inside the industry

Coos Bay Dermatologist Strikes Out on Her Own, Abandons Billing Codes

Dr. Kathleen Brown says she’s received pushback from the two insurers for not using CPT billing codes
December 15, 2011 – In July, Dr. Kathleen Brown decided to leave the Coos Bay clinic where she’d been practicing since 1997 and open her own dermatology practice. It’s not uncommon for doctors to strike out on their own, but Brown’s decision had a twist: she decided to eschew the use of CPT codes, a set of medical billing codes required by the American Medical Association for reimbursement by insurers. Read More >>

Mike Shirtcliff Committed to Healthcare Transformation

The CEO of Advantage Dental Plan believes we’re spending too much money on expensive technology and need to redirect those dollars to basic healthcare services
December 5, 2011 -- More expensive technology is saving peoples’ lives at the end of life and leaving more people behind who need basic healthcare services. That has to change, according to Mike Shirtcliff, who’s focusing his energies on transforming Oregon’s healthcare system. Read More >>

Central City Concern Opens Recovery Center

The center was made possible because of a $8.95 million federal grant and initially will serve 600 homeless people
  December 2, 2011 -- When Central City Concern opens its downtown clinic on December 12, teams of doctors and alternative medicine professionals will help hundreds of people whose drug addictions or mental illnesses threaten to keep them on the streets. Read More >>

OHSU Investigates Healthcare Experiences for People with Autism

Researchers hope to develop a toolkit to help people improve their experiences
November 30, 2011 -- Researchers at OHSU are developing a toolkit to deal with the barriers faced by people with autism in the healthcare system. Read More >>

Northwest Mothers Milk Bank Halfway to its Fundraising Goal

The group needs to purchase lab equipment before it can start processing donations locally
November 22, 2011 -- The Northwest Mothers Milk Bank is halfway toward its fundraising goal of $400,000 – the amount the organization needs to open a physical location to process donations. Read More >>

Less Paperwork, More Patient Focus Can Dramatically Improve Care, Expert Says

Inefficiency continues to plague the medical system, according to Dr. David Reuben director and professor geriatric medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine
November 16, 2011 -- Surveys of doctors show that now more than half think that providing higher-quality medicine may lead to losses in their earning power, a belief that may help explain why an exceptionally high number of patients don’t get recommended care, according to Dr. David Reuben MD, who spoke at the OHSU Foundation for Medical Excellence annual lecture earlier this week. Read More >>

Rural Oregon Losing Dentists

Few new graduates find rural areas appealing because of their debt load
November 10, 2011--The days of selling a private dental practice in rural Oregon are coming to an end, in part, because of the overwhelming debt faced by new graduates. Read More >>

Nursing Graduates Face a Changing Job Market

A recent report from the Oregon Center for Nursing indicates there’s a nursing shortage, but new graduates are having a difficult time finding work
November 10, 2011 --It took Jennifer Wieczorek, a 2008 graduate of Linfield College's nursing program, a year and a half to find a job using her degree – and she was the last person in her cohort to do so. Read More >>

Regence BlueCross BlueShield Narrowly Close to Losing Its Lead

After a 22 percent drop in membership since June 2010, Regence finds itself with a slim lead of 3,751 members over its major competitor, Kaiser Permanente.
September 28, 2011 – Regence BlueCross BlueShield is very close to losing its commanding lead in Oregon’s commercial marketplace. It wasn’t that long ago – in 2008 -– when Regence had over 1 million members, according to financial reports published in Oregon Health News.   Read More >>

The Regence Group Experiences a Major Shake-up in Leadership Changes

Two press releases from Regence officials don’t reveal the whole story about what led to those leadership changes
September 29, 2011 – To an outsider, it sounded as if nothing significant happened when Regence officials sent two press releases yesterday acknowledging that Jared Short had changed roles with Bill Barr to lead the company’s health insurance plans in its four-state region – Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah. Short had been president of the Oregon health plan, and is now executive vice president of health insurance services. Read More >>
Syndicate content

© Copyright 2013 by The Lund Report | Privacy Policy Development by: Roger Leigh | Design by:  Parachute Strategies