Paula Blankenship – The Hertel Report

Paula Blankenship

Communications professional with two decades of award-winning work in journalism, corporate communications, promotional video, public relations and higher education. Always seeking opportunities to serve the public good.

Author's Posts

Arizona Comings & Goings

Michael White, MD, Joins MIHS as Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer

He begins his role at Maricopa Integrated Health System August 12 after serving as chief academic officer at CHI Health in Omaha Nebraska, a non-profit, faith-based health system that provides services in 18 states through 101 hospitals - including...

National News

Housing Support for High Need Medicaid Population Significantly Reduces Crisis Events

In Charlotte, North Carolina, the insurer Cardinal Innovations Healthcare helped rehouse patients in independent living, provided housing subsidies, moving assistance and other services to help Medicaid members find housing. Cardinal's Transitions to Community Living Initiative (TCLI) targets high need Medicaid patients including...

Arizona News

2019 Summer State of the State

Join Arizona healthcare leaders in Tucson, Phoenix or Flagstaff for our summer meeting complete with guest speakers on the hottest trends in Arizona healthcare along with data updates for commercial, Medicare, AHCCCS, Exchange and ACO markets. 2019 Summer State of the State Join THR Publisher and healthcare consultant Jim...

Arizona News

Arizona Inmate & Employee Complaints Against Corizon Health Continue

As the Parsons v. Ryan lawsuit continues, letters have been submitted to the court that detail improper healthcare for pregnant women and services for disabled inmates. Corizon also recently settled an EEOC case alleging it refused to accommodate employees with disabilities who exhausted their leave under Corizon's 30-day medical leave...

Arizona News

Carondelet & Ascension Settle EEOC Complaint

According to the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, Carondelet Health Network and Ascension Health refused to provide reasonable accommodations such as extended leave, reassignment, or assistive devices to employees with disabilities. The cost of the settlement was $545,000 and compensates six employees impacted by the...

National News

Blue Cross of Idaho Uses Data to Save Big in Commercial Market

The largest health insurer in the state was honored by IBM Watson Health with 2019 Advantage Award for breaking new ground in the use of data and analytics to improve the quality, effectiveness and affordability of healthcare and social programs. According to Health Data Management, Blue Cross of Idaho has used an episodes of care...

White Papers, E books, Reports and more

Report: State of (International) Health Insurance 2018-2019

The second annual State of Health Insurance report from Pacific Prime now includes sections on trends now seen in the global insurance market around the world; includes a trends watch from global insurance leaders including Aetna, Bupa Global and Cigna. Get a quick look at the state of international health insurance for businesses and...

Arizona News

East Valley Diagnostic Imaging & Valley Radiologists Create Banner Imaging

About 600 employees already working for EVDI and VR will transition to become Banner Imaging employees under this new agreement. In 2017, the physicians that own Scottsdale Medical Imaging, Limited (SMIL), Valley Radiologists (VR), East Valley Diagnostic Imaging (EVDI), and Sun City Imaging (SCI) sold/ traded their practices to...

Arizona News

UofA Plans to Develop EHR Alerts to Mitigate Cardiac Death at Banner Health in Arizona & Colorado

University of Arizona in Phoenix researchers received a $766,000 grant to develop alerts within an EHR system that notify physicians when a prescription drug may put a patient at risk of cardiac arrhythmia. As many as two-thirds of elderly patients admitted to acute-care settings are exposed to multiple medications known to interfere...

National News

Research: Impact of Value-Based Insurance Design for Primary Care

When a large national employer removed cost sharing for primary care visits, medical utilization fell, as did monthly costs, driven mostly by reduced emergency department (ED) visits, according to research findings from a study published May 10 in the American Journal of Managed Care. Findings in a nutshell: The removal of cost...

Arizona News

Sonora Quest Offers New Mobile Sample Collection Service in Maricopa County

Need a blood test? If you have a Maricopa County zip code, Sonora Quest Laboratories (SQL) will come to you; Flagstaff, Prescott and Tucson residents may see the service come online in their neighborhoods next. Whether the order comes from your physician or is consumer directed, patients now have an option to select a time and...

Arizona News

The CORE Institute Gains Outpatient Surgery Center in Michigan

The Phoenix-based orthopedic group isn't new to Michigan, but the Lakes Ambulatory Surgical Center in West Bloomfield Township is its first investment in an outpatient surgery center in the state. According to reporting from Crain's Detroit Business, The CORE Institute has made itself known in Michigan, creating partnerships with...

Arizona News

Healthcare for Prisoners: Arizona Fights Contempt Ruling & Fine

The Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) filed an appeal asking the court to throw out a contempt citation against its director along with a $1.4 million fine for not adequately improving the healthcare of 33,000 inmates in state-run Arizona prisons. The appeal was filed two days after the department was threatened with more fines...

Arizona News

Arizona Joins Anititrust Suit Alleging Price Fixing by Generic Drugmakers

The suit originated and is led by Connecticut and now includes 43 other state attorneys general including Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Filed May 10 in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the 524 page suit claims Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Pfizer, Sandoz, - a total of nearly two dozen makers of generic drugs...

National News

American Hospital Association Wants DOJ to Investigate WellCare Centene Merger

The powerhouse lobby is putting pressure on the U.S. Justice Department to look into whether the merger will reduce competition in Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage markets. In an eight-page letter, AHA cites the DOJ's injunction to block Aetna's acquisition of Humana and other recent forced divestures by UnitedHealth...

National Resources

Ensign Group Plans to Spin Off Home Health, Hospice and Senior Living Businesses

The Pennant Group, a separately traded company, but a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ensign, would pick up Ensign’s home health and hospice operations, most of its senior living operations, plus mobile diagnostic and clinical laboratory operations. Once the deal is complete The Ensign Group, Inc., will limit itself to transitional and...

White Papers, E books, Reports and more

The New Healthcare is a Team Game: The ACO Specialist Manual

More than 40 Carolina medical societies and organizations are committed to helping their medical community prepare to participate, navigate, lead and succeed in a value-driven healthcare system. The ACO Specialist Manual is a strategic guide to getting the optimum value-add contributions from each medical specialty in integrated health...

Arizona News

June Opening Scheduled for Steward Hospital in Pinal County

Steward Health Care will start seeing patients at Florence Hospital - A Campus of Mountain Vista Medical Center, in mid-June, a year after Florence Hospital at Anthem and its affiliated hospital in Gilbert both closed abruptly after ongoing financial struggles. Although not labeled by Steward as a micro-hospital, the Florence facility...

Arizona News

Insys Therapeutics Leadership Found Guilty of Racketeering

Last week, a federal jury found Arizona billionaire John Kapoor and four other executives of Insys Therapeutics guilty of conspiring to bribe doctors to inflate sales for the pain drug Subsys, an opioid approved to treat breakthrough cancer pain that's 100 times stronger than morphine. Kapoor, the founder and former CEO of Insys...

National News

Survey: Dramatic Rise in Deductibles & Co-Pays For Americans With Employer-Based Health Insurance

The data reveals that while employees value the insurance they get at work, the last decade has hit families' budgets hard; premiums are up 55 percent and the average deductible a whopping 212 percent. Most Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance say they pay at least some of their premium and more than 40 percent report...

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