News

Rising health care prices have increased concerns about hospital and health system consolidation among policymakers, regulators, employers, and other purchasers of health coverage. With support from the National Institute for Health Care Reform Rising health care prices have increased concerns about hospital and health system consolidation among policymakers, regulators, employers, and other purchasers of health coverage. […] Read Article

What Employers Can Do The TCPi program concretely demonstrated the willingness of physicians to transform care delivery and patient experience. But unless employers transform the way they purchase and pay for healthcare. Those improved practices are likely to fade rapidly into academic history. Here are three things employers must insist upon and make happen beginning […] Read Article

At the September CBGH Strategy Session Andrew Forbes and Allyson Gottsman presented the results of the “Transformation of Clinical Practices Initiative” or TCPI. Andrew and Allison showed specific examples of how the TCPI improved quality, reduced costs, and increased satisfaction with the patient care experience (not to mention improved physician satisfaction). Employers who want to […] Read Article

Today the Catalyst for Payment Reform released a report on innovative approaches to paying health care providers written in collaboration with the Colorado Business Group on Health and if you missed the strategy session today at the Denver metro Chambers of Commerce, you can still download that report here.  Denver_MA_Report_WebVersion (1).9.12.2019     Read Article

“Balanced Scorecards” have been around since the 1990’s when Drs. Norton and Kaplan from Harvard promoted them as a means of monitoring complex problems by looking for a limited number of “leading indicators” (e.g., indicators of what to expect).   Until that time, the majority of organizations used complex spreadsheets comprised of numerous “lagging indicators” in […] Read Article

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national health care watchdog organization has released its 2019 Maternity Care and High-Risk Surgeries Performed at American Hospitals Reports. These reports are based on the results of the 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Survey, with data voluntarily submitted by more than 2000 U.S. 2019 Maternity Care Report This report provides an in-depth look at how participating […] Read Article

Epiphany [ee-pif-uh-nee], Noun: A sudden, intuitive perception of, or insight into, the reality or essential meaning of something; experience of a sudden and striking realization.   Largely to listen and learn, I recently sat in on a regional healthcare meeting of community leaders at which two large hospital systems were amply represented – which is […] Read Article

Why A Hospital Value Report? As mentioned, prices vary inexplicably not just across the state as a whole, but within individual markets. For instance, prices for routine procedures in the Denver market range overall by more than 800%. To put these numbers in a real-life context, if consumers accepted that kind of variance when getting […] Read Article

In the 1960’s, Psychologist Fredrick Herzberg probed an interesting question about “Work and the Nature of Man.”  Herzberg wanted to know if removing environmental factors that dissatisfied workers would result in more satisfied and self-motivated workers.  He determined that they would not because of what became the “two-factor” theory.  Basically, he concluded that the factors […] Read Article

The release of the Rand research report “Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans Are High Relative to Medicare and Vary Widely” by Chapin White and Christopher Whaley represents a major step forward in enabling value-based purchasing.  MAJOR! For the very first time it allows employers to assess the reasonableness of the prices they […] Read Article

May 9, 20-19 Colorado Business Group on Health held their Annual Forum at the Hilton Denver Inverness Hotel. The line up of speakers included Lt Governor, Dianne Primavera, Kim Bimestefer, Executive Director of HCPF, David Blumenthal MD, President, The Common Wealth Fund, and Shane Wolverton, SR VP, Quantros. The article was about the Forum focus […] Read Article

 Bob Smith was requested by Representative Chris Kennedy to give testimony in support of HB19-1001, the Hospital Financial Transparency Bill on January 16th. This bill would require hospitals to disclose their current Medicare cost reports to the State and allow the State to evaluate why hospitals are shifting costs to employers and the degree to which […] Read Article