Section II: Cleveland Clinic

Financial Management, Quality and Marketing Aspects

Financial Analysis of reimbursement for Cleveland Clinic 

There are different sources of finances that support the progress of Cleveland clinic especially from the government. Ohio Hospital Care Assurance Program (HCAP) support the hospital through offering finances that help cater for bills of poor residents in Ohio (Cleveland Clinic, 2017). The hospital collaborates with the state and federal government to support individuals living in poverty. Actually, the support occurs to individuals who are eligible for disability assistance program and those under Federal Poverty Guidelines (Cleveland Clinic, 2017). The hospital also offers assistance for individuals who do not have insurance covers but require emergency assistance. Indeed, the individuals get their charges as a discount of the normal rates. Therefore, more people from poor background are able to get access to quality care from the hospital. However, patients are scrutiny in the facility to gauge their eligibility for financial assistance. Actually, even patients with insurance covers but meet income criteria for assistance get some discount from the hospital. Additionally the federal and state government offer finance assistance to the hospital to cater for catastrophic balance (Cleveland Clinic, 2017). Further, people suffering from medical circumstances that are special get the financial support from the government. 

The clinic further relies on HMO Medicare plan that offers patients with affordable access to medical care (Humana, 2019). The program provides funding that helps in enhancing patient centered care that helps individuals to regain their health relatively fast. Through the insurance, patients are also able to access expert doctors who offer quality services. The impact is high rate of recovery from different ailments affecting the society. Through the insurance cover, patients are able to get coordinated and personalized experience when they visit Cleveland Clinic. Additionally, the hospital a co-branded plan of health care called Medicare Advantage Dual-Eligible Special Needs (D-SNP) (Humana, 2019). The program covers patients with Medicaid and Medicare covers from Cuyahoga County (Humana, 2019). The program offers accessible and affordable cover with no minimum monthly premium requirement. The plan further does not require patients to have referrals in order to access services of networks of health specialists (Humana, 2019). 

Out-of-pocket payment plans are also common in Cleveland clinic where people get different option to clear their bills. The option arises for an individual who do not have insurance covers and have bills that are in excess of 150 dollars Cleveland Clinic. (2019). The Cleveland hospital offers such patients with the option to clear their bills within one and half years. However, despite the period, the organization does not carry any interests on the bills and therefore individuals only pay what they owe to the hospital. Individuals with bills that are less than 1000 dollars pay them within 6 months (Cleveland Clinic, 2019). However, it takes relatively longer for those individuals with bills that exceed this amount. Actually, individuals with bills accumulating to over 2500 dollars get a repayment period of 18 months (Cleveland Clinic, 2019). Through the different programs, Cleveland clinic is able to raise sufficient money to support its expansion and service to the public. 

Methods of Funding Quality and Ethics 

Cleveland clinic continually upholds highest standards of healthcare when dealing with its patients. The hospital has a quality control department that ascertains that all procedures match the requirement by government regulatory body (Cleveland Clinic, 2019). Further, the department strives to ensure that all the internal stakeholders uphold quality services to the clients. The hospital has received different awards such as “Accreditation with Excellence” for its quality care especially in medical destination program (Global Healthcare Accreditation, 2017). The hospital operates within safety standards for patients as set by different accrediting agencies. Ohio department of Health, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission regulate the organization operations (Cleveland Clinic, 2019). CMS regulates the hospital in ensuring that it provides updated healthcare to patients and promotes quality for all the clients (Cleveland Clinic, 2019). The hospital carries regular surveys as part of its commitment to Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement. The management of the organization collaborates with the regulator in ensuring that it enforces safety standards.  Further, it promotes affordable care to its patients ensuring that issues of exploitation are unavailable. 

The joint commission supports health care accreditation and performance improvement in the hospital. The commission regulates the extent of compliance of the hospital to the standards set by the ministry of health (Cleveland Clinic, 2019). Cleveland has a working relationship with the body and this supports its objective of offering affordable and quality care. The hospital welcomes the commission to conduct onsite surveys to prove its commitment to safety of patients and quality healthcare. In an effort to ensure it remains compliant with the set guidelines, Cleveland hospital invites the commission to conducts surveys very three years (Cleveland Clinic, 2019). The survey includes assessing the compliance of its laboratories and wards to ensure customer safety. The Ohio Department of Health work in collaboration with Cleaved Clinic offer licensing to its operations. The regulator conducts visits to ascertain that the facility meets the set laws guiding heath of the public. Some of the areas assessed include Dialysis and Ambulatory Surgery Centers (Cleveland Clinic, 2019).

