Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Emergence And Potential Impact Of Medicine 2.0 In The Healthcare Industry, Terra Stump, Sarah Zilch, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Medicine 2.0 has emerged within healthcare information technology to enable more defined relationships among providers and patients. Physicians, hospitals, and patients are using Medicine 2.0 through social networking to maintain their foothold in the evolution of medical technologies. The authors’ purpose was to determine potential improvements that Medicine 2.0 has on communication and collaboration of healthcare information. Research has shown that Medicine 2.0 has integrated into the healthcare industry and is enabling an increase in communication in healthcare matters. The provider-patient relationship is improving through the use of Medicine 2.0 and has positively impacted society so far.

Combating Medicare Fraud: A Struggling Work In Progress, Natalie Thorpe,, Stacie Deslich, Andrew Sikula Sr., Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

INTRODUCTION: The United States has spent approximately $2.6 trillion on healthcare in recent years. This accounts for 17.9% of the national gross domestic product. Fraud has been identified as one of the leading causes of the nation's increasing health expense. Medicare fraud has taken many forms including overutilization, upcoding, billing for services not provided and filing false cost reports. Fraud has been found throughout the healthcare industry and has been difficult to detect.

METHODOLOGY: The methodology for this qualitative study was a literature review. Four electronic databases and several government websites were utilized. Thirty nine sources were referenced for this …

Accountable Care Organization Musical Chairs: Will There Be A Seat Remaining For The Small Group Or Solo Practice?, Amy Vaughan, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

When it was introduced in the Affordable Care Act of 2010 as the new 2012 payment model for Medicare, an accountable care organization (ACO) was a new and untested concept in healthcare delivery and payment. The authors estimated the likelihood of engagement in ACOs by small group and solo healthcare practitioners. An evaluation of five case studies showed that significant organizational, financial, and technological challenges had to be met in order to launch an ACO. Sufficient resources to meet those challenges were best supplied by large organizations. Small or solo practices participated only through varying levels of integration as salaried …

Uncompensated Care And Quality Assurance Among Rural Hospitals, Doohee Lee, Chris Dixon, Paul Kruszynski, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Health care disparities in rural areas remain significant in the U.S. health care industry. Uncompensated care makes health care disparities in rural areas worse, and rural hospitals are unfavorably positioned to compete with urban hospitals in the economic-downturn marketplace. How uncompensated care affects quality care among rural hospitals has been lightly investigated. Given that many rural residents experience difficulty accessing high quality care and given the importance of establishing quality care practice standards in a rural setting, we conducted a systematic literature review to identify some quality-care barriers and opportunities and suggested strategies to strengthen the position of rural hospitals …

Gender Disparities: A Medical Detoxification Program, Alberto Coustasse, Karan P. Singh, Sue G. Lurie, Yu-Sheng Lin, Claudia S. Coggin, Fernando Trevino

Management Faculty Research

Significant gaps exist in health care regarding gender in the United States. Health status, social roles, culturally patterned behavior and access to health care can be influenced by gender. Women have been the primary users of health care and minority women usually have received poorer quality care than Non-Hispanic White (NHW) females. The objectives of this study were to identify gender, racial and ethnic disparities in access to substance abuse treatment in a Texas hospital. Secondary data collected on 1,309 subjects who underwent detoxification were studied. Gender, race/ethnicity, drug of abuse, relapse and financial classification were included in the analysis. …