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An employer's guide to consumer-directed health benefits
This comprehensive report explores the legal, regulatory, financial and actuarial issues that employers must consider when empowering their employees to make more decisions about their healthcare and healthcare benefits. The report comes from the Wye River Group, an informal policy consortium that includes PricewaterhouseCoopers. Download An Employer's Guide to Consumer-Directed Health Benefits (3020K).
Behind the numbers: Medical cost trends for 2009
From one year to the next, healthcare costs for employers and their workers always go up. Yet, for the past five years there's been some positive news. The growth rate has been dropping. However, that trend will level off in 2009, according to employers and health plans. The new Health Research Institute (HRI) report, "Behind the numbers: Medical cost trends for 2009", addresses the cyclical nature of the healthcare industry and provides insights into the conflicting factors that are contributing to both cost increases and savings. See "Behind the numbers: Medical cost trends for 2009".
Children’s Medical Center integrates process improvement and electronic health record initiatives
Modern Healthcare and PricewaterhouseCoopers present Straight Talk. This session addresses process improvement and EHR initiatives and was held at Modern Healthcare’s Chicago headquarters on August 26, 2008. Fawn Lopez, publisher of Modern Healthcare, was the moderator.

Children’s Medical Center, a two-hospital pediatric system in the Dallas metropolitan area, is successfully embracing one of healthcare’s more challenging missions: to significantly improve care delivery by providing real-time, all-the-time access to electronic health records (EHR) for patients and providers. Children’s, affiliated with UT Southwestern Medical Center, is licensed for 483 beds. Its leadership approaches the EHR project as an integral component of hospital-wide process improvement initiative, involving collaboration among senior leaders, physicians, clinical personnel and information technology experts. See Children’s Medical Center integrates process improvement and electronic health record initiatives.
Doing more with less: How can healthcare providers cut IT costs in today's economic climate?
Many healthcare providers have responded to the economic downturn by cutting expenses. However, the Obama administration is pushing healthcare providers to invest more resources to implement electronic health records (EHRs). This situation presents a unique opportunity born out of necessity to simplify and standardize the massive patchwork of IT functions. Organizations that focus on the long-term transformation of their IT infrastructure will likely thrive after the current economic downturn passes. Providers that meet the stimulus bill's directive for EHR adoption will be better positioned in an industry targeted for massive IT growth. These organizations will not only be rewarded with significant short-term benefits, but also will possess the foundation for long-term, sustainable IT cost reduction.
Healthcare policy in an Obama administration: Delivering on the promise of universal coverage
President Barack Obama has pledged to implement multiple changes in our health care system with the goal to increase access and affordability of health care in the United States. This report recognizes the difficulty in developing such reforms in light of current market conditions, the implications reforms could have and provides five suggestions to make health care more affordable. To find out more about how the President proposes to implement changes to the existing health care system and the possible impact of such reforms read, Healthcare policy in an Obama administration: Delivering on the promise of universal coverage.
HealthCast 2010: Smaller world, bigger expectations
Our survey group included a mix of policy makers, health system executives, employers, physicians, insurers and medical supply vendors. In addition, PwC practice leaders interviewed more than 50 thought leaders from seven countries at length about future trends and their implications for the industry's stakeholders.
HealthCast 2020: Creating a sustainable future
In this groundbreaking report, HealthCast 2020, PricewaterhouseCoopers looks at solutions and responses from around the world to the globalization and industrywide convergence of healthcare. What insights, best practices and policy lessons can be learned from experiences in various countries to create a globally sustainable health system? Who, or what, is driving the solutions?
HealthCast tactics: A blueprint for the future
This report suggests tactics for the healthcare industry to employ over the next three to five years. According to HealthCast Tactics, there are significant gaps between what healthcare executives, policy makers and employers rate as important and what is being implemented performance-based reimbursement, privacy, and clinical excellence. The report draws on a survey of more than 650 top executives of hospital systems, payers, governments, medical supply vendors, physician groups and employers.
Identifying savings from pharmacy management
A new study from PricewaterhouseCoopers finds that pharmacy management techniques are expected to save $1.3 trillion in drug cost over the coming decade.
