Feds: Less than 3,000 Texans selected health plans

Nearly 54,000 Texans applied for a health plan

AUSTIN (AP) — Fewer than 3,000 Texans managed to enroll for health insurance last month on the problem-plagued federal online exchange, a small fraction of those seeking to apply amid the rocky rollout of the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's health care law.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that 2,991 people in Texas had selected a plan from the insurance marketplace. Nearly 54,000 Texans applied for a health plan through the exchange, seeking coverage for more than 108,000 people — including themselves and others like spouses and children.

So few succeeded because the federal website offering insurance coverage has been beset with problems since its Oct. 1 debut.

According to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, the Obama administration had projected that more than 44,000 people would have signed up for the Texas plan by Oct. 31.

Texas has the highest rate of uninsured Americans — more than 23 percent. But it is relying on the federal health coverage exchange website since the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature opted not to create a state-run marketplace.

Gov. Rick Perry also has refused to enact a provision in the White House-backed law to expand Medicaid and cover more of the working poor.

Texas is one of 36 states without their own insurance marketplaces. Across the nation, just 26,794 people in those states — including Texas — enrolled in private health insurance plans in the first month.

States running their own enrollment systems did better, signing up more than 79,000, for a total enrollment of 106,000-plus.

That, though, was barely one-fifth of the nearly 500,000 people administration officials had projected would sign up the first month of the nation's new health care law. Indeed, those succeeding in selecting a plan represent only about 1.5 percent of the 7 million people the administration hopes to enroll by next year.

http://www.kxan.com/news/texas/feds-less-than-3000-texans-selected-health-plans

About 3,500 Floridians enroll in federal health exchange

About 124,000 Floridians applied for health coverage and some 3,500 selected an insurance plan through new federal exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act, according to figures released Wednesday.

The data released by the Obama administration covers Oct. 1, when the exchanges opened, through Nov. 2.

Overall, 106,185 people throughout the nation enrolled in a health plan through the health exchanges.

Among the 36 states where the health exchanges are fully run or supported by the federal government, nearly 1 million people applied during the first month, while 26,794 chose a health plan. Florida was tops in both categories among those 36 states.

Another 516,248 applied for coverage and 79,391 selected a specific plan during that same period among the 14 states (and the District of Columbia) that chose to operate their own exchanges. The exchanges are on-line marketplaces where consumers can shop for and compare health plans.

"No one will be satisfied with the numbers because they will be below what we sought prior to the launch," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

According to an Associated Press report, the administration hoped 500,000 people would enroll by the end of October.

But enrollment numbers were expected to be much lower following a rough rollout of the federal website, HealthCare.gov. Officials have been quick to say they have always expected that people would wait until closer to the March 31 deadline before actually purchasing a plan, as has been the case with past government programs, such as Medicare Part D.

The health insurance issue is particularly important in Florida where nearly 25 percent of residents under 65 lack coverage. Only Nevada and Texas have higher percentages of residents without coverage.

Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a Senate committee she expected the enrollment statistics to be "quite low."

The news follows reports from an unnamed administration official saying the federal health insurance web site, HealthCare.gov, may not be working properly as promised by Nov. 30. White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park did not allay those concerns during a House committee hearing Wednesday.

His "team is working incredibly hard to meet that goal," Park said.

The Nov. 30 date is important because customers must buy insurance by Dec. 15 to be covered on Jan. 1. However, anyone who signs up by the end of enrollment March 31 will avoid a fee for not having health insurance in 2014.

Park said HealthCare.gov can now register 17,000 people and provide access for 25,000 per hour. He said the administration hopes to provide access for 50,000 people per hour.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20131113/NEWS45/131113021/About-3-500-Floridians-enroll-federal-health-exchange?nclick_check=1

Almost 80 Percent Of Practices Deemed 'Better-Performers' Conduct Patient-Satisfaction Surveys

News | November 13, 2013

 

Almost 80 percent of medical practices deemed “better-performers” by the MGMA Performance and Practices of Successful Medical Groups: 2013  Report Based on 2012 Data indicated they used patient-satisfaction surveys. Compared with other practices, better-performers were more likely to assess patient satisfaction in their practice and did so more frequently.

Practices conducted satisfaction surveys to gauge, among other things, their patients' overall experience, professionalism of the staff, availability of appointments, and quality of care. More than half of better-performing medical practices indicated they used patient-satisfaction surveys to evaluate and improve practice operations and educate staff and physicians about behavior.

“Successful groups actively and regularly solicit feedback from their patients,” said Kenneth T. Hertz, FACMPE, Principal, MGMA Health Care Consulting Group. “Patient satisfaction surveys give practices an immense amount of detail on their patients' experience, and that feedback is particularly useful as medical groups seek to improve and elevate the care they provide.”

