Relate hospital charges to use of services.

Despite their constantly rising charges that provoke government regulators and insurance companies to impose "caps," hospitals and other health care institutions continue to use antiquated cost control systems. This author describes a new accounting system, based on the amount of care each patient needs, that has been in use at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary for six years. In this system, basic "clinical care units" (determined by a peer review process and in collaboration with third-party payers) establish the acceptable standard for a given diagnosis. With charges and reimbursement based more directly on the labor and services involved, hospitals can plan more efficient use of nursing staff and other personnel and services. Use of established norms for each diagnosis also helps staff and third-party insurers determine when hospital resources are being used most productively.     

浙江省居民医疗服务满意度研究——基于对大医院、私人门诊和社区医院的调查

医疗服务的总体满意度与个体的真实感受差距较大,本文分别就大医院、私人门诊和社区医院的医疗服务对浙江省城乡居民开展满意度问卷调查,结果显示,不同类别的医院居民满意和不满意的方面差别较大,且近一半的居民都选择去大医院接受医疗服务,大医院的医疗服务满意度对总体满意度的影响最大,社区医院满意度对总体满意度影响不显著。     

Financing the future of independent community hospitals

Effingham Hospital, a critical access hospital, undertook a modernization initiative to expand the limited scope of its inpatient services to improve financial performance and ability to build liquidity reserves. FHA Section 242 mortgage insurance was the only means for Effingham to credit enhance its debt and obtain a low-interest rate loan. Effingham needed to convince residents and county commissioners to pledge 27 years of additional tax support to offset its annual uncompensated care. The hospital won support from the community and the commissioners, in part because of the educational outreach of the CEO, CFO, and board in articulating the imperative for maintaining local hospital care and the present and future economic benefits for Effingham County.     

日本社区综合护理体系研究

应对2025年人口老龄化高峰期的到来,日本政府为了方便老年人在自己住惯了的社区接受医疗护理服务,对原有的护理保险制度和医疗保险制度进行了改革,加强了医疗与护理的联系。在护理保险制度中引进定期巡回随时应对型上门护理和复合型护理服务两项新型护理形式;在医疗保险制度改革中通过病床的分化与合作,促进居家医疗;住宅政策中创建附带服务功能的老年住宅。过去的医疗护理政策主要考虑护理供给方的立场,积极建设护理设施,而此次的社区综合护理体系考虑更多的是老年人的立场,将医疗、护理、预防、居住、生活支援有机结合起来方便老年人接受社区综合护理。在市町村主导下,日本正在构建自助、互助、共助、公助相结合的,由全社会共同支撑的社区综合护理体系。     

Stochastic Models for Continuing Care Retirement Communities

Abstract

Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) offer housing and a variety of services, including long-term care. Typically, the cost of this long-term care is wholly or partially covered by entry and/or periodic fees. Thus, CCRCs provide a long-term-care insurance benefit. For this and other reasons, actuarial involvement in the financial management of CCRCs is desirable. To carry out actuarial analyses of CCRCs, appropriate models are required to describe the status of individual residents and the CCRC population.

This paper presents models that assume that, at any time, a resident is in a given “state,” which is determined by the individual’s care requirements. The resident may make “transitions” between states at various times, and randomness is associated with both the transition times and the states entered. Actuarial calculations using such a model are discussed, and numerical illustrations are provided. A simple model is examined first; then generalizations are considered. The model for an individual resident can be embedded in a model for a CCRC population. This is explored with particular attention given to the “high-demand” situation in which potential residents are always waiting to enter the community. With this model, the goal is to analyze the future care requirements of the CCRC population.     

Community health care in developing countries

Health care systems in many developing countries have shared characteristics. Government expenditures in poor countries are low for health care. The majority of people cannot easily reach a modern health facility. Most spending is for high-cost curative medicine, e.g., hospitals. Programs are often inefficient in their use of funds. The tragedy of disease in developing countreis is that many of the most serious problems are either preventable or curable by simple, inexpensive, safe methods. About 16 million children under age 5 died in 1979 in developing countries; 5 million of these deaths could have been prevented by immunization against measles, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, and typhoid. Many countries are establishing community-level health care facilities that use community health workers instead of doctors. A 3-tiered program is being adopted in some areas: the community health center, the rural or urban polyclinic, and the referral hospital. The community health center seeks to provide two-thirds of the needed services, including supervision of pregnancy, midwifery, care of new-born children, treatment of endemic diseases, and emergency care for injuries. Early experience has taught that it is more important for the community health worker to have practical experience and the respect of the people he serves than formal education. Improvements in nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation are needed to reach the full health potential of most communities.     