Improving patient flow dramatically decreases wait in emergency and inpatient admitting
Recognizing that backups in the emergency department are a result of broken processes throughout the hospital, Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Ill. redesigned workflow in many areas. In May, the 517-bed hospital eliminated the emergency department's waiting room and triage procedures and dramatically reduced the time that patients wait before being transferred to an inpatient bed.

In this installment of Modern Healthcare's Straight Talk, we look at the patient throughput initiative at Saint Joseph -- one of six hospitals owned by Provena Health in Mokena, Ill. The session on patient throughput was held on August 4, 2005 at Modern Healthcare's Chicago headquarters. Fawn Lopez, publisher of Modern Healthcare, was the moderator. PricewaterhouseCoopers presents Straight Talk.
Keeping score: A comparison of pay-for-performance programs among health plans
In order for providers to improve quality and make sustainable changes in the delivery of care, they must have specific incentives to do so. Pay-for-performance programs are an important tool to link financial payment with quality improvement. If P4P is to succeed in significantly moving the needle on quality, we ultimately need an all-payer approach, wherein providers face the same metrics and incentives for all their patients, regardless of their insurance coverage.
Outsourcing in the business office increases cash
Straight Talk: New approaches in Healthcare
Paying for performance: Incentives and the English health system
Many countries are looking at ways to reform their healthcare payment systems around performance. The English system for paying primary care physicians is the only one in the world that bases a significant portion of physicians’ pay on quality metrics. For that reason, this “pay for performance” (P4P) system is worthy of study, and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute (HRI) report shows what is working well, what needs further refinement and what should be considered when implementing pay for performance methodologies. The learnings from this go far beyond the English system.
Physician practice turnaround in an integrated delivery system
Straight Talk: New approaches in Healthcare
Proposals to policy: A national conversation on healthcare reform
Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief of Health Affairs and health correspondent of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, moderated a panel of healthcare experts, economists and lawmakers as they discussed President Obama's health care reform proposals. This broadcast was recorded from the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. on November 20, 2008.
Rebuilding healthcare in Louisiana: A blueprint for the nation
Executives from Franciscan Missionaries Of Our Lady Health System, Baton Rouge, and Ochsner Health System, New Orleans, discuss the present and future state of healthcare in Louisiana and how they have struggled to cope with day-to-day challenges while also preparing for the future.

See related report Louisiana Recovery Authority Endorses PwC Healthcare Report.
Recapturing the vision: Integrity driven performance in the pharmaceutical industry
Pharmaceutical companies face increasingly regulatory scrutiny and highly critical media coverage of the industry's R&D, marketing and manufacturing practices. This report explores the reputation issues and compliance challenges facing the industry.
Research rewired: Merging care and research information to improve knowledge discovery
Today's ad hoc methods of managing research information are beginning to strain under increasing demands for new drugs, more personalized medicine, better diagnostic tools, and post-market safety monitoring. This report investigates the benefits, barriers, and emerging approaches to creating an integrated information environment that will help to shape scientific diagnostic, drug, and device discovery in the future. See more
 Rock and a hard place: An analysis of the $36 billion impact from health IT stimulus funding
By injecting $36 billion in health IT through the stimulus fund, the federal government hopes to create a digital healthcare infrastructure that reduces costs and improves quality. Hospitals and physicians that want the stimulus money will find they have little choice but to comply with the new requirements or suffer future shortfalls in Medicare reimbursement.
Tailoring the approach: Employer attitudes and healthcare strategies address distinct issues
Employers must increasingly customize their approaches to providing health benefits to the unique health needs and behaviors of their workforce. Fortunately, a growing number of tools are available to activate employees. Tailoring the right approach may be challenging but not impossible. The results released by PwC's Health Research Institute (HRI) and Management Barometer demonstrate the evolution of employer attitudes on benefit design, consumers and quality.
