The top line: Accessible primary care is critical to population health – but problematic for healthcare facility planning. In one NC county, a healthcare system is partnering with a local church to improve accessibility with minimal investment in bricks and mortar. Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Cleveland County is one of the… Read More

In March, President Joe Biden announced a new test-to-treat initiative that allows some pharmacies to prescribe life-saving Covid antivirals for patients who walk in and test positive – a policy that begins to recognize the role of pharmacy in healthcare transformation. No more shuttling between a doctor’s office and pharmacy? That seems like a commonsense… Read More

Value-based care is a linchpin of healthcare transformation because there is simply no way to bend the cost curve without curtailing fee-for-service payment arrangements. While some traditional providers continue to struggle with the transition to value-based payments, national organizations like VillageMD clearly believe they have “cracked the code” for offering profitable primary care. VillageMD cares… Read More

What’s in a name? There’s a battle brewing over the familiar P.A. designation found in many primary care teams, and it’s just one more sign of the status quo resisting true healthcare transformation. As reported recently by Kaiser Health News, physician assistants would like to re-brand as “physician associates,” but doctors are fighting back, arguing… Read More

Our founder, Dawn Carter, wrote the following opinion piece with Joann Anderson, the outgoing CEO of UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton, NC. A shortened version was published by the Raleigh News & Observer on Nov. 14, 2021. Rural healthcare is facing a crisis all across America, and North Carolina is no exception. From Belhaven to… Read More

As I write this, the debate over America’s debt ceiling has reached a fever pitch, with dire predictions of mass layoffs, delayed Social Security checks, skyrocketing mortgage rates, and more. All that sound and fury is not a bad thing, since the consequences of a default would be catastrophic – a “meteor” on a collision… Read More

It seems like everyone is grading hospitals these days. Safety, value, clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction – the list of metrics for judging a “good” hospital just keeps growing and growing, so maybe it’s no wonder that the American Hospital Association is pushing back on the newest report card from the Lown Institute. Now in its… Read More

Ascendient has always been a purpose-driven firm. Our relentless focus on healthcare transformation goes much deeper than some academic concern over best practices. We truly believe that every person deserves to get the right care in the right place at the right time, and that’s only possible in a transformed healthcare system where incentives and… Read More

If you’re looking for the lowest price on a rectal resection or a radical hysterectomy, you might be glad to know that the Biden Administration plans to fine hospitals up to $2 million a year if they fail to publish those prices online. Yes, this is the latest proposal for keeping a lid on healthcare… Read More

“Since 2010, 120 rural hospitals have closed across the United States.” We hear statistics like that a lot – so often, in fact, that the big numbers start to lose their impact. But in a story last week from my local news station, WRAL, the reporter went on to list by name seven of the… Read More