Flex Your Local PR Muscle
Journalists place a high priority on local health resources, unless they are in New York or Washington, D.C., says a new study by The Pinnacle Worldwide Health Group, a network of 24 independent PR firms with representatives in the U.S., Europe and the Asia/Pacific region.
Journalists give equally high credibility to both local healthcare sources and national ones. Pinnacle, which is studying regional media needs for PR, released these preliminary findings exclusively to HPRMN.
These results are based on a poll of four to six journalists in each of four markets - Atlanta, New York, Portland, Ore., and Tampa, Fla. The complete survey will include nine additional cities.
- Journalists in Portland and Atlanta place a high value on local resources to confirm, customize and place healthcare stories in a local/regional context.
- In New York, Washington and Tampa, television reporters are interested in local context but not print journalists.
- Journalists do not seem to value the local/national source of health information, but having a known local contact for substantiating stories, and context is "very-to-somewhat" important.
- Most journalists receive up to 20 health-related pitches per day.
- Journalists said there was no credibility difference between local and national information sources.
For more media insight, check out our profile of HealthScout on p.8 and a new feature on editorial staff moves within healthcare, provided by MediaMap.
(Pinnacle, John Deats, 212/684-6300, ext. 362)
Healthcare Expert Sounds Off On Managed Care
Last month the Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society (HPRMS) of Greater New York ignited a powerful discussion among communicators about managed care and how to resolve some of its pressing issues. Guest speaker Michael Weinstein, a member of the New York Times editorial board and president of W.A.D. Financial Consulting, a non-profit providing financial consulting to low-income families, highlighted solutions for "managed competition" as an alternative to managed care.
During the Q&A session, Weinstein shared some thought-provoking ideas on how managed care should evolve into a managed competition paradigm, including:
- HMOs and other managed care organizations (MCOs) competing on quality and value rather than strictly on price.
- Doctors taking an increased level of risk by handling the toughest and most difficult to treat patients and being rewarded by the healthcare system for doing so.
- Establishing a reliable rating system for quality assessments - similar to the J.D. Power survey on automobiles and Consumer Reports ratings on consumer goods.
Earlier this week, HPRMS tackled the subject of how to meet patient needs.
(HPRMS, Jonathon Weil, 212/821-0566)
Y2K Problem Bugs Medical Organization
The American Academy of Opthalmology is not confident that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is ready for the new millenium. Recently it painted this worst-case scenario for the media: if HCFA's Medicare records and accounting system are not fixed by the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1999, millions of Medicare recipients could be denied service because providers will not be able to confirm eligibility. In addition, healthcare providers will have cash flow problems because of delayed payments.
In addition to the $100 million for fiscal year 1998 and 1999, HCFA has asked Congress for $141 million to make their information systems Y2K-ready. Still, HCFA isn't making the Year 2000 compliance grade according to congressional watchdogs, which gave the federal healthcare organization an "F" on its July and September report cards. This potential crisis begs the question: are you preparing your organization for Y2K image issues? To get in Y2K crisis-planning mode, check out PR News' special forum on this subject for PR professionals in Washington D.C. on Feb. 22. PR News is an HPRMN sister publication. To register, call 888/707-5814 or visit http://www.prnewsonline.com, HPRMN subscribers will receive a special discount.
(American Academy of Opthalmology, Cathy Cohen, 202/737-6662)