Most people think of CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) as an insurance company that covers individual services provided by physicians, FQHCs, hospitals, and other health care providers. Some people even think of it as a policy-writing agency for Medicare. It is true that CMS reimburses providers for services to millions of individual beneficiaries. However, since the Affordable Care Act came into action in 2010, CMS has been developing focused payment strategies that shift from fees for services to value-based care and a focus on population health.
Today, CMS’s second-highest strategic priority is prevention and population health. To this…
Healthy Food
Foust students learn about agriculture, healthy eating
Mar. 25—Wednesday afternoons at Foust Elementary School have been busy this month as students learn more about healthy eating and agriculture.
Cheryl Burks-McCarthy, a program assistant with the University of Kentucky’s Daviess County Extension Office, said the after-school time was for her to talk to students about increasing their consumption of fruits and vegetables.
“We’ve been able to do that with different snacks I’ve brought in,” she said.
Burks-McCarthy said some of the snacks the students had were quesadillas, a charcuterie board and trail mix, and some of the food used to create the snacks have come from local farmers.…
Why Experts Label Her Diet as ‘Disordered Eating’
Share on PinterestThe actor and Goop founder received swift backlash online after sharing details about his diet that experts say is excessively restrictive and unhealthy. RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images
Gwyneth Paltrow received backlash online after revealing surprising details about her diet.
In a recent podcast, she said her eating regime consists of mostly liquids and has been criticized for being too restrictive.
Health experts say this kind of eating regime does not provide adequate nutrition or support optimal health.
A healthy diet is a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy proteins.
Gwyneth Paltrow is facing widespread criticism after…
What’s The Difference Between Processed Foods And Ultra-Processed Foods?
You’ve likely heard health experts say that eating whole foods and skipping processed foods is a key to optimal health. A December 2022 study, for example, presented a pretty scary statistic linking ultra-processed foods to cognitive decline, saying that people who ate more than 20% of their daily calories from processed foods had a 28% faster decline in global cognition and a 25 % faster decline in executive functioning, compared with people who ate less than 20%.
If you’re wondering what an “ultra-processed” food is, you’re not alone. It’s a complicated topic.
Most foods are at least minimally processed —…
Patient Centricity as the Future of Digital Health Management
Digital health is an all-encompassing term that refers to the care provided through eHealth and mHealth through advances in computing sciences.
Challenges or Gaps in Traditional Care
Major technological challenges faced by the healthcare industry have got to do with data processing, cybersecurity, and providing a user-friendly experience. However, advancements in each of these fields have proven to be profitable, and will continue to do so. Our focus here is more to do with the user experience aspect of digital health management.
There are quite a number of digital health care providers, rather, platforms that avail services outside the traditional…
Technology companies are proving to be the great equalizer
[Part 1 of a 12-Part Series]
Healthcare is rife with significant challenges that can in some cases be minimized at the very minimum and in most cases be eliminated by the use of technology. The 12-part series begins by elaborating on macro-level challenges that the healthcare industry is starting to address with technology to stem the bleeding/reverse the onset of more severe complications.
Challenge 1: Supply and demand
Healthcare service delivery provisioning across the globe is starkly marked by the lack of adequate supply of qualified clinicians and specialists. This situation has been significantly exacerbated in the post pandemic new…
Food programs break the link between food insecurity and obesity in children
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Food FARMacias could be one part of the solution to the nation’s growing food insecurity problem, according to a new study by pediatricians at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York-Presbyterian.
Food insecurity—or lack of enough healthy food for an active, healthy life—is not just an issue of hunger. Food insecurity prevents children from reaching their full potential physically, cognitively, and socially. Children who grow up in food-insecure homes are sick more often, recover from illness more slowly, and are hospitalized more frequently. Food insecurity can contribute to obesity because people who…
Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS)
HEDIS is a set of performance measures that are used to compare health plan performance and measure the quality of health plans. These measures were created by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). About 90% of health plans use HEDIS as a standard to measure the performance of their plan. The data is tracked from year to year to measure the performance of the health plan and thus provide information regarding the population served.
The data that is collected is used to monitor the health of the general population, evaluate treatment outcomes, etc., and the data is collected through…