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Healthcare career transitions: Why and how to make them happen
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareMaking a career change or job transition can be a big deal when you take into consideration the potential repercussions that may reverberate throughout all aspects of your life. For healthcare professionals, career transitions can be both exciting and tricky. Your "why" vis-à-vis a pending career change may be due to a variety of factors that impact you on a daily basis. No matter what the root cause, understanding the underlying motivations behind your desire for change is paramount.
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Survey: Patients who experience telehealth services are happy with them
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareFor those who use telehealth services, the results are quite good, a survey by J.D. Power shows. The satisfaction rate is about 85% — 851 on a 1,000-point scale — while almost half (46%) of all who participated in the survey gave telehealth services a score above 900. The survey included almost 8,300 consumers. In addition to their being happy with the service, they reported that it usually addressed their clinical issues; almost 85% of telehealth users said they resolved their medical problems as a result of their remote teleconsultation.
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Congress may give dental coverage to millions of Medicare recipients
Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental HealthcareDid you know around 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day and can sign up for Medicare? While the program’s 60 million beneficiaries can access dental, vision and hearing through supplemental options such as Advantage plans or standalone insurance policies, original Medicare — Part A and Part B — excludes dental, vision and hearing coverage except in very limited circumstances. But Medicare recipients might just see better coverage and more services in the new year. Several bills now before Congress would give Medicare participants access to dental, vision and even hearing coverage if passed.
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Survey: Prior authorization remains a pain for a huge majority in healthcare
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationA consensus has been reached in healthcare, and the crescendo of hatred for prior authorization is clear. Medical practice professionals are sick of the red tape associated with the practice of getting the OK from an insurer regarding a proposed course of treatment for a perhaps-stricken patient. The opposition's angst for the process is overwhelming. According to a Medical Group Management Association survey, medical practice leaders say they are frustrated with "red tape and reporting requirements." Eighty-six percent say regulatory burdens increased in the past 12 months.
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Survey: Healthcare costs rise at greater pace than workers’ wages
Seth Sandronsky Medical & Allied HealthcareThere is a reason that healthcare is so contentious in the Democratic Party’s presidential debates this year. "The single biggest issue in healthcare for most Americans is that their health costs are growing much faster than their wages are," Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) President and CEO Drew Altman said in the group’s Employer Health Benefits Survey. While the rate of unemployment is at a 50-year low, the amount of money that "employers and workers pay toward premiums continues to rise more quickly than workers’ wages and inflation over time," the survey found.
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Infographic: Optimizing reputation management with AI
Brian Wallace Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementCustomers read the reviews, but it's not enough to have good reviews. Those reviews also have to be believable. Your company's online reputation can make or break your business, and your ratings even influence your ranking in searches. Increasing your company's ratings from three to five stars can increase your visibility on Google by up to 25%. Learn more with this infographic.
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Study: Financial waste in healthcare remains significant
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareDespite its reputation for saving things, healthcare can be a pretty wasteful environment. In fact, there’s so much excess that nearly a quarter or more of all the money in the sector gets wasted, a new study suggests. The sum of all waste is estimated to range from $760 billion to $935 billion, according to a recent report in JAMA. There’s a small sliver of good news: Things could be worse. The study authors suggest that the amount of waste was worse, by as much as 5%, in 2011.
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Enamel: The body part that lasts a lifetime and doesn’t wear out
Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental HealthcareTooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body. But, until recently, no one knew how it managed to last an entire lifetime. The authors of a recent study concluded that enamel's secret lies in the imperfect alignment of crystals. With help from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pittsburgh, the research team, led by Dr. Pupa Gilbert, took a close and detailed look at the structure of tooth enamel. The team of scientists published the results of their study in the journal Nature Communications. Here’s the gist of what they found.
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Report: Patients want more billing transparency, digital payment options
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationA new report, the 2019 Healthcare Consumer Study, was commissioned by Cedar to identify trends in the financial experience for patients. Results show one-third (34%) of U.S. healthcare consumers say they have experienced a medical bill going into collections. However, most of these outstanding bills were not the result of astronomical statement amounts. For the most part, Cedar found, these bills in collection were the result of poor billing practices on the part of the practice or healthcare organization — or so patients thought.
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A curious case of ‘lost’ dentures after surgery
Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental HealthcareIf you’re scheduled to have surgery, there are lots of things you’re likely thinking about. From the seriousness of the procedure and recovery time to hospital bills and who will take care of your home and loved ones while you’re recovering, there is no shortage of things to plan for. But one thing you may not have put on your list of items to take care of? Taking out your dentures before going under anesthesia. According to a new report, one 72-year-old man who had abdominal surgery in England actually swallowed his dentures during a procedure.
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