Top Ten HR Trends For The 2023 Workplace

By Jeanne Meister - As we enter 2023, the future of work has become the now of work. Many of the changes which started during the pandemic were accelerated and have become permanent aspects of our working lives. Read Full Article…

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1. Employee Well-Being Is A Human Imperative: Workplace stress has become a significant concern, and companies are striving to create environments that foster well-being. Delta Air Lines exemplifies this trend with their comprehensive well-being strategy that focuses on the whole person, not just the worker. The company's initiatives include expanding mental health treatment, promoting healthier food options, and offering financial education programs​¹​.

2. Skills-Based Hiring Is On The Rise As Companies Recruit For Potential Rather Than Degrees: A shift towards skills-based hiring has been observed, with the trend rising by 63% in the past year. This approach broadens the talent pool, quickens the hiring process, and promotes diversity in the workforce. It also benefits those who lack a bachelor's degree but possess valuable experience and skills. The number of jobs requiring a college degree has seen a decline, indicating a shift in the labor market where skills are becoming more valuable than formal education​¹​.

3. The Future Of Work Is Flexibility For All Employees: Flexibility in the workplace has evolved to mean more than just remote work. It can also involve choosing one's work schedule, such as working longer hours but fewer days. Both knowledge workers and frontline workers value flexibility in when work is done over where it happens. Examples include companies like Chick-Fil-A, which allows workers to work long hours on fewer days with full-time pay, resulting in increased employee retention. The desire for work flexibility is evident across all segments of workers, prompting the need to create new work rhythms that allow flexibility for all​¹​.

Retailers Are Making a Big Push Into Healthcare. Is Our Sector Ready?

By John Bou - While retailers already have a customer service focus, there is a steep learning curve to healthcare and the nuances of how things operate. It will be critical that these brands do their due diligence and invest in innovations that work to improve the fundamentals of healthcare such as efficient provider credentialing and flexible and sustainable working practices for providers. Read Full Article…

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1. Big brand-name retailers like Amazon, CVS Health, and Walgreens are increasingly investing in the healthcare sector. Their expansion covers primary and specialty care, home health, and retail health. These companies aim to apply their experience in creating innovative systems to the healthcare industry​¹​.

2. The retail trend in healthcare seeks to make healthcare more accessible. This approach would allow patients to access multiple services in one location, such as getting a flu shot, Covid booster, cholesterol test, and other shopping needs at a place like Target. However, there are concerns about whether the current infrastructure can support this shift, and what the potential challenges could be​¹​.

3. While the retail model of healthcare offers convenience and accessibility, there are potential drawbacks. One of the key concerns is maintaining a consistent physician/patient relationship based on history and trust, which is often seen as crucial in primary care and throughout the patient's life cycle. Studies have shown that positive relationships with physicians can improve patient satisfaction, patient loyalty, and health outcomes​¹​.

Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) research report examines market demand as well as key producers and geographical areas, with a CAGR of 8.1% during 2023-2030

By Prime PR Wire The Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) market research report provides insights into the current market conditions, trends, and future growth prospects for PBMs. The global Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) market is expected to reach a valuation of approximately $400 billion by 2030. The report highlights the growing demand for PBMs due to rising healthcare costs, increasing chronic diseases, and expanding insurance coverage. The study also focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on the PBM market, with a shift towards telemedicine and digital solutions. The report recommends PBMs adopt advanced technologies and provide customized solutions to meet the growing needs of patients and payers. Read Full Article…

VBA Article Summary

1. The global Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) market, which provides services to health plans, employers, and government programs to reduce prescription drug costs, is projected to reach a valuation of approximately $400 billion by 2030. Key growth drivers include rising healthcare costs, increasing chronic diseases, expanding insurance coverage, and the impact of COVID-19 causing a shift towards telemedicine and digital solutions. The report recommends PBMs to adopt advanced technologies and provide customized solutions to meet the growing needs of patients and payers​¹​.

2. PBMs play a crucial role in managing healthcare costs by negotiating with drug manufacturers and pharmacies to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The rising cost of prescription drugs, an increase in the number of people with chronic diseases, and the growing demand for healthcare services are the major factors driving revenue growth in the PBM market. Technological advancements have also enabled PBMs to optimize their services and improve efficiencies, further contributing to their growth​¹​.

3. Some of the key players in the PBM market include CVS Health, Express Scripts, OptumRx (UnitedHealth), Humana Pharmacy Solutions, Prime Therapeutics, MedImpact Healthcare, Magellan Health, BC/BS, Vidalink, Sea Rainbow, and Cachet. These companies offer a range of services, including prescription drug management, network management, and clinical services. The market is highly competitive, with companies constantly innovating and offering new services to gain a competitive edge​¹​.

Delaware Valley ACO CEO Mark Angelo on the future of value-based care

By Maia Anderson - This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Mark Angelo, a physician and CEO of Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO) in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Angelo talked about the challenges of running an accountable care organization (ACO), or a group of providers and payers that join together to provide quality care while reducing unnecessary healthcare spending. Angelo also laid out his projections for the future of value-based care. Read Full Article…

VBA Article Summary

1. Mark Angelo, CEO of Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO), describes their value-based care organization as a collective that brings together providers and payers to enhance the quality and cost of healthcare. The organization's efforts are focused on reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, attending to conditions that can be managed in an outpatient setting, and providing consistent care irrespective of the payer involved. As CEO, Angelo's responsibilities include overseeing various aspects of patient care, from cost management to identifying high-risk patients, and driving care coordination services accordingly​¹​.

