When a newspaper basically reprints public relations handouts and the reporter either doesn’t know enough to recognize they are reproducing press release “muble jumble”, we get the LNP article “Highmark and Lancaster General Health announce accountable care arrangement.”
We are ‘informed’:
“Accountable care arrangements are similar to accountable care organizations in that they’re designed to enhance coordination of patient care, improve health outcomes and eliminate unnecessary spending, Lines said…
“The organizations said LG Health will provide care team resources and technology to streamline information and support providers in delivering patient-centered care for roughly 27,000 Highmark commercial and Medicare Advantage members in the area.”
What is meant by “accountable care” and “patient-centered care”? Isn’t LNLP accountable? Doesn’t LNP care for all patients?
Only if, like the editor for NewsLanc, you have read articles on what Geisinger and Kaiser Permanente have introduced over the past decade and books on the Affordable Care Act will you gain some clue about what they are talking from the quote below of Tom Beeman:
“ ‘The current fee-for-service model is evolving to place greater emphasis on health care quality and outcomes, with payment tied to both value and provider performance,’ said Tom Beeman, president and CEO of LG Health. ‘Now and in the future, providers will increasingly focus on keeping people well instead of treating them only when they are sick.’ ”
Oh, it’s about conforming with ‘Obamacare.’
The LNP reporter and editor simply weren’t willing to ask questions so they could understand and properly report on what is to take place. That is an abnegation of journalism.
With a $2 billion dollar asset on the cusp of passing from Lancaster hands to the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the public deserves more knowledgeable and responsible reporting.
I suspect the value of the advertising revenue from LGH is far more important than what we expect from a real newspaper.
The readers are not their true customers. They are just a necessary expense for creating the “demand” for justifying advertising rates.
I have lowered my expectations and that’s why I’m not a subscriber.
The above comment hits the nail squarely on the head….LNP could care less about its subscribers….it is only concerned about feeding the subscribers whatever the advertisers have to offer.
I cancelled my subscription months ago, and have had innumerable contacts from LNP to get me to return.
Only when LNP comes clean about the unholy financial alliance it has through PSP and the Con Center (who is making how many bucks at the Con Centers/taxpayers expense), would I even consider being a subscriber again.
For the amount of advertising space in this so-called newspaper, there should be no subscriber cost at all.