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My last post prompted a question that I thought might be worth discussing broadly. JoAnn Becker asked what the major marketplace forces are today and the implications of those forces for the company and the worker — how the recession and shifting talent practices mesh with the trends outlined in the books Workforce Crisis (written for organizations seeking talent), Retire Retirement (written to Boomers), and Plugged In (written to Gen Y’s).
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Reconciling Short- and Long-Term Workforce Trends
The Declaration of Health Data Rights collaborative effort was announced this week by setting forth a simple, straightforward framework for health consumers right to their personal health information. The social media driven initiative has grown support throughout the week. The effort is being endorsed and supported by a variety of companies/organizations and bloggers
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Support the Declaration of Health Data Rights: #MyHealthData
We have posted frequently about the role of the RBRVS Update Committee (RUC) in fixing the rates at which Medicare pays physicians. These payment rates have been much more generous for procedures than for “cognitive” services, (that is, services including interviewing and examining patients, making diagnoses, forecasting prognoses, recommending tests or treatments, and counseling patients.) Several authors have suggested that how the RUC fixes payment rates is a major cause of the decline of primary care. (See our previous posts on this here , here , here , here , here , here , and here and important articles by Bodenheimer et al,[1] and Goodson.[2]) An Interview with a former Medicare administrator Health Affairs just published an interview(3) with Kerry Weems, a recent administrator of the US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Bush administration, who had some remarkable criticism for the RUC
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The RUCkus Continues: Former Medicare Administrator Calls the "RUC Process" "Incredibly Flawed," and the AMA Chair Says He’s…
At Healthcare Renewal and at numerous other healthcare blogs, we write about academic and industry conflicts of interest, malfeasance, and other topics in the hopes that there are leaders within organizations who might correct the wrongs that result from such conflicts and behaviors.
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Yale, Van Gogh’s "The Night Cafe" and Personal Property: What’s Mine is Mine, and What’s Yours is Mine
The Associated Press just published a story about another company which apparently failed to report adverse events associated with its product: Complaints about a contact lens solution linked to a 2007 outbreak of eye infections that blinded several people went unreported by the manufacturer for more than a year, government documents show. The documents show Advanced Medical Optics received complaints about the solution more than a year before it was recalled, and failed to promptly report nine complaints as required by law . The company pulled its Complete MoisturePlus off the market in May 2007 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked the fluid to dozens of cases of a serious infection called Acanthamoeba keratitis .
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An Original Excuse
The substantive debate on the healthcare reform is in full swing and one of the center themes is the public option. President Obama wrote recently, “I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.” The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows strong, 76%, public support for public option (1).
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Healthcare Reform with Sound Information Technology
As reported by the Wall Street Journal , here is another reminder about just how bad the leadership of health care can be, Richard Scrushy was hit with a staggering $2.88 billion civil judgment in a suit brought by HealthSouth Corp. shareholders, one of the largest findings ever from the era of massive corporate scandals. The plaintiffs said that the former chairman and chief executive helped artificially inflate HealthSouth’s earnings for at least six years through an accounting scam uncovered in 2003
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Scrushy Owes $2.88 Billion for Damages
On June 10, 2009, the West Virginia Lawyer Disciplinary Board issued Legal Ethics Opinion 2009-01 (What is Metadata and Why Should Lawyers Be Cautious?) to raise awareness among lawyers to be cautious when dealing with metadata. The opinion describes “metadata” as the data behind the data – including the location where the document is created, opened or saved, author’s identity, number of revisions, comments and redlining.
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West Virginia Lawyer Disciplinary Board Issues Legal Ethics Opinion on Metadata
Professors at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (one of the most prestigious business colleges in the world) had some very interesting observations about healthcare IT yesterday in an article entitled: ” Information Technology: Not a Cure for the High Cost of Health Care .” I have been writing on these same themes – irrational exuberance , HIT not being a panacea or cybernetic miracle, HIT as a facilitating tool in medicine, not a revolutionary one (but only if “done right”), inadequate research to back up the often grandiose claims, and so forth for over a decade (” Contemporary Issues in Medical Informatics: Common Examples of Healthcare IT Failure “, link ). I penned such sacrilege, often at risk to my career due the unpopularity of these ideas, itself due to the irrational exuberance of the HIT community (these attitudes were perhaps in part manufactured by a healthcare IT lobby ). Here are excerpts of what Wharton professors observed.
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Wharton on Healthcare IT: Can I Go Home Now?
