HMOs Should Follow Fair Process Guidelines
PHILADELPHIA - A main reason the industry is feeling a backlash in public opinion about managed care is because users believe the system is unfair, according to Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics and trustee professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
To rectify the situation the industry need only look at some counterparts, such as organ donor/transplant programs, the Oregon plan and the blood distribution system, Caplan told about 900 attendees this week at the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Marketing Development third annual conference here.
"Procedural fairness" requires six elements, several of which public relations and marketing can champion. They include:
- Publicity: making the process open to users and stakeholders;
- Participation: encouraging member feedback during planning and distribution;
- Redress: a clear process for complaints;
- Rescue: make sure member know that money is allotted for saving lives
- Opportunity for fair treatment; and
- Professional input: doctors and nurses should make medical decisions and value judgments as to what will be covered under a plan not the boardroom. (Arthur Caplan, 215/898-7136.)
Targeting New Movers
Major hospitals such as the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, the New York Hospital Medical Center in Queens, N.Y., and Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Fla., are targeting new residents with a direct mail program that reaches them within three to five days of relocating.
The Directory Dividends New Mover Network, based in Devon, Pa., designs and customizes direct mail programs that reach up to 16 million new movers through its affiliation with local telephone directories nationwide. The program costs $.10 to $.18/piece and provides hospital-exclusivity within a given market.
(Insights Unlimited, Robert J. Fiori, 610/687-6437
Promoting Family Wellness
A program to get families in your community on the fitness bandwagon through promotional kits will be available to hospitals at a lower cost this fall. The kits usually sell for $24.95 each.
Fitness Finders, a promotions company in Spring Arbor, Mich., has developed the new turnkey program, called Families in Training, that encourages families to exercise together. The program features a calendar-style poster, stickers, medals and other incentives to promote:
- Goal setting;
- Family utility; and
- Family health;
It is appropriate for all fitness levels and age groups. (Fitness Finders, Beth Kuntzleman, 517/750-1500)
Prudential To Target 'At-Risk' Patients
More proof that an ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure: Prudential Healthcare, Roseland, N.J., is initiating a program to identify at-risk patients so timely medical and pharmacy information can be shared with their physicians. The program is based on threading together medical and pharmacy claims data to pinpoint patients who, for instance, suffer from such medical problems as drug interactions, HIV/AIDS and severe headaches.
Whether it will save the healthcare giant money remains to be seen. But there is no question that the program provides an avenue to more aggressively target patients for educational reasons. Case in point: the system is meant to identify plan members who've suffered heart attacks, but aren't taking drug therapies recommended by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. (Prudential, 973/716-6000)