AHIP Launches National Education and Grassroots Campaign

America’s Health Insurance Plan is launching the Campaign for an American Solution to build support for healthcare reform. The campaign will include advertising, a nationwide listening tour and a recruitment drive to attract Americans who are satisfied with their private insurance coverage. Click here to read more.

New Handbook Explains the Medical Home Concept

The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative has published a new handbook for companies which explains the medical home concept and how it can improve healthcare outcomes and lower health benefit costs. The handbook offers strategies and a three-step program for companies to use in implementing a medical home model — including participation in pilot programs. Click here to read more.

Editor’s Note: To learn about the case management role in the medical home, read The Patient-Centered Medical Home by Eleanor Soltau from the June/July 2008 issue of Case in Point. Visit the archived issues here.

New Jersey Community Takes New Approach to ED Super Users

Camden, N.J., has become a focal point for studying the growing nationwide problem of emergency room super-users, the new term for patients who go to the ER perhaps 30 to 40 times a year and drive up health costs. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner has tracked the city’s statistics and created a team — consisting of a nurse practitioner, community health worker and a social worker — who travel around the community to provide long-term care management for chronically ill patients who frequent the ER. Click here to read more.

U.S. News and World Report Lists Top Hospitals

U.S. News & World Report released its Best Hospitals rankings, which look at the difficult procedures performed across 16 adult specialties. Hospitals were ranked by reputation, death rate, and care-related factors, such as nursing and patient services. Click here for the makings of the report.

RAC Program Has Saved CMS Nearly $700 million

Since its implementation in 2005, CMS’s recovery audit contractor program (RAC) has returned $693.6 million of improper Medicare payments to the Medicare Trust Funds. This number takes into account the cost of the program, the dollars repaid to health providers, and the money overturned on appeal. The RAC, launched in California, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Arizona from 2005 to 2008, will become a permanent program across the nation by January 1, 2010. Click here to read more.

Surging Oil Costs Impact Health Care

Inflation is racing through the economy at a pace not seen in years, as manufacturers of healthcare products cope with high oil prices. Click here to read more.