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Health 2.0 Conference (Oct 6-7) latest

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By Matthew Holt

We’re getting into the short strokes for Health 2.0. The conference is going to be in a new bigger venue (SF Concourse) with more, bigger screens and no one sitting more than 65 feet from a screen. We’ll see demos of the latest and most innovative products in Health 2.0. We have Aneesh Chopra, the CTO of the Federal Government kicking things off on Tuesday Oct 6, and Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, Jonathan Bush, CEO of AthenaHealth and David Kibbe, leader of the emerging clinical groupware movement, finishing the whole thing up on Weds Oct 7. So fireworks at the start, at the end, and, yes, in the middle too.

Over 100 presenters and speakers, dozens of new product launches, the latest from Microsoft, Google, WebMD and many, many more big names, and a whole new analysis of the Health 2.0 environment from the Health 2.0 team. A special session on Health 2.0 tools for physicians. A tools panel that will show the new Health 2.0 interoperability and a host of other unplatforms. And much much more

If you care about health care and/or consumers and/or technology, you need to be there.

Here’s the agenda, here’s where to register, and our rooms in the Westin hotel block (only $199 including free wifi!) expires this Monday. So if you’ve been dithering, act now!

 

 

Health Care Outlook Not Improving

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Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mon) released his much-anticipated healthcare proposal Wednesday morning.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mon) released his much-anticipated healthcare proposal Wednesday.

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI

The next big test for a health care bill in 2009 (notice that I did not call it health care reform) will come in Senate Finance. The final vote in that committee will tell us a lot about whether the Democrats have any chance for 60 votes in the full Senate. So far, it does not look good.

I have the greatest respect for Senators Baucus and Grassley and their good faith efforts to find a bipartisan health care solution. But I also think their efforts were fatally flawed from the beginning.Continue reading…

Medical Students Want You to Know

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By MICHELLE SNYDER

Snyder_michelleHow many of us can remember a world without cell phones? Today’s medical students would undoubtedly be among that group. So it is no wonder these future physicians rely heavily on technology as they embark on their career path. We surveyed more than 1,000 medical students who are Epocrates subscribers about technology (software, hardware and EMRs) and other pressing industry topics.

The survey found 45% of respondents currently use an iPhone or iPod-touch, followed by Palm and BlackBerry devices. Even prior to the launch of the iPhone, Apple has connected with this younger generation and continues to play to its strengths. Our survey did not address carrier preference, but it appears students may be more device focused; nearly 60% of non-smartphone users planning to purchase an iPhone within the next year. It is also worth noting that students may be looking at what device residents or attending physicians are using as well. In the first year of availability, over 100,000 physicians are actively using Epocrates software on an iPhone/iPod touch. We still see a significant number of physicians using BlackBerry and Palm devices, so we expect those respective populations to grow as well.

Continue reading…

THCB UPDATE

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If you haven’t had a chance to sign up for THCB UPDATE yet, you really should. You’ll get a helpful reminder email from us when important posts go up on the site.

In the two and a half six months year since the service launched more than 700 1,000 1,200 1,300, 2,000 more than 3,000 people have signed up, thoroughly surprising me. I’ve pledged not to divulge any details about the people who sign up, but I can tell you that list reads a bit like a health care who’s who. Go on: It’s free. It’s useful. And people seem to like it. Go visit the sign up page.

Is an IOM v. CBO Smackdown Looming on Health-Reform Costs?

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By TIM MULLANEY

The U.S. can cut health-care spending by $250 billion a year within a decade, a
congressionally chartered panel will say this month in a bid to
show costs can be contained even if all Americans are insured.

A report from the Institute of Medicine, which advises the
federal government on health care, will counter “stingy”
estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, said Arnold
Milstein, planning chairman of the institute’s working group on
health costs. The panel’s annual figure is five times the amount
the budget office says the U.S. will save under a bill in the
House of Representatives, according to the budget office’s July
17 letter to House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles
Rangel.

The preliminary findings from the institute, part of the
National Academies in Washington, will be issued amid a growing
debate over the health-care overhaul proposals that President
Barack Obama is urging Congress to pass. The report will help
bolster the argument that covering the nation’s 46 million
uninsured won’t bust the budget, advocates of the bill say.

Continue reading…

Commentology: Improving Cost-Containment

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Stephen J. Motew writes:

Surgical specialists practice under a slightly more regimented reimbursement model predominantly due to the global period payment for surgical procedures. The total care of the surgical patient for any procedure, including pre-op evaluation, the procedure itself, and all related care post-operatively including most complications is covered under a 90 day global pay period. This system has worked relatively well by containing costs to a specific 'disease' (or procedure) state. In addition, many surgical sub-specialties such as vascular surgery and oncologic surgery for example invest a large amount of time in overall disease-state management that may not even include a procedure. I believe this has allowed many surgeons to understand the concept of cost-containment and efficiency, disease management as well as outcomes-based practices.

A recent experience with a referral patient however, highlights the incredible gaps in cost-containment and disease management that can occur prior to surgical intervention. I have annotated each step in the process to demonstrate points where potential intervention may have occurred. I will leave it to the comments to discuss the reasons and realities of such a case!

Continue reading…

Obama’s Medicare Half-Truth

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By AUSTIN FRAKT

Picture 12

Obama was called a liar during his recent address to a joint session of Congress. Actually, he was not fully truthful
about the implications of cuts to Medicare. Obama repeated that his
health reform plan includes payment cuts for private Medicare Advantage
(MA) health plans:

The only thing this plan would eliminate is the
hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as
unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies —
subsidies that do everything to pad their profits and nothing to
improve your care. … So don’t pay attention to those scary stories
about how your benefits will be cut… That will never happen on my
watch. I will protect Medicare.

Obama’s claim that the cuts will trim insurer profits but not Medicare benefits was meant to calm nervous seniors. As I and others
have pointed out the proposed cuts will in fact reduce benefits to some
degree, contrary to the President’s assertion. But seniors, in
general, should not be concerned. First, only about 23% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in an MA plan.

Continue reading…

Taxing Health Insurance Companies to Pay for Health Care

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By ROBERT LASZEWSKI

The Congress has investigated about every conceivable way to tax people to pay for the health care proposals—a millionaire’s tax, bigger taxes on home mortgages and charitable contributions, and a couple of dozen more ideas.

Now Congress looks to be the most interested in taxing insurance companies to pay for a big chunk of their health care proposals. The new taxes would come in two parts––a 35% excise tax on any health benefit cost above an $8,000 single and $21,000 family annual premium as well as a flat $6 billion annual tax on the industry to be allocated among the companies proportionate to their premium.

There is certain logic to this. Taxing high priced benefits could help deflate the health care economy. Taxing all of the health insurance companies that stand to get more than a $1 trillion in new business—most of it in the from new private insurance and Medicaid subsidies and the rest from the consumer’s share of those new private plan premiums—seems fair at one level.

Calling for a tax on that big rich insurance company also sounds a lot better to the politicians than looking voters straight in the eye and raising their taxes directly.Continue reading…

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