构建以社区系统为基础的老年护理保障体系——以上海为例

目前上海面临＂未富先老＂及家庭保障功能持续弱化的严重问题,应积极探索行之有效的社会化养老服务模式。在社区居家老年护理服务模式的探索中,上海建立了一批以社区为依托的老年服务中心,在实践中积累了社区居家养老的经验。未来构建以社区支持系统为基础的老年护理保障服务体系是上海提高养老服务水平的重要举措。     

微观经济个体参保行为对医疗费用支出的影响效应研究

本文根据2016年中国家庭追踪调查数据,运用面板数据回归方法和倾向得分匹配法(PSM)研究微观经济个体参保行为对医疗费用支出的影响。研究表明,城镇职工医疗保险参保行为显著提高了医疗总费用和自付费用,城乡居民医疗保险参保行为对降低医疗总费用和自付费用具有一定的积极作用,新农合参保行为显著降低了医疗总费用,对自付费用的降低具有一定的积极作用。运用PSM法解决内生性问题和消除选择性偏差后得到的净效应结果与上述发现基本一致。参保行为与医院等级的交互分析表明,选择社区诊所等基层诊疗机构就诊可显著降低医疗总费用和自付费用,选择综合医院就诊则显著提高医疗总费用和自付费用。此外,参保行为对医疗费用支出的影响具有个体和区域异质性。据此,建议增强基层医疗卫生服务能力,进一步提高统筹层次,推进公共卫生服务均等化。     

Using contractual incentives in district nursing in the English NHS: results from a qualitative study

Since 2008, health policy in England has been focusing increasingly on improving quality in healthcare services. To ensure quality improvements in community nursing, providers are required to meet several quality targets, including an incentive scheme known as Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN). This paper reports on a study of how financial incentives are used in district nursing, an area of care which is particularly difficult to measure and monitor.     

Locating community-led housing within neighbourhood plans as a response to England’s housing needs

Neighbourhood planning has revealed a real demand for connecting local planning with new ways of producing much-needed housing in England. Analysis of the first adopted neighbourhood plans illustrates the desire for connecting housing to local needs, providing affordable accommodation as well as housing for older people, young families and households with disabled residents. This paper explores the potential of linking neighbourhood planning and community housing development and suggests how such models can co-exist with contemporary housing markets.     

The case of the unhealthy hospital

On a cold March morning, Bruce Reid, Blake Memorial Hospital's new CEO, visited the Lorris housing project clinic, one of six off-site clinics operated by Blake Memorial. He was not encouraged by what he saw: peeling paint, leaking pipes, and cramped conditions. When he asked Renée Dawson, the clinic's primary care physician, how she endured the conditions, she just stared at him. "What are my options?" she asked. That was a good question. Blake Memorial was in poor financial health, due to rising costs and stagnating revenue. The hospital's quality of care was also a major problem. In addition, the clinics were losing over $250,000 a year. As Reid worked on Blake Memorial's 1992 budget, he saw he would have to cut some services in order to fund others. One of the services he was considering cutting was the clinic program. But there were a number of conflicting forces that Reid had to consider. On the political front, the recently appointed commissioner of health services said she would challenge Blake Memorial's tax-exempt status if Reid dismantled the clinics. Within the hospital were two warring factions. One wanted more high-tech services for the hospital and favored closing the clinics. "Instead of clinics, we should have a shuttle bus from the housing projects to the hospital," one doctor suggested. The other faction wanted to expand the clinics. "Wherever the service is most needed, that is where the hospital should be," argued the clinics' director. Reid must decide what to cut and what to keep. But to do so, he must first settle on Blake Memorial's long-term mission.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

主观规范、认知态度对养老服务消费意愿的影响——基于社会嵌入理论

基于社会嵌入理论，依据实地调研数据，采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型，考量主观规范、认知态度对养老服务消费意愿的影响。结果显示：老年人感受到的主观规范越强，其养老服务消费意愿越强，尤其在弱关系场景。主观知识在网络密度与养老服务消费意愿关系中起中介作用，46.99%的网络密度影响通过信息增益实现。异质性检验结果显示：网络密度对60岁以上老年群体的积极影响增强，而网络位置影响转为消极；主观知识对城市地区、高收入、高教育水平老年群体的积极影响更显著，低收入老年消费者群体养老服务消费决策更依赖于社会网络带来的资源改善。鉴于此，可培养老年社群宣传代理人，强化社会规范影响；结合多层次媒体嵌入，营造养老服务消费氛围；实施城乡差异化养老服务推广策略，提升养老服务消费意愿。     

