by Kevin Roche on Saturday, February 20, 2010
Select from this menu of topics on health improvement incentives, genetic testing for cancer treatment, health plan collaboration on use of IT for administration, value-based insurance design and comparative effectiveness research.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Health Insurance, HIT, Personalized Medicine
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, February 13, 2010
One more Saturday….morning. And another potpourri of health care news. This one includes health information technology, consumer directed health plans, guidelines, support group functioning, end-of-life care and telemedicine.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, End-of-Life Care, HIT, Pay For Performance, Telemedicine
by Kevin Roche on Monday, February 8, 2010
The current issue of Health Affairs has several articles focusing on the use of telemedicine and HIT to solve health problems in the developing world. The articles describe some success stories, challenges and opportunities for use of wireless and health information technologies to provide desperately needed improvement for persons in these areas.
Tags: HIT, Telemedicine
by Kevin Roche on Monday, January 25, 2010
Quality measurement and pay-for-performance programs continue to spread, in the belief that they will improve health care quality. A new study looks at the costs these programs impose on physician practices, finding that any financial incentives are usually lower than the costs.
Tags: Health Care Reform, HIT, Pay For Performance, Physicians
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, January 23, 2010
Healthy health care snacks–concierge medicine, personalized medicine, health care hiring, electronic medical records, Medicaid, disease management–all for your reading pleasure on the weekend.
Tags: Care Management, Chronic Disease, Disease Management, HIT, Medical Care, Personalized Medicine, Physician Practice Models, Physicians
by Kevin Roche on Monday, January 11, 2010
Lawson Software announced yet another health information technology acquisition. Much of this activity is driven by stimulus money and the related CMS incentives and penalties for use of EHRs and other health care software. Not all these acquisitions will end well.
Tags: HIT
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, January 7, 2010
In the midst of the “meaningful use” proposed rule release comes more research questioning some of the value attributed to implementation of EHRs. The first survey of physicians found that while they view EHRs as useful for billing documentation, the doctors don’t find them particularly helpful in care coordination. The second shows a range of rankings of value from specific vendors.
Tags: HIT
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, January 5, 2010
HHS released its draft version of the rules relating to meaningful use of electronic health information systems and the criteria for which providers will receive incentive payments. Provider organizations did not react in an entirely favorable manner.
Tags: HIT
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, December 22, 2009
An article published in the Milbank Quarterly looked at the results of numerous studies of electronic health or medical record implementations, finding a mismatch between assumptions or beliefs about their value and what really occurred, particularly in regard to clinical improvement.
Tags: HIT
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Researchers from Harvard University find that hospitals with more extensive use of electronic records have neither lower costs or better quality, but caution should be used as these researchers have a specific reform viewpoint.
Tags: HIT, Hospital
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Commonwealth Fund supported a survey of primary care physicians in several countries to compare their use of health IT, the availability of incentives, patient payment issues and other matters. The United States lags other developed nations in many areas.
Tags: HIT, International, Physicians
by Kevin Roche on Monday, November 9, 2009
The American Medical Group Association conducts a survey on EHR usage by physician groups, revealing the difficulty in implementation, and high expectations in value, which tended to be met only after several years.
Tags: HIT
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 30, 2009
Net neutrality sounds good to some but a Brookings commentary indicates it may cause problems for health care users.
Tags: Government, HIT, Telemedicine
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A Harris poll looks at Americans’ attitudes toward mobile healthcare and finds that those who use health care the most are also the most disengaged from these new technologies.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Medical Care, Telemedicine
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 23, 2009
A study finds a modest link between fully functional EHRs and performance on HEDIS quality measures by Massachusetts physicians.
Tags: Health Care Quality, HIT, Medical Care
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 14, 2009
AHRQ has released a survey of consumer attitudes about electronic health records and health IT. The people in these focus groups were less enthusiastic about the subject than many experts are.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, PHRs
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Health information is hot, particularly since the stimulus bill devoted $20 billion to its expansion.
Tags: Financings, HIT
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 26, 2009
A Financial Times article details the British National Health Service’s struggles to implement a new health information system.
Tags: HIT
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, August 6, 2009
Patients are responsible for an increasing share of their medical expenses, which has increased provider bad debt and collection expense. In response, providers are asking to be paid at the time of service.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Patients, Providers
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A number of companies are working on use of wireless technologies to improve health care.
Tags: Care Management, Devices, HIT
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Kaiser has a well-regarded health information system but it wasn’t easy getting there.
Tags: HIT
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
UnitedHealth Group and Cisco plan to create a large telemedicine venture.
Tags: Health Insurance, HIT, Telemedicine
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Often lauded for its health information systems, the VA apparently has significant problems getting projects done on time and on budget.
Tags: HIT, Medical Care
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 16, 2009
Health information technology is being pushed as one of the key methods to improve health care and reduce costs, but government itself has created barriers to its adoption and utility.
Tags: HIT, Medical Care, Regulation