Utilization Review and Utilization Management are very critical in the healthcare continuum. While the two terms often feel interchangeable, in reality their processes and meanings actually are very different. Their differences make all the difference for improving care.
ASAM Criteria set guidelines for length of stay and level of care for behavioral health. BHM Healthcare Solutions offers objective peer reviews based on medical necessity criteria, like ASAM's, for complex, medical, and behavioral health cases.
The American Hospital Association has opened applications for its second annual AHA Innovation Challenge.
New research released by WellCare Health Plans, Inc. and the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public Health, Tampa, and published in Population Health Management, reports that healthcare spending is substantially reduced when people are successfully connected to social services that address social barriers, or social determinants of health, such as secure housing, medical transportation, healthy food programs, and utility and financial assistance.
A report from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, was released linking social determinants of health to differences in health across communities. From this report payers can see how demographic, behavioral, and structural factors impact health conditions of their members in different ways and gain greater insight into these differences to better understand population’s overall health.
Workers compensation treatment guidelines are part of this Workers' Compensation Benchmarking Study. BHM's network of case and utilization reviewers meet high standards of clinical experience, especially covering the complex areas of behavioral health. Click HERE and discuss how BHM's review network can ease review workload.
Currently, payer strategies focus on finding healthy populations, segmenting the markets, and segmenting populations, with the target of avoiding costly procedures. Population management and all the big data trends became useful tools in those payer strategies. With the results from a study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a position paper by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), social determinants quickly rose as the next measurable data used by payers.
The CDC released a report Integrating & Expanding Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Data: Lessons from Nine States detailing a promising strategy for addressing the prescription opioid overdose epidemic. The study focused on improving the use of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs)...
Workers compensation treatment guidelines can help prevent unnecessary medical procedures and the prescribing of potentially harmful medications. However, they are not all the same, nor are they without challenges. Understanding a jurisdiction's strengths/weaknesses, taking a strategic approach to developing guidelines, and using common sense can lead to better outcomes for injured workers—and, ultimately, lower costs for payers.
An analysis of the California workers’ comp independent medical review (IMR) process used to resolve medical disputes finds that in 2016, IMR physicians once again upheld about 90% of utilization review (UR) physician’s modifications or denials of treatment, yet IMR volume continued to grow, climbing 6.5% last year.