed to coordinate care and integrate physicians, he said.
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August 14, 2017 | CNBC
The specialty drug market is where Amazon is likely to play first, according to Tom Cassels, a partner at Advisory Board Consulting. That would pit Amazon most directly against Express Scripts, Walgreens and CVS in selling medications for serious and complex conditions like multiple sclerosis, cancer and hemophilia. A partnership route is still a possibility, said Cassels, who has closely tracked Amazon's move into health care. "Picking a winner in specialty pharmacy and partnering with them could make more sense," he told Christina Farr.
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August 3, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
Advisory Board is a best practices firm combining research, technology and consultation to improve performance. The firm offers a population health services solution designed to help healthcare organizations transition to value-based care and deliver population health, Laura Dyrda notes.
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July 28, 2017 | Health Professional Radio
Sylvia Morris, MD, an Atlanta based internist, a Senior Medical Director on the Revenue Cycle Solutions team at Advisory Board and a contributor for the US News & World Report’s Medical School Admissions’ blog, discusses the importance of civility in health care.
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July 28, 2017 | hfm Blog
In the new reality of value-based care, physicians must understand the ins and outs of finance if they are to act as successful partners in the pursuit of the triple aim of health care. As clinicians strive to deliver—and continually improve—high quality, cost-effective care, they need a much deeper financial understanding, Advisory Board’s John Johnston and Vince Joseph write.
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July 27, 2017 | Becker’s Hospital Review
Even the best-conceived mechanics will not hold up to clashes with physician ethos, unplanned shifts in reimbursement, and mismatched system-level goals. Before an organization selects and rolls out a new compensation model, here are five strategic questions to ask, with comments from Advisory Board’s compensation experts Josh Willeford and Sarah Cavalier, Advisory Board’s Ron Charpentier writes.
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July 23, 2017 | Healthcare Informatics
One person who has spent a great deal of time helping healthcare IT leaders work through these issues is Advisory Board’s Rob Barras, who is responsible for leading pursuits on electronic health record (EHR) planning, optimization, implementation and go-live solutions.
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July 21, 2017 | Health Data Management
The goal of documenting HCCs and an accurate RAF score isn’t just appropriate care funding. At heart, these mechanisms are designed to provide clinical value. In my work helping clients optimize their EHRs to capture HCC codes, I see examples of how technology can offer up the right data, at the right time, for life-saving results, writes Advisory Board’s John Kontor, MD.
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July 15, 2017 | CNBC
"We need to be looking at validation, rather than valuation," Advisory Board’s Tom Cassels told Christina Farr. He Cassels believes companies need to demonstrate that people with costly chronic conditions are actively using it in the long-run—and that can take a while.
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July 13, 2017 | Healthcare IT News
I’ve been in health care IT for more than 25 years, Advisory Board’s Rob Barras writes, and my wife is a nurse who has spent the bulk of her career in hospital nursing, specifically medical surgery and neurosurgery. No amount of experience can prepare you for a personal health crisis. But there are lessons that moments such as these can teach about health care and the role of technology.
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July 5, 2017 | Health Affairs Blog
Advisory Board's Jennifer Stewart shares how the health care industry became a a job-creation initiative in which an employee with just a high school diploma has a realistic chance of more than doubling his or her original salary while working for the same employer.
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June 29, 2017 | Becker’s Hospital Review
We recently partnered with a regional multispecialty group with over 250 providers, Advisory Board’s John Deane and Adam Bryan write. In preparation for a significant pivot to value-based care, the organization was focused on getting to a more financially sustainable medical group to support population health and care management investments. But after nearly two years of initiatives to reduce physician operating losses—and despite strong efforts to squeeze out unwarranted expenses, maximize productivity, optimize staffing, and improve the revenue cycle—they only achieved half of their savings target of $5 million.
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June 28, 2017 | Becker’s Hospital Review
A recent Advisory Board analysis revealed the average 350-bed hospital could gain up to $22 million in additional revenue by putting more focus on improving revenue cycle management performance rather than managing RCM cost, Kelly Gooch reports.
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June 22, 2017 | Health Data Management
The biggest surprise in the healthcare bill released by Senate Republicans may be just how similar it is to what the House passed last month, Advisory Board’s Chas Roades writes.
