Adventist Health System rebrands, is set to become AdventHealth
Florida-based Adventist Health System, one of the largest faith-based health systems in the country that includes 50 hospitals, will change its name to AdventHealth beginning in January.
The name change will extend to all of the system's hospitals, uniting its facilities under one brand on Jan. 2, 2019. In addition, the new name allows the health system to better serve as a "consumer-centric, connected and identifiable national system of care for every stage of life and health," it announced.
The name is meant to stick to the system's faith-based roots and signal the "advent" or beginning of health, according to the announcement.
“Becoming AdventHealth allows us to be a fully integrated and distinguishable health system across all aspects of the care continuum, while also speaking to our Christian healing ministry, message of wholeness and our rich Seventh-day Adventist roots," CEO Terry Shaw said. (Announcement)
ACA 'commends' UnitedHealthcare for reversal on headache care
UnitedHealthcare has rescinded a policy change that would end coverage for chiropractic spinal manipulation therapy as a treatment for severe headaches, and the American Chiropractic Association is cheering the decision.
ACA sent a scathing letter to the insurer opposing the decision. Ray N. Tuck, Jr., the group's president, said in the letter that he was "astounded" to learned that UHC was pulling coverage for the treatment. In addition to changing its mind on ending coverage for SMT, UnitedHealthcare also eliminated language in its policy update that suggested the treatment is unproven or not medically necessary for patients with migraines.
“We appreciate that UHC weighed the evidence in support of manipulative therapy for headache that ACA provided in its July 23 letter to UHC President Dan Schumacher, and made the determination that patients should have access to this effective, nondrug treatment option,” Tuck said in a statement. (FierceHealthcare)
Mental health, substance abuse treatment have the highest percentage of out-of-network claims
A substantial number of out-of-network claims are associated with patients who have fewer specialists available within their network. That's particularly true when patients seek treatment from mental health and substance abuse providers.
Seeing out-of-network providers can cause patients to pay significantly more in out-of-pocket costs, but some patients are willing to bear this cost under certain conditions. Even aside from controversial "surprise billing" practices, patients may intentionally seek out providers that aren't in their network due to familiarity, reputation or convenience, according to a recent brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
But patients who sought outpatient mental health services were significantly more likely than other patients to have an out-of-network claim, KFF found in its analysis of people with large employer coverage. Specifically, patients with an outpatient psychotherapy or therapeutic psychiatric claim submitted out-of-network claims at more than triple the rate of patients overall. (FierceHealthcare)
Millennial nurses embrace job switches, advanced education
Millennial nurses are more trusting of leadership than their older counterparts and are putting a significant focus on rising through the ranks by switching jobs or pursuing advanced education, according to a new survey.
AMN Healthcare dived into trends from its 2017 Survey of Registered Nurses and found that 71% of millennial respondents said they intend to pursue an advanced degree, compared to 56% of Generation X nurses and 20% of baby boomers.
In addition, millennial nurses were more likely to say they would seek out a leadership role, with 36% looking for one compared to 27% of Gen Xers and 10% of baby boomers. Millennials were also the most likely group to say they trust leaders at the facilities they work for, and that those leaders care about them and support their career growth. (Survey)