In 2021, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare are a top patient safety issue, according to ECRI’s annual list of major concerns facing healthcare consumers’ risks to adverse events that can harm them. ECRI has published their annual Top 10 list since 2018, when the list featured diagnostic errors, o behavioral health needs in acute… Read More »
Author Lauren Lau Published March 6, 2021 Word count 1,121 Health Insurers and Prior Authorization Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of prior authorization Medical Utilization Management “This procedure will require prior authorization.” Words that no patient or healthcare provider wants to hear when they are ready to proceed with a doctor-approved… Read More »
A major side-effect of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 was its impact on the national U.S. economy, jobs, and peoples’ household finances — in particular, medical spending. In 2021, patients-as-health-consumers seek lower health care and prescription drug costs coupled with higher quality care, discovered by the patient advocacy coalition, Consumers for Quality Care. This broad-spanning patient… Read More »
In recent years, there’s been a veritable explosion in the number and type of health monitoring devices available in smartphones and fitness apps. Your smartphone is likely tracking the number of steps you take, how far and fast you walk, and how many flights of stairs you climb each day. Some phones log sleep, heart… Read More »
Marilyn Bartlett might be the closest thing health policy has to a folk hero. A certified public accountant who barely tops 5 feet, Bartlett bears zero resemblance to Paul Bunyan. But she did take an ax to Montana’s hospital prices in 2016, stopping the state’s employee health plan from bleeding money. “Marilyn is not a… Read More »