Healthcare Intelligence Network

To Dr. Todd Rowland, director of medical informatics at Bloomington Hospital and executive director of HealthLINC, the definition of an "engaged physician" includes working with others to find solutions to the problems of the healthcare industry at large. A self-described engaged physician, Dr. Rowland gives advice on how to become an engaged physician, discusses the impact of technology on physician engagement and shares how his organization has changed as a result. Dr. Rowland, along with Nathan Kaufman, managing director of Kaufman Strategic Advisors, will provide a thorough understanding of physician engagement strategies during a December 10, 2008 webinar, Physician Engagement: Creating Trust and Alignment Between Management and Physicians.

The health coaching resume looks a lot different than it did 10 years ago, explains Sean Slovenski, CEO and president of Hummingbird Coaching. Drawing upon his decade of experience in health coaching, he suggests key questions to ask during the coaching vetting process, shares a five-point strategy for ongoing health coach skill support and offers two true measures of success of a health coaching initiative. Slovenski, along with Darcy Hurlbert, health and wellness product specialist for Ceridian Lifeworks, will explore hiring and training practices for health coaching that reflect developments in the field during a November 19, 2008 webinar, A Health Coach Hiring and Training Game Plan That Yields Improved Outcomes.

With so many companies focusing on wellness and prevention, it's a great time to be a health coach, explains Darcy Hurlbert, health and wellness product specialist for Ceridian Lifeworks. She describes the criteria for pairing a health coach with a client and reviews the importance of a veteran Ceridian health coach in the 100 hours of training delivered to the company's health coaches each year. Hurlbert, along with Sean Slovenski, CEO and president of Hummingbird Coaching, will explore hiring and training practices for health coaching that reflect developments in the field during a November 19, 2008 webinar, A Health Coach Hiring and Training Game Plan That Yields Improved Outcomes.

According to Roger Reed, chief consumer engagement architect with Gordian Health Solutions Inc., about two-thirds of the coaching population would prefer not to use the telephone as their preferred coaching modality. Consequently, a new generation of health coaches needs to be able to "serve it up to the individual any way they want it," using new methods and techniques, such as alternative medicine, coaching without a coach and other Health 2.0 developments. Reed also predicts how online personal health coaching methods will affect traditional coaching methods. Reed, along with Jennifer Hidding, director of interactive health management of consumer solutions at OptumHealth, will examine how health coaching is evolving as an industry as the growth in health coaching continues during a November 12, 2008 webinar, Health and Wellness Coaching in 2009. They will also look at what trends will impact health and wellness coaching in 2009, including incentive and technology use, coaching theories and ROI developments.

According to Jennifer Hidding, director of interactive health management of consumer solutions at OptumHealth, a main focus of health and wellness coaching in 2009 will be on general wellness as a means to combat the current obesity epidemic. However, it will not be the only trend the health coaching community will see in 2009. Hidding discusses how some new developments --- coaching without a coach, holistic coaching, online personal health coaching and President Bush's mandate for mental healthcare parity --- will affect coaching in the year to come and beyond. Hidding, along with Roger Reed, chief consumer engagement architect with Gordian Health Solutions Inc., will examine how health coaching is evolving as an industry as the growth in health coaching continues during a November 12, 2008 webinar, Health and Wellness Coaching in 2009. They will also look at what trends will impact health and wellness coaching in 2009, including incentive and technology use, coaching theories and ROI developments.

McKesson Health Solutions has found that a large portion of the chronically ill beneficiaries also suffer from depression and schizophrenia, says Jim Hardy, senior vice president of care management services. Increasingly, McKesson seeks nurses with a background in behavioral healthcare to provide disease and case management to this population, especially during hospitalizations and at discharge. He describes the challenges inherent in navigating the medical and mental health systems needed by these clients and suggests ways to bridge behavioral healthcare gaps. Hardy and Dr. Chad Boult, professor of public health, medicine and nursing and director of the Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will examine disease management programs that improve health and reduce healthcare costs for those patients with comorbid conditions during Managing Comorbidities in Disease Management.

Differentiating between the patient-centered model of care and the comorbidity-focused Guided Care Model, Dr. Chad Boult, professor of public health, medicine and nursing and director of the Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, describes nurses' response to the Guided Care Model. He also offers an advance look at the training, information and Web-based support that his organization will deliver in 2009 to selected medical practices hoping to transform themselves into medical homes and enhance care for Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions. Dr. Boult and James Hardy, senior vice president of care management services, McKesson Health Solutions, will examine disease management programs that improve health and reduce healthcare costs for those patients with comorbid conditions during Managing Comorbidities in Disease Management.

Financially stressed healthcare organizations seeking alternative revenue streams should study wasteful medical practice variations that consume an estimated 30 percent of every healthcare dollar, advises Dr. David Chin, a national partner in the Health Industries Advisory Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the managing partner of PwC's Global Healthcare Research Institute. Focusing on emerging trends, Dr. Chin reflects on the growing multinational focus on wellness and prevention as a cost-saving measure and the impact that new models of primary care will have on related occupations. Dr. Chin, along with Perry Hanson, partner with Wipfli, a national accounting and business consulting firm that provides consulting, tax and audit advice for the healthcare industry, will examine how the new administration and ongoing economic woes will shape the healthcare industry in 2009 and how organizations can best prepare themselves for the year ahead during Healthcare Trends and Forecasts in 2009.

