State’s health insurers grapple with uncertainty over frozen federal risk payments
Published by Anjalee Khemlani The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance has extended the premium filing deadline for health insurers to July 18, from the original deadline of Wednesday. Health insurers in the state were scrambling Monday to understand the implications of stalled risk adjustment payments announced over the weekend, even as Wednesday’s state…Read More…
N.J. hospitals’ plan to reduce C-section rates looks strong
Published on the Press of Atlantic City New Jersey’s 49 hospitals that deliver babies began an initiative in April that is intended to reduce cesarean-section deliveries 10 percent by next June and by nearly a third eventually. C-sections, in which babies are delivered not through the pelvic opening but by cutting through the maternal abdomen,…Read More…
Elderly often drag their feet on having ‘The Conversation’ with families, doctors
Posted in NJ.com, written by The Times of Trenton Editorial Board Like most Americans, you probably hope that when your time is up, you’ll die peacefully in your home, surrounded by loved ones and far away from beeping hospital machines, invasive treatments and the rigid schedules of hospital routine. If you live in the Garden…Read More…
Take Five with Adrian Diogo
Adrian Diogo is Director of the Mayors Wellness Campaign at the Quality Institute. You work in health care policy. Why did you decide to train to become an Emergency Medical Technician and to now volunteer as an EMT? I thought that being on the front lines of health care and actually providing care would inform…Read More…
Quality Institute Unveils Plan to Improve End-of-Life Care in New Jersey
My father-in-law is 92 and my mother in-law is 86. Both are active and healthy. Not long ago, our Conversation of Your Life (COYL) program sponsored an event near their home in Fort Lee and I asked them to join me. We had dinner first and my mother-in-law, who has a keen sense of humor,…Read More…
NJ Hospitals Adopts Protocols to Reduce Unnecessary C-Sections
Published by Lilo H. Stainton on NJ Spotlight. Cesarean delivery comes with a number of risks for mothers and babies, including blood clots, cardiac complications, asthma and diabetes. All 49 of the hospitals that deliver babies in New Jersey have signed on to an initiative to reduce the number of unnecessary cesarean section births, a…Read More…
NJ Policy Group Releases Blueprint for Improving End-of-Life Care
Published by Lilo H. Stainton, of NJ Spotlight New Jersey residents, like most Americans, would like to die at home or in hospice, but many spend their last days in the hospital. With more than 25 percent of New Jerseyans dying in hospitals, rather than in their own homes, improving end of life care should…Read More…
Report finds NJ hospitals are performing too many c-sections.
Published by Leah Mishkin of NJTVnews A new Leapfrog report shows New Jersey hospitals are performing too many C-sections. The state is in the bottom five in the country in terms of meeting recommended standards. “For pregnant women, it’s hard because we want to listen to our health care providers and trust them, but we also need…Read More…
Take Five with Erine Gray
Erine Gray is the founder of Aunt Bertha, a Public Benefit Corporation. Aunt Bertha has been called the “Google of social services.” How did you come up with the idea? I’m from a small town in Western New York and my mom had Encephalitis, a rare brain disease. She became disabled when I was 17…Read More…
A Tale of Two Gymnasiums
Last week I traveled to the gymnasium at the Woodbridge Community Center to see Gov. Phil Murphy sign legislation to protect consumers from surprise out-of-network billing. During the bill signing, Murphy recalled a campaign-season dinner with Sen. Joseph Vitale at the nearby Reo Diner, where Murphy promised to sign an out-of-network bill if the legislature…Read More…