Targeting new movers

More than 14 percent of the U.S. population moves each year, according to Melissa Data. This creates a large pool of new people buying homes and moving into your community -- who could become new patients for your medical practice. The following steps will help you get a little extra mileage from your efforst when targeting new movers.[read more]

social media engagement

In healthcare marketing, social media (SM) is broadly understood to simply mean your choice of tools. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google Plus are most popular and important. But curiously, the meaning of social media’s companion buzzword, engagement, is often fuzzy.[read more]

Massachusetts / shutterstock

Like many, I’ve been surprised that the rollout of the Affordable Care Act has had such an impact on Massachusetts. But somehow Massachusetts screwed up the rollout of the Obamacare exchange, which is costing $100 million to fix, and at least some Massachusetts small businesses are getting hit with big rate hikes as they renew.[read more]

ICD-10's top 10 head-scratchers

The hassle of adopting ICD-10 has only just begun for some - others might imply that they’ve been waiting for it for years, having started preparations many moons ago. While I’m sure any medical coder would tell you that they have a list of crucial and obvious missing codes, some of them seem a little odd to me.[read more]

Big Data's dark side

In a previous episode of Digital Health Illustrated I discussed the benefits of health data, from its ability to speed medical research to even predict whether people will become ill. In this installment, I focus on questions related to the dark side of big health data.[read more]

Dr. Richard Pazdur

I gotta be fair to Dr. Richard Pazdur, the king of cancer drug approvals (or rejections) at the FDA. I have been sharply critical of him in the years past, but now it seems a combination of better science, great support from patients and advocates, and yes, a kindler/gentler Dr. Pazdur and the FDA, has all led to quicker drug approvals.[read more]

Top 5 HIPAA violations

We've compiled a collection of data around HIPAA complaints over the past decade to give you a better picture of the regulatory landscape and enforcement actions across the country, along with the types of complaints, breaches and fines that most often occur when it comes to HIPAA compliance issues.[read more]

Navigating the hospital

Marketers work hard to present an image of hospitals that patients can rely upon when they actually walk through the door. A hospital that is difficult to navigate, however, can instantly tarnish years of hospital branding. That is why some hospitals are making an effort to re-think the way their building is navigated in order to improve the patient experience.[read more]

Denied claims, long arguments, an eternity spent on hold arguing over a bill? Yes. But! Sometimes there are happy endings in the conversation with the billing office and the insurer. As deductibles and co-insurance rise, it’s more important than ever to know how to explore whether that bill is right or that statement is right.[read more]

Is Big Data going too far?

Carolinas, which covers as many as 900 medical centers in North and South Carolina, has been using an algorithm that takes into account the consumer data of over 2 million people and identifies patients who could be high risk – based on their consumer behaviors. Is Big Data going too far?[read more]

FDA

Last month, the FDA released draft guidance on social media and internet platforms with character space limitations and a separate draft guidance for correcting misinformation posted online. I discussed these guidance documents with Kathi Browne in a Google+ Hangout on Air.[read more]

Radiology payment changes

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its 2014 hospital outpatient prospective payment system updates late last year. Unfortunately for radiology professionals, there was a decrease in many different kinds of imaging procedures that will have an economic impact on the field.[read more]