The growing trend toward integrated care delivery systems can help the U.S. healthcare system refocus on its primary goals --- providing coordinated care and returning patients to their optimal health status, explains Perry Hanson, partner with Wipfli, a national accounting and business consulting firm that provides consulting, tax and audit advice for the healthcare industry. Integrated care delivery can also help the U.S. reverse its current last-place rankings in quality, access and efficiency among the global health community, he adds. Citing the success of the medical home model of care in Minnesota, Hanson calls the patient-centered model a "beacon of hope" for a beleaguered healthcare industry. Hanson and Dr. David Chin, a national partner in the Health Industries Advisory Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the managing partner of PwC's Global Healthcare Research Institute, will examine the trends that will continue to impact the healthcare industry in 2009 and how organizations can best prepare themselves for the changes that will come with the new administration during Healthcare Trends and Forecasts in 2009.

For HealthMedia, Inc., the notion of health coaching without a coach is proving to be very successful for their patients in many areas. Dr. Richard Bedrosian, Ph.D., HealthMedia director of behavioral health, and Caren Kenney, director of corporate communications, discuss HealthMedia's Binge Eating Disorder (BED) program, a first-of-its-kind solution aimed at addressing binge eating disorder and its impact on healthcare costs in the United States. Dr. Bedrosian and Kenney also talk about what spurred the idea for the program, how it works and the benefits, challenges and drawbacks that go with this innovative new wave of Web-based coaching.

A health coach's use of motivational interviewing (MI) can pave the way to a partnership resulting in an individual's behavior change, explains Kristin S. Vickers Douglas, Ph.D., L.P., a clinical health psychologist at the Mayo Clinic and medical director of its EmbodyHealth coaching program. Frequently called upon to employ MI in her practice as well as train health coaches in the technique, Dr. Vickers Douglas describes the dimensions of MI and its value in determining and reacting to an individual's readiness to change. Dr. Vickers Douglas, along with Mike Casey, senior director of Mayo Clinic Health Management Resources, provide an update on Mayo's health coaching initiatives --- including its increasing utilization of MI and integration of Web 2.0 technologies in the newly updated Coaching in the Healthcare Continuum: Models, Methods, Measurements and Motivation, Second Edition.

As veterans of CMS' Physician Group Practice Medicare three-year demonstration pilot, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) physicians are comfortable dispensing chronic care in the medical home environment, explains Dr. Barbara Walters, DHMC's senior medical director. Its new medical home partnership with Cigna is an enhanced version of CMS' reimbursement model that Dr. Walters hopes will generate some "working capital" to reinvest in key medical home tools. She describes DHMC's physician-friendly model of negotiating with commercial payors and its current method of communicating the patient-centered model of care to patients. Dr. Walters, along with Lesley Reeder, RN, BSN, quality improvement specialist for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, will examine case studies of reimbursement strategies for medical home programs during a September 24, 2008 webinar, Reimbursement Models for Medical Homes: From Pilot to Practice.

While there is a great deal of interest among public payors in medical home funding models, their funding needs pose several challenges, explains Lesley Reeder, RN, BSN, quality improvement specialist for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. In this podcast, Reeder shares the secrets to a successful payor-provider partnership and discusses some of the code-dependent strategies at work in Colorado to reimburse physicians for preventive care services dispensed from the medical home. Reeder, along with Dr. Barbara Walters, senior medical director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, will examine case studies of reimbursement strategies for medical home programs during a September 24, 2008 webinar, Reimbursement Models for Medical Homes: From Pilot to Practice.

U.S. healthcare spends an estimated $177 billion on medication non-compliance annually -- nearly 80 percent of the country's healthcare spending. And the pharmaceutical industry loses billions of healthcare dollars annually as a result of medication non-adherence. Thom Stambaugh, chief pharmacy officer and vice president of clinical programs and specialty pharmacy for CIGNA Pharmacy Management, discusses strategies for recovering some of this lost revenue, the challenges behavioral health patients bring to medication compliance and how CIGNA measures compliance in its population. Stambaugh, along with Connie Commander, immediate past president of the Case Management Society of America and president, Commander's Premier Consulting Corporation, will describe programs and initiatives that have increased patient compliance with medication regimes. You'll also learn the impact that compliance has had on healthcare utilization and patient satisfaction during a September 10, 2008 webinar, Improving Medication Adherence: Practical Strategies to Increase Patient Compliance.

As rising volumes and overcrowding affect EDs nationwide, hospitals are eager to reduce waits, notch up efficiency and, in turn, improve patient satisfaction. Drawing from her organization's 2008 ED Pulse Report, Press Ganey Vice President of Public Policy Deirdre Mylod, Ph.D., describes some strategies that can positively impact ED usage. She shares ideas from high-ranking EDs on coping with overcrowding and analyzes the impact that medical homes, retail clinics and patient education could have on ED trends. A lack of throughput for truly urgent patients, rather than the numbers of uninsured or underinsured patients in waiting rooms, is really at the root of ED overcrowding, she says. Dr. Mylod also shares what ED physicians at a magnet hospital are doing to improve patient satisfaction marks and why communication and comfort go hand in hand in the ED waiting room. A July 30, 2008 webinar, Emergency Department Diversion Through Behavioral Health Linkages, provides more information on alleviating the strain on EDs.