Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News

Covering healthcare news in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

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IntegraCare’s CAR Program Impacts Lives, Boosts Morale

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Employees have chance to win new car based on perfect attendance

In its fourth year, IntegraCare’s Continued Attendance Rewards (CAR) Program has evolved into one of the most anticipated events of the year for employees in 10 senior living communities located in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

     The CAR Program awards a new car to a dedicated IntegraCare employee based on consistent attendance throughout the previous year. This year’s winner of a new red Ford Eco Sport will be announced on Jan. 30 via IntegraCare’s Facebook Live page. Additionally, three grand prize winners will be named at each of the 10 communities.

     “The CAR Program has generated excitement, boosted morale and helped improve attendance and retention of employees throughout our communities,” said Eric Walker, IntegraCare Executive Director of Sales and Marketing. “This innovative concept was introduced in 2015 and our first winners were announced in January of 2016. Since then, the CAR Program announcement has become a huge event our employees look forward to and watch unfold through the live video on Facebook.”

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Social Media Practices in Healthcare

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Advertising in healthcare has always taken a safe approach. For the most part, you’ll find stock images or the typical narrative of doctors and nurses working to save a life, a smiling patient or a mother nursing a child. The primary reason for these is the fear of being sued for misinformation or having other regulatory bodies come after the healthcare provider. 

However, to expand, these institutions should push to be more creative. The platforms to capitalize on include Facebook and Instagram. Before running an ad, a healthcare marketing strategy ought to be in place. It ought to align with the values that govern the practice as it is what sets your brand apart. Consider the below as you implement your social media advertising campaign.

Consider the demographic

If you’re a children’s hospital, then your focus would be targeting parents. Therefore, know your target market and tailor content toward them. A meditation Toronto studio would attract females perhaps between the ages of 25 and 40. Learn extensively about your primary clients so that you can filter and create highly targeted campaigns. Using this approach makes your efforts worthwhile and productive. It is also a cost-effective approach to advertising. 

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How to Correctly Follow the CMS Mandate – Publishing Charges for Customers

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By Brad Olin

As hospitals begin to adjust to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new price transparency mandate, many providers are still concerned about how their patients may perceive their online posted standard charges. 

As everyone is probably aware of by now, as of January 1, 2019, CMS has required all hospitals to post their standard charges online in a machine-readable format. 

Although this mandate was instilled to help create a more patient-centric experience, many providers have focused more on meeting the bare mandate (only posting the list of charges online) rather than going the extra mile by providing a tool for patients to determine their true out-of-pocket costs. 

The key is to present this information simply and clearly to ensure that patients understand the significance of the charge list. Sure, some patients may still have questions about the significance of those standard charges, which is why it’s crucial that patients know who to contact without too much digging around the website. 

In fact, according to a 2018 webinar survey, 57% of the buyer’s journey occurs online before engaging in sales. Pair that with the fact that the average online attention span of customers is only 8 seconds long and now you have a compelling reason to develop an online estimate tool that is engaging, user-friendly, and most importantly, accurate. 

Before a hospital can develop a plan for presenting their standard charges, hospitals need to ensure that they are providing all of the necessary information to the patient. 

In an effort to provide continuous support to the healthcare providers by delivering a patient-centric experience, CMS recently released a FAQ list comprised of items that were added to the CDM list. In this FAQ list, CMS provided further detail on the items that need to be included, such as drugs and biologicals, for each diagnosis-related group (DRG), regardless if a hospital is currently involved in their own state-wide price transparency mandate. If a hospital does not provide all of this information online to the public, they will not be in compliance with the law and are subject to face future penalties.  

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4 Commercial Leasing Tips for Healthcare Tenants

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By Jeff Grandfield and Dale Willerton

For many healthcare tenants, negotiating a good lease or lease renewal against an experienced agent or landlord can be a challenge. While a doctor focuses on proper patient care, savvy real estate agents and brokers are specialized sales people. Their job is to sell tenants on leasing their location at the highest possible rental rate. 

As explained in our book, Negotiating Commercial Leases & Renewals FOR DUMMIES, tenants may go through the leasing process only two or three times in their entire lifetime – yet they have to negotiate against seasoned professionals who negotiate leases every day for a living. Negotiating appropriate leasing terms is vital for a doctor as the amount of rent he pays will directly affect the practice’s financial bottom line.

Whether you are leasing a new location for the first time or negotiating a lease renewal for your practice, these are some money-saving tips for healthcare tenants:

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Upcoming Heart Health Events at Presbyterian SeniorCare Network

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Heart Healthy Cooking Demo – Oakmont area

The Dining Services Team at Presbyterian SeniorCare Network, will host an engaging cooking demo that will focus on heart healthy foods. Learn better ways of eating healthy that both your heart and stomach will thank you for! You will sample their culinary creations. Yum! This event will leave attendees with a full stomach and some new recipes.

When: February 05, 2019 – 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Where: Presbyterian SeniorCare Network, The Atrium at Westminster Place, 1215 Hulton Road, Oakmont, PA 15139

This event is free, but we ask that you register as seating is limited!

Register by January 29. To register, email OakmontEvent@SrCare.org or call 412-435-8955.

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