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June 21, 2017 | Modern Healthcare
Advisory Board's Virtual Visits Consumer Choice Survey reported more than three-quarters of nearly 5,000 respondents would see a doctor virtually, while less than 20% already have used telehealth solutions. The results suggest that the health care industry has yet to meet consumer interest in virtual care, researchers said. "Health care providers can no longer wait to catch up," Advisory Board’s Tom Cassels told Alex Kacik.
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June 21, 2017 | Health Data Management
Two overall trends are clear: Payment and delivery system reforms are moving ahead, and the administration wants to reduce the regulatory burden of MACRA on providers, writes Advisory Board’s Dennis Weaver, MD.
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June 16, 2017 | Health Data Management
Recently, health technology investor Malay Gandhi said, "telehealth is a runaway, unassailable trend that will become the predominant way people receive care." If that could be the future, then why does today look so different? One important reason: Despite the well-documented benefits of virtual access to care—improved access to providers, greater efficiency and flexibility, comparable care outcomes—hundreds of interviews with health care leaders reveal a common roadblock to growing a mature program: physician resistance, Advisory Board’s Emily Zuehlke and Tom Cassels write.
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June 10, 2017 | Modern Healthcare
More health plans are beginning to address patients' nonclinical social determinants of health, like housing or meals, which are critical in the Medicaid and Medicare Advantage populations, Advisory Board’s Rachel Sokol told Shelby Livingston.
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June 8, 2017 | Managed Healthcare Executive
Most health system executives have a hard time determining whether they should compete or collaborate with retail clinics, Advisory Board’s Zach Hafner told Aine Cryts.
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May 25, 2017 | Healthcare Finance News
Advisory Board's Chas Roades and Yulan Egan wrote a letter to Advisory Board's hospital and health system members telling them to double down on cost reduction because of the rise in uncompensated care should the AHCA be passed.
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May 9, 2017 | Healthcare Informatics
“Apart from the overall strategic planning, the analytics is the most complex part of (population health management initiatives),” Advisory Board’s Jess Vamvas told Mark Hagland. Advisory Board’s Dennis Weaver, M.D., emphasizes that there are several layers to the complexity involved in leveraging data and analytics to support population health.
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May 5, 2017 | Healthcare Finance News
Each provider has one chargemaster for all services, but because providers have multiple contracts, not every insurer will pay the same price, Advisory Board’s Patrick Drewry told Susan Morse. Advisory Board also first looks at chargemaster optimization in helping clients. Sometimes, because of dated contracts, this rate is lower than what was negotiated with the payer, Seve Gaskin said.
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May 3, 2017 | Washingtonian
For the third time, Advisory Board Company Chairman and CEO Robert Musslewhite has been named one of Washingtonian magazine's Tech Titans, an honor reserved for "the most influential and exciting people in the local technology scene."
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May 2, 2017 | Kaiser Health News/Washington Post
“What we hear from cancer physicians and administrators is that in the emergency department not all emergency physicians and nurses feel equally confident in their ability to treat cancer patients,” Advisory Board’s Lindsay Conway told Michelle Andrews. “So they may admit them when it’s not necessary.”
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May 1, 2017 | Becker’s Hospital Review
We've found, through our work with 4,500 hospitals and health systems, that the better plan is to prepare upfront—before ransomware strikes, Advisory Board’s Robert Musslewhite and Eric Banks write.
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May 1, 2017 | Managed Care
Historically, three generalizations held true for cancer patients: They were deferential to physician recommendations for care, unlikely to switch providers, and generally satisfied with the care they received. However, the rise of the consumer-oriented marketplace and growing customer financial exposure have led to better-informed patients who are more likely to shop for cancer care. This has led to a “borderless” competitive environment where access, transparency, brand, experience, outcomes, cost, and quality are differentiators that set one program apart from another, Advisory Board’s Zach Hafner writes.
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April 6, 2017 | Modern Healthcare
There has been a proliferation of new entry points via retail clinics, urgent care centers and virtual access as the demand for consumer-focused care grows, said Ben Umansky, at Advisory Board, which published its Annual Health Care CEO Survey on Thursday, Alex Kacik reports. The Survey was also covered by Becker’s Hospital Review.