城乡居民医保逆选择的破解——一个基于不同人口年龄需求的设计

逆选择困扰了我国城乡居民医保事业的可持续发展.在原有的大病和重病保障之外,基于不同人口年龄需求设计一个有条件、有限度和有年龄差别的特殊医保待遇方案,让参保者在没有享受到大病重病医保待遇的情况下,也可获得一些与年龄相称的医保待遇.这一设计除了能增加参保的弹性,让各年龄群体都自愿积极参保,还可增强居民的健康意识,提高居民的健康水平,减少居民和医保的医药开支.此外,它还能促进基层医疗服务业的发展.     

Current trends in hospital mergers and acquisitions

Healthcare reform will impact hospital consolidation in three key areas: Payment rates will decrease, indirectly encouraging consolidation by forcing hospitals to find new ways to reduce costs and increase negotiating clout with suppliers and payers. The cost of doing business will increase as hospitals spend more on compliance, technology, and physician employment. The ACO model will encourage hospital network formation by rewarding integrated healthcare systems that can reduce costs and improve quality.     

Frequent-user patients: reducing costs while making appropriate discharges

Homeless patients who lack access to the health resources they need to maintain their health on their own pose a challenge for hospitals: Premature discharge of such patients can result in their being readmitted to the hospital in a short time, leading to higher costs for the hospital. Hospitals can address this problem by developing clear, effective homeless discharge policies and by developing ongoing relationships with appropriate medical respite care providers. A hospital also can benefit from spearheading an initiative to develop a medical respite program, enlisting the assistance of other community stakeholders.     

Improving the delivery of clinic care

There has been an increasingly widespread movement toward the delivery of health care in outpatient settings. Hospitals must start to prepare for the shift from inpatient to outpatient services. Reductions in reimbursement and increasing costs will force hospitals to collect and obtain more data on outpatient services. Projecting future demands and assessing current utilization rates are two of the key factors in maintaining stability. This article is a case study of a major urban medical center's outpatient clinic. It includes a summary of observations on the clinic's daily operations and several recommendations for improvement. While the original analysis was highly specific to the actual facility observed, this article has been structured so that it may be applied to other institutions.     

FINANCING SATELLITE OUTPATIENT CARE IN RURAL HOSPITALS

Providing health care to low income or elderly residents of rural areas remains a serious national health care problem in the United States. This case study evaluates an intervention for primary outpatient care to a particular class of patients – veterans – and shows how it can benefit them. Locating the outpatient clinic in a struggling rural hospital makes an outreach by the urban veterans hospital financially feasible and is profitable for the rural hospital.     

Do non-profit hospitals provide more charity care when faced with a mandatory minimum standard? Evidence from Texas

Policymakers often question whether not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals provide enough charity care to justify tax advantages. In 1993, Texas enacted legislation requiring NFP hospitals to provide certain community benefits at levels set forth in specific criteria to retain tax-exempt status; this paper focuses on the effect of the legislation’s requirement that NFP hospitals spend a minimum of 4% of net patient revenue on charity care. We also study a modification of the law passed in 1995, which allows the deduction of bad debts expense when calculating net patient revenue. This change effectively lowers required charity care spending, and our study considers whether Texas hospitals responded by reducing charity care spending.     

How companies tackle health care costs: Part III.

As corporations look for ways to cut the rising costs of health care, they direct most of their efforts at modifying the demand for services. Some have attempted to effect changes in the health care system as a whole, and a smaller number have instituted programs to attack the problem at its source by improving the health of their employees. This article explores and evaluates existing corporate health promotion activities and concludes that such programs should form the third part of a three-pronged attack on health care costs.     

Transient results for a high demand CCRC model

Abstract

This paper examines the transient behavior of a stochastic model for high demand continuing care retirement community (CCRC) populations. The CCRC under consideration provides a number of independent living units each of which houses one resident at a time and a skilled nursing facility (SNF) for those who require care. A time-homogeneous Markov process is used to model the care requirements of the CCRC residents. Under the model, the “state” of the population is described by the number of permanent transfers and the number of temporary transfers to the SNF. The paper examines how one can obtain information about the distribution of the state of the CCRC population at a given future time.