The economics of IT and hospital performance
More than 60 percent of hospitals in the US have made significant enough investments in information technology to begin seeing reductions in operating costs, according to a report on the relationship between health IT investment and hospital operating performance. The report, the culmination of two-years of research, provides the most comprehensive evidence that investment in information technology will improve hospital business performance and that IT capital investment can eventually pay for itself in the healthcare environment.
The healthcare quality equation
Though various health organizations may define and approach quality differently, the common denominator is the patient’s perspective, experience and outcome. Quality issues should be an important part of health system executives’ agenda. Successful quality programs have a number of key ingredients, including decision-reporting tools and business analytics information - which depend on robust information reporting and a system-wide electronic medical record - as well as highly motivated employees and physicians.
The price of excess: Identifying waste in healthcare spending
More than half of the $2.2 trillion spent annually on healthcare in the US could be considered wasteful, according to an analysis published by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute. Defensive medicine, such as redundant, inappropriate or unnecessary tests and procedures, was identified as the biggest area of excess, followed by inefficient healthcare administration and the cost of care necessitated by conditions such as obesity, which can be considered preventable by lifestyle changes.
The quality conundrum: Practical approaches for enhancing patient care
More than a year in development, "The Quality Conundrum" is a compilation of essays by PwC subject matter experts, discussions with selected clients and insights from our interviews with health industry leaders in the United States and around the world. It explores the barriers that have made healthcare quality improvements difficult to achieve, and outlines a clear path to progress. It includes a discussion of quality from the patient's perspective, in the journey across the health care system.
The trends and benefits of providing healthcare quality data
In this latest HealthBrief, PwC discusses the results of a recent survey of top executives at large US-based multinational companies. The focus of the HealthBrief is on healthcare quality data that firms provide to their employees as a way to influence the utilization of healthcare through better education of their employees on cost and quality issues and improvement of their own health behaviors.
Top eight health industry issues in 2008
Health organizations face a pivotal year in 2008 as they anticipate the wildcard outcome of the presidential election. Meanwhile, they must prepare for impending changes — pharmaceutical and life sciences companies are adapting to a new safety agenda from the FDA including the agency's expanded authority over post-market drug safety. See more
 Top nine health industry issues in 2009
In 2009, external forces will compel health industry organizations to react to new financial realities, regulations, and technology. Chief among those forces will be the effects of the economic crisis, a new president and Congress, and financial and technology companies looking to extend their reach into the health industry.  PricewaterhouseCoopers' report from the Health Research Institute (HRI) identifies nine significant issues that will shape the health industry in 2009.  To find out more about these nine issues and their implications read, Top nine health industry issues in 2009.
 Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data
This report, Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data, addresses a key challenge the industry faces - leveraging the vast amount of electronic data which will result from current investments in IT to implement electronic health records. Despite these challenges, the opportunity for the industry to cut cost and improve care will drive innovation and collaboration in secondary use of data.
What employers want from health insurers – now
Studies show that most employers are satisfied with their health benefits and want to continue providing these benefits to their employees. However, employers' expectations of their health insurers are changing, and while many studies in the past have examined the relationship between employees and their employer-sponsored benefits, less is known about employers and what they want from insurance carriers. To find out more about the evolving attitudes US employers have regarding health insurers read, What employers want from health insurers - now.
What works: Healing the healthcare staffing shortage
The federal government predicts that by 2020, nurse and physician retirements will contribute to a shortage of approximately 24,000 doctors and nearly 1 million nurses. Health industry leaders are faced with the challenge of orchestrating care in an increasingly complex and converging healthcare labor market. Seeking solutions means understanding that while the challenges confronting nurse and physician shortages are very different, their roles and futures are starting to converge.
You get what you pay for: A global look at balancing demand, quality, and efficiency in healthcare payment reform
As the pressure to control health spending increases, payers, governments, and providers are compelled to scrutinize the quality and amount of care they'll be able to deliver in the future. Health leaders around the world see the health payment system as one of the best tools in managing this challenge and achieving sustainability. However, with less than 40% of those same leaders ranking their existing payment system as good, every country has room to improve and can benefit from shared best practices. See You get what you pay for: A global look at balancing demand, quality, and efficiency in healthcare payment reform.