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April 5, 2017 | Healthcare Informatics
Last year Advisory Board’s Dennis Weaver, M.D., led the development of a population health maturity model after surveying senior executives at 30 U.S. health systems. Both Weaver and James Green note that healthcare organizations are struggling with having their feet in two payment buckets—fee-for-service and value-based care, Rajiv Leventhal writes.
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March 29, 2017 | Becker’s Hospital Review
When thinking about the financial performance of the employed physician enterprise for your health system, is your first instinct to focus on the operating loss of the medical group as a standalone business? While this is certainly an important part of the equation, it's by no means the whole story, write Advisory Board’s John Deane, MPA and Adam Bryan, MBA.
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March 15, 2017 | Health Data Management
A new study published recently in Health Affairs cuts against the conventional wisdom on one of the biggest trends in healthcare: the increased use of direct-to-consumer telehealth services. The study found that while these services increase patients' access to care, they also may increase overall healthcare spending—contrary to the widespread expectation that direct-to-consumer telehealth would cut costs. But if you dig a little deeper, you'll find the study's takeaways aren't nearly as clear as they may seem, Advisory Board’s Tracy Walsh writes.
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March 9, 2017 | Modern Healthcare
“Health systems have never run the outpatient side of the business like a business, even though it accounts for half the revenue,” said Zachary Hafner, a Chicago-based national partner in the strategy consulting practice at Advisory Board. “They're making the investments to create the access points, to create what consumers are interested in and being relevant in the market where consumers are going to be spending their money.” But these health systems still need to improve on customer orientation and service, he said.
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March 9, 2017 | Becker’s Hospital Review
According to data gathered from Advisory Board's report, "What does the CMO role look like today?" with findings presented at the Chief Clinical Executive Summit based on the organization's 2016 CMO Role Survey, which included 116 CMOs, Clinical expertise and personal relationships with fellow physicians are the two skills CMOs are most confident in when entering into the CMO role.
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February 13, 2017 | Health Data Management
I can’t tell you how many times I get asked, "Should I just switch to Cerner or Epic or Allscripts?" by health IT executives whose health system uses an EHR other than one of these major systems. Health system leaders should take a close look at their current situation alongside their short- and long-term objectives to determine the right answer for their organization—with only a little consideration for what’s popular in the market, Advisory Board’s John Kontor writes.
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February 6, 2017 | Healthcare IT News
Advisory Board’s Greg Kuhnen and Hollie Freeman weigh in on progress made during the last 12 months, take a look at how widespread health data exchange can enable hospitals to better serve patients and address lingering questions about interoperability.
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January 31, 2017 | hfm Blog
Hospitals are beginning to find success in addressing margin improvement through care redesign, yet most have not aligned fully to realize the magnitude of potential savings, Advisory Board’s John Johnston writes.
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January 30, 2017 | Healthcare IT News
Black Book rated Advisory Board among the top best-of-breed Population Health Management IT vendors. Coverage also appeared in Healthcare Finance News and HIStalk.
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January 24, 2017 | Healthcare Finance News
The executive order puts no policy in place, Advisory Board's Eric Cragun told Susan Morse. Eliminating penalties requires administrative action from agencies.
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January 14, 2017 | Modern Healthcare
ProMedica has been working on its price transparency and strategic pricing initiative in partnership with Advisory Board and other health systems including BJC HealthCare, Carolinas Healthcare System and Baylor Scott & White Health. The collaboration has helped the systems more quickly figure out what works and what doesn't.
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January 13, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
With the criteria for MIPS in mind, the clinical documentation aspect of the revenue cycle becomes extremely important, not only because it impacts what the health system is going to be paid, but also because it influences what the physician is likely to be paid as well, Advisory Board’s Christopher Kerns told Kelly Gooch.
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January 12, 2017 | HFMA News
“Even though there are a lot of concerns around high deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, when patients are asked, at the point of coverage, what sort of plan they desire, they generally choose the lowest-premium plans, and the lowest-premium plans tend to have high deductibles,” Advisory Board’s Christopher Kerns told Jeni Williams. “And that seems to be true at nearly every income level.”
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January 11, 2017 | Health Data Management
Advisory Board’s Eric Cragun contributed a summary of what we know and what remains unknown at this point in the process.