Pioneer ACO Program groups announced

Posted on December 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

On December 19, 2011, the CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced that 32 provider groups will be participating in the Pioneer ACO Program. The Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) will operate in 18 states and serve an estimated 860,000 Medicare beneficiaries; and CMS estimates that the provider groups’ coordination of care for beneficiaries could generate as much as $1.1 billion in Medicare savings over 5 years. More information about the select participants in the Pioneer ACO Program may be found here.

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Time to Get App Happy

Posted on November 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

“Smartphone users spend more time on mobile apps than on the Internet.”

Whoa!  That phrase woke me up during the Mobile Apps workshop hosted by the Advertising Federation of Baton Rouge, featuring speaker David Jacobs, digital and creative strategist at the Tombras Group in Tennessee.

More wake-up calls:  Did you know that you can buy advertising on mobile apps?  I’m not talking about the Bejeweled Blitz game app, I’m thinking the CNN News app for Ipads or the Mobile Website version of ESPN.   Mobile ad revenues are already at $11 billion.  

If you are thinking that the Ipad market share doesn’t really matter — Oops!  The Ipad is now 15% of the Personal Computer market folks!  PC sales are down, tablet sales are up. 

By 2012, the pundits predict that more people will consume the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs. 

Pushaw the naysayers cry.  Well, then, why is Google trying to buy Morotola Mobility with a $12.5 Billion cash deal?  Mobile web traffic is 16% of all traffic. 

(If you want to check out mobile advertising, Motricity and other companies like it, claim they can reach your target demographic — right down to the zip code — and help you get into this new advertising channel quickly.)

And yes, the communications landscape just keeps a changing.  You can try to find the slides at the AAF-BR website where the slides are posted, but their site was down when I checked in.  David is on LinkedIn though.  Just tell him AAF-Baton Rouge sent you, and I’m sure he’d share the info.

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Posted in Communications Resources, Health care public relations resources, Sharpest Tools in the Shed, social media

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StumbleUpon Links are Gold

Posted on October 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

That little squiggly blue and green StumbleUpon share button should be getting more attention from all of us now that Ragan Social Media has posted this article:

StumbleUpon Gets More Traffic Than Facebook or Twitter

I’ve been negligent in using this bookmarking site — but no more! 

Are you using StumbleUpon and getting great results?  Please share a success story with us.

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Posted in Communications Resources, Health care public relations resources

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Bookmark this New Health Communications Blog

Posted on October 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Upstream is a health care communications blog from the graduate students at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   In a world of very few health care comm blogs, I’m thrilled to see this addition.  It’s got a cool look as well, making the information easier to digest than the more  journalesque health care comm websites available.  

For my more visual PR friends, here is a screen shot.  It’s worth a click. 

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Posted in Communications Resources, Education, Health care public relations resources

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The Power of Truth in PR

Posted on October 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

Healthcare PR is different, and you know it.  As a PR professional in this field, you aren’t just pushing out an event flyer or highlighting a new product to add to the company’s profit cycle.

The information you share with your publics can lengthen and improve their lives.   Or it can change their  minds about important policies.

For example, this blog post about the power of truth in healthcare from Thom Dahlborg on the Hospital Impact blog gives a glimpse into how a 5.4% increase in healthcare costs can truthfully be a good thing.  But the public won’t know that if the PR person in charge of the press release doesn’t reveal it.

It’s a thoughtful and important discussion that we must all have with ourselves.  How do you define truth in your PR materials?   How do you manage the riddle of what is really truth?

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Posted in Communications Resources, Health care public relations resources

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