2. One of the primary challenges that Angelo identifies with accountable care is the lack of patient awareness. He notes that a significant number of patients under the DVACO umbrella (around 250,000) are likely unaware that they are part of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). This lack of engagement and awareness, he believes, is a critical drawback that needs to be addressed to ensure that all stakeholders are aligned and working towards common goals of improving quality and cost-effectiveness in healthcare​¹​.

3. Angelo is optimistic about the future of value-based care, pointing to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' mandate for all beneficiaries to participate in a value-based arrangement by 2030. He acknowledges that changing the paradigm of care is a long-term process and sees the growing trend towards Medicare Advantage, a value-based care program, as a positive sign. Despite detractors and those benefiting from fee-for-service revenue models, Angelo believes that change is inevitable in the healthcare sector​¹​.

CMS launches new pilot program to test out value-based primary care in 8 states

By Heather Landi - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) aims to advance value-based primary care, especially in rural areas and among underserved populations, with a new pilot project. The agency announced Thursday a new primary care model will be tested under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) in Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and Washington starting next summer. Read Full Article…

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1. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a 10-year experiment to test a new primary care model in eight states. The experiment will evaluate the concept of paying Medicare and Medicaid providers for the value of services, instead of the volume​¹​.

2. This effort, known as the Making Care Primary Model, aims to improve the way Medicare and Medicaid pay for primary care. The model will transition safety-net and independent primary care providers, including federally qualified health centers, to a payment system based on the value of services they provide, rather than the volume​¹​.

3. In collaboration with state Medicaid agencies, CMS plans to run this pilot program in Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Washington state through 2034. Applications for the program will be available in late summer 2023​¹​.

Morgan Health: Improving Employer-Sponsored Health Care Requires Federal Policymakers to Prioritize Value-Based Reforms

By Morgan Health - To improve health care for 160 million Americans with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), Morgan Health urges federal policymakers to prioritize reforms that advance and help scale accountable care within the country’s largest insurance sector. Given the lagging adoption of accountable care in ESI relative to Medicare and Medicaid, Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration can support bipartisan solutions designed to enhance data sharing, strengthen the health care workforce, and as a result, meaningfully accelerate accountable care initiatives among employers. Read Full Article…

VBA Article Summary

1. Morgan Health urges federal policymakers to prioritize reforms that promote and scale accountable care within the U.S.'s largest insurance sector, employer-sponsored insurance (ESI). Despite a majority of Americans yet to see the full benefit of value-based care, there is a growing disconnect from the federal government's focus on advancing a value-based agenda in public programs. Morgan Health emphasizes the need for Congress and the federal government to act in collaboration with the private sector to overcome long-standing barriers that impede innovative care and benefits to employees​¹​.

2. Morgan Health highlights that the prevailing fee-for-service payment models, where providers are paid based on the volume of care provided, not improvements to patients’ health, undermine employers' ability to offer accessible, high-quality primary and accountable care programs. This contributes to significant gaps in health outcomes among employees. In 2021, fewer than 13 percent of commercial insurance payments were tied to two-sided financial risk for improvements in health outcomes, compared to over 35 percent of payments in Medicare Advantage and 24 percent in traditional Medicare​¹​.

3. Since its inception in 2021, Morgan Health has been dedicated to enhancing the quality, affordability, and equity of employer-sponsored health care. The organization has identified bipartisan solutions to accelerate the adoption of innovative care models and enhance access to mental and behavioral health services for those with ESI. These recommendations include advancing data quality and uniformity standards across the health care system, addressing workforce shortages in primary and behavioral health, finalizing a proposal around the creation of a centralized, national provider directory, modernizing the existing HIPAA statute to reflect current technological and business transactions, and providing consistent standards for race/ethnicity data collection, use, and reporting​¹​.

Do You Care About a Longer Healthier Life?

By William H Bestermann Jr MD - David A. Sinclair, A.O., Ph.D is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School. If you have any interest at all in living a longer, healthier life, this short TED talk is a must see! Dr. Sinclair does a magnificent job of taking a very complex subject and boiling it down to the key points that can make sense for laymen. As he says, chronic diseases and aging are driven by the same epigenetic (gene regulating processes) that feed into two master, metabolic, epigenetic switches—mTOR and AMPK. Read Full Article…

VBA Article Summary

1. Chronic diseases and aging are driven by the same epigenetic processes that feed into two master, metabolic, epigenetic switches—mTOR and AMPK. These switches are explored by leading aging scientist, David A. Sinclair, who has simplified this complex topic for the general public​¹​.

2. These switches, mTOR and AMPK, play vital roles in our development and survival. In our early years, mTOR coordinates food supply with growth, and AMPK activates genes required for survival when food is scarce. AMPK mobilizes fat and muscle to provide the energy needed for the heart and brain to work until food is available again​¹​.

3. As adults, the roles of these switches change and their manipulation can affect our aging and health. Switching on mTOR and switching off AMPK can make us age faster and develop chronic diseases more rapidly. However, practices such as eating and intermittent fasting can manipulate these switches. For example, eating activates mTOR, while intermittent fasting activates AMPK. This understanding forms a new frontier in medicine, enabling us to live longer and healthier lives. Additionally, best treatment practices can prolong the lives of individuals with high-risk conditions such as obesity with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, delaying complications like heart attack and stroke by up to eight years. The article emphasizes the role of diet, exercise, intermittent fasting, and certain medications in managing these switches, suggesting that this approach is more effective than the care most people receive and can be considered as best practices, precision medicine, or optimal medical therapy (OMT)​¹​.