Andrea Simon, writing in FierceHealthcare, discusses why hospitals must pay more attention to ancillary providers, which fall into these three big categories:
“Those involved in diagnostic services such as the labs, imaging, radiology, speech and hearing testing and so forth; those who deliver care or are the therapeutic providers, from occupational therapy and physical therapy to alternative medicine and speech pathology; and those offering a wide range of care-delivery services, including skilled nursing facilities, hospice, home health services, urgent care centers, retail centers and other custodial centers.
“The ancillary care industry is large and growing even larger. According to the Ancillary Care Services Web site ancillary care is currently one of the fastest-growing sectors of healthcare, representing nearly 30% of medical spending. In addition, the ACS Provider Network includes more than 33,000 healthcare providers in 32 specialty categories, along with specialty care programs that save more than 50% on costs.”
“In deciding how best to use ancillary care providers amid massive changes throughout the entire healthcare spectrum, hospitals need to select partners so they can coordinate care while still offering patients choice. In addition, they would be wise to rethink how to work with both ancillary providers and medical records systems to design better ways for information to flow across the care continuum.”
To read more, please hit this link.
