Last fall, Arick Wierson, writing for the New York Observer, posed a simple but highly provocative question: “Is Blue Light the Tobacco of the Digital Age?”. Wierson was referring to the energy being emitted from digital devices in increasingly higher and more potent doses. Today, the average American is staring into some device on average 12 hours a day; from the screens of … [More]
Real-Time Care Coordination across Arizona
The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association’s partnership earlier this year with PatientPing, the nation’s most comprehensive care coordination platform, was part of its efforts to improve patient care outcomes across the State of Arizona. The statewide partnership, coordinated through AzHHA’s Affiliated Partners Program, connects all AzHHA’s member hospitals and … [More]
Balance Therapy: New Approach to Increase Productivity at Work
Did you know that sitting at a desk all day can actually be worse than smoking or eating donuts? Just think about how much time you spend each day in the sitting position. Don’t forget to include the time you spent commuting back and forth, the time spent at your desk, time spent sitting down for various meals, as well as any time spent watching TV or reading. Unfortunately, … [More]
Mental Well-Being Has Workplace Value
Creating a work environment that fosters employee productivity is forefront in the minds of many employers I work with in the Phoenix area. While productivity is important, how employers approach it can be different. A holistic approach to employees and their well-being can help create a more productive workforce. Mental well-being plays a significant role in an individual’s … [More]
Why Hospitals Must Seek Scale
Each day seems to bring a new outcry that hospitals are attempting to get bigger to raise prices. A recent article, for example, said that hospitals are “behemoths” that are “throwing their weight around”… and have “essentially banished competition and raised prices for hospital admissions.” Reading these articles, you would think it was 1985, rather than closing in on … [More]
Small Businesses Gain the Buying Power of Big Corporations in Healthcare Benefits
CarynHealth, the small-business association health plan brand of Association Health Plans of America, LLC, offers an “association in the box,” the next-generation approach to the small employer healthcare marketplace. AHPA was formed to meet the breakthrough opportunity provided by the Association Health Plan regulation recently put forth by the U.S. Department of Labor … [More]
DoL Offers New Tool to Help Employers Understand Mental Health Issues
The U.S. Department of Labor has launched a new resource that helps employers better understand mental health issues, and provides valuable information and guidance for employers on strategies for recruiting, hiring, retaining, and advancing people with disabilities in the workplace. Created in coordination with the Department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and its … [More]
New Med School Augments Phoenix’s ‘MedTown’ Triangle
On what has been part of the parking lot for Park Central, the mid-town Phoenix mall on Central Avenue, Creighton University will be building a two-story, 180,000-square-foot medical school and student residences. The four-year health sciences campus is part of the adaptive reuse of the Southwest’s first enclosed shopping mall; Creighton is taking the southeast corner of the … [More]
Disrupting Traditional Rx
SpotRx, a next-gen pharmacy, may help do to the traditional pharmacy model what Netflix did to Blockbuster. With the goal to be the “everywhere, anytime” pharmacy, SpotRx is a medical “vending machine” where individuals can consult an e-doctor/pharmacist, transfer a prescription and pickup (or opt for delivery of) their medications. The company currently has a stand-alone kiosk … [More]
App Helps People with Food Allergies Eat Out
AllergySafe is a new app that takes the guesswork out of eating out by providing food allergy sufferers with a list of safe foods at their favorite restaurants. The app was created by 16-year-old Akshat Gautam, after he realized he was not alone in facing this difficulty. In the United States, food allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic illness; every three minutes, a … [More]
Camaraderie Is Part of 4C Medical Group’s Healthcare Philosophy
Arizona used to be known for its “5 C’s.” 4C Medical Group has four “C’s” — one of which is camaraderie. 4C, one of Arizona’s fastest growing physician owned medical groups, recently expanded to the West Valley with the acquisition of West Valley Internal Medicine / West Valley Urgent Care. With West Valley Care’s three locations in Glendale, Surprise and Avondale, combined … [More]
Take the Guesswork Out of Managing Health Insurance Costs
In today’s economy, providing a health plan for one’s employees is part of doing business, and finding the right plan is critical. In fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2018 Employer Health Benefits Survey, 56 percent of small firms and 98 percent of large ones offer health benefits to at least a portion of their workers. Many businesses are discovering a new way … [More]
Send-to-Site Medical Care
It’s a new business on an old model: The doctor makes house calls. DispatchHealth equips its medical teams with all the tools necessary to bring healthcare to a person’s home by packing up essentially 70 percent of an emergency room. CEO and co-founder Mark Prather, M.D., MBA, notes the team — referred to during the height of flu season as the “Traveling Flu Crew” — arrives … [More]
Advancing Whole-Body Donation
Science Care, the world’s largest whole-body donation program, is a Phoenix-based company founded 18 years ago to address the shortage of human tissue for research and education. “Doctors needed a safe way to train from a well-respected and documented provider of non-transplantable human tissue for research and education,” says CEO Brad O’Connell. “After an extended period of … [More]
BCBSAZ Motivating Health and Wellness
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona recently launched Get Fit. Don’t Quit, a health and wellness program as part of its mission to make Arizonans healthier. BCBSAZ teamed with fitness icon Jake “Body By Jake” Steinfeld in this effort to empower Arizonans to live a healthier lifestyle. The program is built around the idea that small steps lead to big payoffs, and shows people fun, … [More]
Businesses Gain when They Motivate Their Workforce to ‘Move It’
For decades, we’ve known that increased activity leads to an overall healthier lifestyle. In recent years this mentality has crept into our workday, too. For managers, the struggle becomes how to encourage our workforce to get up and take fitness breaks when our ultimate focus should be on productivity and meeting business objectives between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 … [More]
Crossroads Launches Franchise Program to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment
Every day, the Crossroads admissions office in Phoenix is overflowing with people who are often camping out overnight on the front lawn to get a place in line to be admitted for substance abuse. Founded in 1960 in Phoenix, Crossroads has grown to be one of the largest residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment programs in the United States, serving more than 2,500 … [More]
BCBSAZ Program Produces Cost Savings, Improved Health
Change Healthcare and ACO Partner™ recently announced results for the first complete plan year of its novel shared savings program with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. Participating providers reported a 26.3-percent lower 30-day readmission rate and 28.1-percent lower all-cause readmission rate than their non-participant cohort. They also reported 20 percent fewer admissions … [More]