Almost 10 percent of better-performing practices cited using patient-satisfaction survey results as “part of physician compensation formula.” In June, MGMA released the Physician Compensation Survey Report and results indicated that quality and patient-satisfaction measures appeared to be a small yet emerging component of total compensation for physicians.

MGMA member Martha Kelley, administrator, Virginia Anesthesia & Perioperative Care Specialists, Newport News, Va., developed a performance-based risk program with a hospital system and tied patient-satisfaction measures to their physicians' compensation. “We started surveying patients for our own internal quality program several years ago, and now we’re required to meet established criteria with one of our hospitals,” Kelley said. “We share results from our patient-satisfaction survey with the hospital, and this metric now ultimately impacts physician compensation. We appreciate the feedback we receive and are continuing to explore ways in which to serve patients better.”

The MGMA Performance and Practices of Successful Medical Groups: 2013  Report Based on 2012 Data survey report is compiled using data from the MGMA 2013 Cost Survey pertaining to: profitability and cost management; productivity, capacity and staffing; accounts receivable (A/R) and collections; and patient satisfaction. The report features success stories from organizations and how they tackled issues to achieve their status as better-performers.

Read more: http://www.healthcaretechnologyonline.com/doc/almost-percent-better-performers-conduct-patient-satisfaction-0001

UNMC among 4 sites chosen for primary-care training project

By Rick Ruggles / World-Herald staff writer

2013-11-14T02:52:20-06:00

The University of Nebraska Medical Center is one of four institutions in the nation testing a fairly new way to train doctors in primary-care practice.

The project generally will train faculty members in how to teach resident physicians - physicians in training - in the "patient-centered medical home" model of practice. Patient-centered medical homes are clinics at which physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and other health care providers work together with the goal of keeping patients healthy as opposed to simply treating them when they're ill.

Such clinics sometimes hold group sessions for diabetics, for example, to educate those patients in how to stay healthy and out of the hospital. More than 100 resident physicians in internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics will be involved in the program.

For the pilot project, the federal Health Services Resource Administration selected UNMC, Ohio State, the University of Minnesota and Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Illinois. Dr. Kelly Caverzagie, project coordinator at UNMC, said it will last about 18 months with a review near the end of how effectively the training went.

Clinics and offices that will be used for the UNMC project include UNMC Physicians Midtown Clinic, 139 S. 40th St.; the Family Medicine Clinic at Durham Outpatient Center at UNMC; Children's Physicians Dundee Office, 4825 Dodge St.; Baker Place Clinic, 5050 Ames Ave.; and Bellevue Clinic, 2510 Bellevue Medical Center Drive.

San Antonio Hospitals Begin Sharing Medical Records Online

Local healthcare officials gathered at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio Tuesday to announce a new program that will digitize the medical records of every patient in its hospital and every hospital in the San Antonio region.

The information is designed to be shared in real time with other hospitals and eventually, all of the patient’s doctors and the patients themselves.

Following the virtual ribbon-cutting that announced the new electronic Health Information Exchange, local member hospitals are uploading secure medical records of about 600,000 patients. The H.I.E. offers the free and collaborative exchange of patient records among the Baptist Health System, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health Care System, Nix Health, Methodist Healthcare System and University Health Systems.

Gijs Van Oort, executive director of Healthcare Access San Antonio, the entity that designed and built the program, said one of the Ps in the HIPPA Act of 1996 stands for 'portability' of patient records, and offering electronic recording of health information is a mandate. Van Oort said getting to the launch took years of work, and not just for the infrastructure.

"It really takes a lot of time just to get buy-in of the concept," Van Oort said. "And then we go work with the organizations like the hospitals that have such layered structures. To really make all this stuff work, it’s a very arduous process."

DD Belair, whose daughter was born with a serious medical condition, carries a thick, pink binder full of her child’s medical history. She said the electronic sharing system offers more peace of mind.

"Anything that we choose to do could definitely be kept electronically so that any physician she sees all over the world could have that information," Belair said.

Van Oort said even though there is stiff competition in terms of attracting patients, the local hospitals are on board with sharing patient data.

"There’s no doubt that hospitals really are staking out their service areas and different services, but they’ve made from the beginning an agreement that when it comes to patient information, they’re not going to compete for it," Van Oort said.

Providing a digital medical data system is required, but participation in it is not. Patients may elect to opt out of the system.

Van Oort said the San Antonio electronic system was patterned after the one already in use in Austin. He said Dallas and Houston are not far behind, and eventually, all the networks will be able to communicate with each other.

http://tpr.org/post/san-antonio-hospitals-begin-sharing-medical-records-online?utm_referrer=http%3A//m.tpr.org/%3Futm_referrer%3D%23mobile/21818