An Emerging Social Media Initiative:Connecting Hospitals, and Physicians to Communities Served
Though a new and immature industry within a hyper growth curve, there are both risks and emerging rules for engagement in the space. Most current hospital participation in social media is lead by marketing and public relations and to a lesser degree by web services departments.
There is considerable conversation that "social media" holds material promise for health reform and positive eco-system transformation, by enabling better integration between hospitals, physicians and other providers with communities served (both internal and external).
With intense focus on health reform and the creation of a national consensus, we are providing the select feeds from various regional health conferences and/or forums:
In addition to building national and regional templates for hospitals, physicians and health networks to purposefully engage in the social media space, we also work with provider network managers for guaranteed hospital and physician discounted benefits, as well as a growing base of "boutique", "concierge" or "direct practice" physicians who have abandoned totally, or in part, a traditional managed care or insurance based claims filing and billing practice.
As a 3rd generation discount medical plan architect, participating hospitals will: contractually waive upfront payments, co-insurance and deductibles, charge you based on a "most favored nations" contract basis, and structure a time payment plan that is consistent with your budget and reasonable ability to pay via auto debit or electronic funds transfer. The most favored nations basis will typically write down your hospital bill to as low as $.10 cents on the dollar to a high of $.40 of the billed amount charged to you. Health plans (HMOs, PPOs, etc.), Medicare and other Government payors pay these dramatic discounts, so why not you?
