Insights
Trainwreck-Proofing & Cost Containment in Healthcare
Nearly everyone in employee benefits can immediately think of a case that made cost containment in healthcare impossible. Maybe they call it a high-cost claimant. Or perhaps they think of it as a trainwreck case. Protect your people. Protect your plans with Goldfinch Health. Find out how we make surgery forgettable. The patient faced a…
Read MoreOpioids, Women & Employee Benefit Strategies
You won’t find the face of the opioid crisis in an unemployed 28 year-old man; it’s an employed and insured 52 year-old woman. And that can be helped with the right employee benefit strategies. How Much Is Outdated Surgery Costing Your Company? Find out now. That means employers could bring an end to this era.…
Read MoreThe Power of an Enhanced Recovery Protocol
Recently, I spoke with a physician leader championing the implementation of Enhanced Recovery protocols across an 11-hospital system. What is Enhanced Recovery Protocol? The Enhanced Recovery protocol emerged as a clinically-valid, patient-centric rethinking of the standard surgery experience 20-plus years ago. Over 7,000 articles have been published in the medical literature to support the extensive…
Read MoreDemand 21st Century Surgery with Healthcare Advocacy
It sounded like a miracle, but it wasn’t — it was a result of sound healthcare advocacy on behalf of a patient. One day after undergoing a colorectal operation to remove cancer, the patient was up and about and asking to go home. Don’t let your employees, your plans, or your patients suffer through second-rate surgeries.…
Read MoreFinding Health Equity in Surgery and Recovery
Finding Health Equity in Surgery and Recovery Bias, both unintentional and intentional, contribute to differences in the quality of care received by patients in the United States. The consequences of these disparities can be catastrophic to patients and their families. A 2002 report to Congress –just as relevant today as it was 20 years ago—detailed…
Read MoreAn Olympic-Sized Innovation
An Olympic-Sized Innovation Dick Fosbury had an idea. An engineering student moonlighting as a high jumper at the 1968 Olympics, Fosbury put his science background to work. Rather than take the conventional approach of jumping over the bar with a scissorkick, what if instead he went over the bar backwards, head-first? That’s right, backwards. And…
Read MorePulling Back the Curtain on Physician Referrals
Pulling Back the Curtain on Physician Referrals Over 100,000 times today in the United States, a visit between a patient and his/her physician ended with something like this: “I recommend you speak with a surgeon.” That simple statement sets a complex set of wheels in motion, not the least of which are the wheels turning…
Read MoreSurgery: Under the Microscope
Surgery: Under the Microscope “The Butchering Art” by Lindsey Fitzharris offers an in-depth and, shall we say, colorful look at the primitive days of surgery and healthcare. When it comes to the understanding of human health and the delivery of care, we should all be thankful to be alive in 2020 and not 170 years…
Read MoreMost Vulnerable Patients Make Costly Surgery Decisions
Research: Most Vulnerable Patients Make Costly Surgery Decisions A recent Goldfinch Health survey revealed critical insights into health literacy and the way consumers consider surgical decisions. Spoiler alert: novice surgical patients make costly decisions and they and their employers shoulder the consequences. But, first, a bit of background. We asked consumers: “Imagine you just found…
Read MoreThe World’s Best Cup of Coffee
The World’s Best Cup of Coffee “Center of Excellence” It’s a term you may have seen used by health insurers, hospitals and surgery centers in recent years. You might be surprised to learn no universal definition exists for qualifying a surgery center for the distinction. At its worst, a hospital or surgery center hanging the…
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