| | The Insider's Guide - Tech - The Business of Health Care - Physicians - Subscribe Republican Vice Presidential pick Paul Ryan isn’t the only one Democrats are piling on this week. The knives have come out for Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat. I guess that isn’t a surprise. If Ron Wyden is right on Medicare then so are Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. The fundamental problem here is that the Democrats have decided that their best path to victory in the November elections is to say that the Republicans want to destroy Medicare as we know it and that the Democrats can preserve it. The truth is that no one can preserve Medicare as we know it. There isn’t a prayer that your father’s Medicare will be around in 10 years. There is a legitimate policy debate going on about the direction we will have to go with it. Read more.
NYT Report Takes on HCA Profits, Romney Link
By THCB STAFF
In the wake of last week's front page story describing irregularities at cardiac catheterization units at some HCA-owned hospitals, the New York Times published a story this morning questioning profits at the Nashville-based chain. At a time "when many hospitals across the country were nearly brought to their knees by growing numbers of uninsured patients, one hospital system not only survived — it thrived." The report links HCA fortunes to a 2008 change in emergency room billing policies that the paper argues allowed the chain to bill Medicare for certain patients at a much higher rate than it had previously. The beneficiaries of the "windfall" included the Frist family and private equity groups Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company. See also the HCA statement responding to the report.
Hospital Quality Under Scrutiny
By E. THOMAS WOOD Last week’s New York Times article on cardiac care at some HCA-owned hospitals yielded a chorus of comments from readers who argued that for-profit hospital care is inherently low-quality care. As it happened, in working on a history of the investor-owned hospital sector, I had just been crunching data that might either support or refute that assertion. The results are surprising, if far from decisive.
Last September, the Joint Commission released the first of what it said would be annual lists recognizing “Top Performers on Key Quality Measures™” among the nation’s accredited hospitals.
Unlike hospital quality measures that look at results – death rates and other outcomes – this one looks at processes. In theory, then, it ought to be more fair to hospitals that tend to serve sicker or more compromised patients, such as government-run hospitals in inner cities. Read more.
Reviving the Pipeline: A Call to Action For All
By ANDREW MORRIS-SINGER, MD Annie Lowrey’s July 28 article “Doctor shortage likely to worsen with health law” in the New York Times noted the growing shortage of primary care doctors particularly in economically disadvantaged communities, both in rural and inner-city America. This problem will likely get worse before it gets better as more Americans gain coverage and seek a regular source of care. As the article suggests, training more doctors and incentivizing them to pursue careers in primary care will be a key part of the solution. And it will require a multipronged campaign, using both some of the traditional strategies for workforce renewal and a few unique tactics not typically deployed in efforts to fix health care. Read more. Bad Directions
By ROB LAMBERTS, MD I love the GPS analogy for health care. Patients need a GPS for their health, showing them the reality of their past, present, and future health. The analogy has not only shown me how I want to give care for my patients, it has also given me insight into the pitfalls of automated medical care.
Way back in the days when GPS was new, the rental care company Hertz advertised “NeverLost,” a GPS on your dashboard (if you forked out the extra money for it). I was asked to give a talk in Oregon, and decided I would try out this cool new technology (since others were picking up my bill). While I found it overall very useful, there were a couple of times it didn’t work as advertised. Read more. Why We Won’t See EHR Consolidation Anytime Soon
By JOHN MOORE At this juncture, it would be foolhardy to try and execute an EHR acquisition roll-up strategy. The technology has yet to stabilize, significant development investments are still required and most vendors do not have sufficient market penetration. Read more. It Doesn't Have to Be This Way ...
By EVAN FALCHUK Scientific studies show that patients are misdiagnosed between 15% and 44% of the time. We can and should implement policies that address this problem. First, we need to pass laws that will let hospitals know that whatever information they gather is and would be kept confidential, and not be used as some kind of a way to generate lawsuits. This would make it possible for hospitals and doctors to start collecting, studying, and sharing data on how often misdiagnosis happens, and why. Read more. THCB Marketplace NEW RELEASES The Health Care Handbook The American health care system is vast, complex and confusing. Books about it shouldn’t be. The Health Care Handbook is your one-stop guide to the people, organizations and industries that make up the U.S. health care system, and the major issues the system faces today. How to Live Forever *Results May Vary. Nominee Palm Springs International Film Festival. Nominee Hamptons International Film Festival. How to Live Forever Director Mark Wexler embarks on a worldwide trek to investigate just what it means to grow old and what it could mean to really live forever. But whose advice should he take? Does 94-year-old exercise guru Jack LaLanne have all the answers, or does Buster, a 101-year-old chain-smoking, beer-drinking marathoner? Why Nobody Believes the Numbers Ever wonder if those wellness, disease management, medical home and other programs imposed on your medical practices really work? Answer that question for yourself by reading Why Nobody Believes the Numbers, the first population health outcomes measurement book not infused with THC. CONFERENCES
Health 2.0 San Francisco
October 7-10, Hilton San Francisco
The groundbreaking conference series returns to San Francisco. Keynotes by Joe Flower and Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini. Speakers from Qualcomm, AT&T, Mayo Clinic, National Cancer Institute, ZocDoc, OptumHealth and RedBrick Health, along with presentations from top health care startups changing the field and many more.
The First Annual Open Source EHR Summit and Workshop
October 17-18, Gaylord National, National Harbor, MD
It is projected that more than 200 hospitals and 1000 clinics, within the federal sector alone, will be managing and maintaining their EHRs using open source codes within the next few years. An increasing number of state agencies are deploying open source solutions as well. In recent months, many private sector health care communities facing the unsustainable high costs of health IT have started calling for alternate approaches to maintain and manage traditional proprietary electronic health records. These open source activities create a huge market opportunity for both private and public sectors.
REAL ESTATE 61,000 Square-Foot Building Available For Lease Near Boston
Ideal for Medical Offices, Back Office Uses A 61,000 SF building that can be easily converted to medical use is available for lease just 17 miles from downtown Boston. Located in Hingham Technology Park 3 on a 9-acre parcel in Hingham, Mass., and there is close proximity to numerous hotels and conference centers, and easy access to Rtes. 3, 93, 128 and 95. The site is a quick drive to Plymouth and Cape Cod. For more information, contact Richard McKinnon at 617-472-2000, or email richmck@grossmanco.com. To learn more about the additional development potential of this site, visit www.HT3park.com.
COURSES UPenn Online Course: Health Policy Health Care and the Affordable Care Act, Ezekiel Emanuel, MD PhD "This course will explore the history and structure of the current American health care system, including the history of and problems with employment-based health insurance, the challenges surrounding access, cost and quality, and the medical malpractice conundrum. The course will then explore the history of health care reform and the challenges that were overcome to achieve health reform in America. Finally, we will delineate the specific ways that the Affordable Care Act improves access and quality, and will control costs. Throughout lessons regarding health economics, health policy, and medical practice will be elucidated." For more information, click here.
Software Advice Is picking an EHR for your practice killing you? softwareadvice.com | | | | |
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