Another slow news day in anticipation of New Year’s Eve.
Wishing all of you a happy and healthy New Year.
HealthcareInsights will return on January 2.
About insurance:
Obamacare, Ruled Invalid by Federal Judge, Will Remain in Effect During Appeal: Judge O’Connor, who ruled the ACA invalid, issued a stay on Saturday- meaning the law’s provisions will remain in place pending appeal by 16 (Democratic) state attorneys general. It is unclear if or how the federal government will participate in the appeal since it agreed with the judge’s opinion about the individual mandate but said it was severable from the rest of the law. The political issue remains that the Republicans don’t want to be seen as participating in removal of insurance guarantees for people with preexisting conditions.
About research methods:
The Proposal to Lower P Value Thresholds to .005: As we head into the new year and propose resolutions for improvement, I thought this article from April would be useful. For those of you who do research or rely on “p-values” to interpret studies’ statistical significance, the author states:” the proposed reduction in the level for declaring statistical significance may dismiss mostly noise with relatively little loss of valuable information. “ He also provides other suggestions for tightening criteria.
About the public’s health:
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans: Also on the theme of new year resolutions, increasing exercise is on many people’s list. This article from HHS is one of the most complete I have seen on this topic. It not only gives the health benefits of physical activity, but also how to fulfill recommendations.
About healthcare marketing:
Consumerism: The Role of Patient Experience in Brand Management and Patient Acquisition: This study by Press Ganey highlights the changing expectations of healthcare consumers as more Millennials enter survey pools. As many polls have indicated, Millennials are more experience oriented than their predecessors. A major take-away of this study is that: “Patient experience is five times more likely to influence brand loyalty than other marketing strategies.” [Emphasis in thee original]. A corollary might be that reputation alone will not carry your organization, you need to deliver on your promises.