 Concerning ethics, the hospitals offers uniform care to all its patients without consideration of their ability to pay for the services. The ethical principle of benevolence guides the physicians in the hospitals in ensuring maximum benefit for their patients (Stoller, 2014). The medical practitioners are able to collaborate to offer best care to their patients. Indeed, care of patients is a mutual responsibility for all the physicians within the hospital. The decisions of medical practitioners when handling patients, is devoid of consideration of their financial capability to pay (Stoller, 2014). Therefore, enhancing health of the society forms main culture of the employees within the facility. Further, the hospital management requires all the physicians and staff within the facility to undergo through Annual Professional Review (Stoller, 2014). The objective is to ensure that they remain focused on their role in providing quality care to all the patients without incidences of favoring some individuals.  The move creates and maintains a culture of upholding professional ethics in handling the needs of the public irrespective love their background. 

Marketing Strategies

Cleveland clinic embraces different modern marketing tools to advertise its products and services to potential customers. The hospital identifies that satisfaction of customers is a significant booster in accomplishing its objectives. Through digital platforms and the internet, the organization reaches its customers and presents its services to them. Through product strategy, the organization is able to identify different needs of their consumers and offer matching products (Cohen, 2017). A significant percentage of consumers are aware of telemedicine and the convenience it offers them irrespective of their location. The consumers are thus looking for a hospital that is able to offer them services at the comfort of their homes. The marketing department in the organization uses online chats and videos to interact with their consumers. The telemedicine strategy allows the hospital to offer timely intervention to the changing demands of the patients in different localities (Cohen, 2017). Indeed, telemedicine forms an integral part of the hospital service to its clients. Through partnership with American Well, Cleveland Clinic was able to offer extensive telemedicine service in 2014 (Cohen, 2017). The impact of the program is improvement in efficient to customer care and transition to care that is value based. The strategy allows the organization to reach more patients without necessary increasing the number of physical facilities to accommodate clients. 

The marketing approach further allows the hospital to offer unique medical brands that enhance health specialty. The program offers urgent care in addition to follow up on specialty cases in remote areas. The hospital assures its customers through its brands it provides remote intervention of different medical conditions and this influences the reception of the services by the population (Cohen, 2017). The telemedicine platform furthers offers patients opportunity to manage their health conditions in their homes through the virtual intervention. Reports show that the hospital offer vital information on conditions that relates to issues such as blood pressure (Cohen, 2017). The hospital marketing department further fosters innovation in managing the health of the population. Some of the innovative approaches include development of an app that supports patients with chronic pains (Cohen, 2017). The app aims at guiding the patients to exercise on their own with the intention of relieving back pains. However, in an effort to engage the community, the hospital carries training on people on how to manage their health in their homes in addition to using health apps. The impact creates a positive relationship between the communities and the organization thus people are willing to collaborate with the hospital for their health needs. 

The employees also play a significant role in marketing the services of their organization to the public through offering reliable e-visits to their patients. It is the responsibility of the physicians to guide patients on how to use the telemedicine services in their homes. In addition, the medical practitioners in the hospitals help patients schedule appointment thus enhancing convenience (Cohen, 2017). The practitioners further ensure that they create a welcoming environment for patients in their facilities and this enhances patient trust on them. The interaction with the patients enables them to open about their problems and this allows customized attention. During hospital visits and telemedicine interaction, physicians create patient awareness on their boosting their personal health (Cohen, 2017). The session creates confidence in patients who develop a positive attitude towards the organization. The impact is potential of paying visit in future and acting as agents of direct advertisement to their friends.  Through email outreach program, the hospital is able to engage its customers about new products and assure them of their concern about their health development (Cohen, 2017). The strategy has progressively improved the number of patients who visit the hospital in its different branches across the state. 

References

Cleveland Clinic (2017). Summary of Financial Assistance. Retrieved January 7, 2019, from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/-/scassets/files/org/patients-visitors/billing/financial-assistance/financial-assistance-program-summary-application.ashx?la=en

Cleveland Clinic. (2019). Accreditation. Retrieved January 7, 2019, from, from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/patient-experience/depts/quality-patient-safety/accreditation

Cleveland Clinic. (2019). Zero Interest Payment Options. Retrieved January 7, 2019, from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/patients/billing-insurance/hsf

Cohen, J. K. (2017). How Telehealth Has Enhanced Cleveland Clinic’s Value-Based Care Strategy. Retrieved January 7, 2019, from: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/how-telehealth-has-enhanced-cleveland-clinic-s-value-based-care-strategy.html

Global Healthcare Accreditation. (2017). Cleveland Clinic Achieves Global Healthcare Accreditation for Medical Travel Services. PR Newswire. Retrieved January 7, 2019, from: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cleveland-clinic-achieves-global-healthcare-accreditation-for-medical-travel-services-300546437.html

Humana. (2019). Cleveland Clinic and Humana Expand Availability of Co-Branded, $0 Premium Medicare Advantage HMO Health Plan In Northeast Ohio. Retrieved January 7, 2019, from: https://press.humana.com/press-release/current-releases/cleveland-clinic-and-humana-expand-availability-co-branded-0-premium-

Stoller, J. K. (2014). The Cleveland Clinic: a distinctive model of American medicine. Annals of Translational Medicine, 2(4), 1-5