In my June 7 post Open letter to Mark Leavitt, Chairman, Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology on Penalties For Use of Non-”Certified” HIT I asked CCHIT’s chair pointed questions about a remarkable NJ Bill to make non-CCHIT-certified health IT forbidden for sale or use, with civil penalties, in the state of NJ. His response is posted in the link. I’ve just become aware of a June 8 public response to the Bill at CCHIT’s site “EHR Decisions” entitled Legislating Health IT: Beware of Land Mines: …
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Public CCHIT response to NJ "CCHIT or else" Health IT Bill
A remarkable Bill (ASSEMBLY, No. 3934 , STATE OF NEW JERSEY, 213th LEGISLATURE) has appeared in NJ that would prohibit the sale or use of healthcare IT not “certified” (i.e., feature-qualified) by the industry-founded and connected group “Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology” (CCHIT).
Healthcare Kickoff 6 June 2009, Boston, Massachusetts On 6/6/09, President Obama in his weekly address to the nation to help kickoff his health reform agenda highlighted that: there is an urgent need for health reform this year; the status quo is broken; if we do nothing, everyone’s health care will be put in jeopardy; and that’s why fixing what’s wrong with our health care system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve – it’s a necessity we cannot postpone any longer. The President’s full address could be accessed: www.WhiteHouse.gov . Forty empowered Massachusetts residents, including one from Alabama, attended the healthcare reform kickoff on 6/6/09 at Faneuil Hall/Quincy market, Boston and concluded their meeting under the statue of Samuel Adams, who rebelled against the British Empire and gave us our country.
In a post today, Sean Nolan , Chief Architect of Microsoft Health Solutions and blogger at Family Health Guy explains Microsoft’s position regarding whether Microsoft HealthVault is required to comply with the privacy standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The blog post, “You put your right HIPAA in . . .” provides some background on the process that Microsoft has gone through to look at the question of whether they are directly required to comply with HIPAA as a “covered entity” or whether the must enter into “business associate agreement”with other covered entities
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Microsoft HealthVault: You put your right HIPAA in . . .
Government Health IT reports that the the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is developing an online model containing information for consumers about personal health records (PHRs) and the privacy policies related to their use. ONC’s effort appears targeted at engaging consumer to make more informed decisions about the use of PHRs. The Office of the Secretary for HHS issued a notice of Agency Information Collection Request and 30 day Comment Request, 74 Federal Register 24012 (May 22, 2009), providing details of the proposed project.
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ONC Developing Online Project To Educate Consumers About PHRs
Scott Shreeve, MD , Senior Health Advisor at the X PRIZE Foundation sent out a call last week to all health care bloggers to participate in a blog rally to promote the idea and effort behind the Healthcare X PRIZE competition . Below is a message from Dr. Sheeve being post around the blogosphere today .
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X PRIZE: $10M Incentive to Innovate In Health Care (Reform)
The Hatfields and McCoys , a metaphor for a modern day high-tech industry rivalry centered on personal health records (PHRs) involving Google Health , Microsoft HealthVault and other PHR vendors . An image that a West Virginia health care lawyer can really appreciate
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Modern Day Hatfield-McCoy: Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released an operating plan titled the Health Information Technology American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Implementation Plan . The operating plan is included on the DHHS Agency Wide Plan page under the “List of Recovery Programs within HHS.” The operating plan outlines immediate actions to meet statutory requirements under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provisions of the ARRA. The The topic headings for the operating plan include: A
Virginia Department of Health Professions has issued a News Release regarding the potential breach of security for the Prescription Monitoring Program. The statement also indicates that there is an ongoing criminal investigation into the breach which occurred on April 30. Also, the Virginia Department of Health Professions has issued a related Questions and Answers document
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Virginia Department of Health Professions Issues Statement on Potential Breach of Security for Prescription Monitoring Program
Chris Hogg does a great job of capturing the metrics of the Twitter discussion that occurred during the recent Health 2.0 Boston conference. Check out his slide show analysis of the Tweet Stream from the conference.
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Health 2.0 Boston: Tweet Stream Analysis
The Economist looks in on Health 2.0 in the article, Health 2.0: How far can interactive digital medicine go? Highlights for me: Quote by Neil Seeman who thinks Health 2.0 is important “because it reinvents how we identify opinion leaders and exploit disruptive innovation.” Steve Case, founder of America Online, who likens the current state of digital medicine to the late 1970s hwen Apple ushered in the age of personal computing.
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The Economist: Health 2.0 How far can interactive digital medicine go?