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TECH: Shout-out for Phil Chuang

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One of my favorite ex-colleagues Phil Chuang got a nice bit of recognition last week being named as one of the ComputerWorld Top 100 CIOs for 2008. Note that this isn’t just health care CIOs, it’s among all CIOs!

Also note his quote about what his team did right

Making an aggressive go-live for an enterprise health care system in 100 days, 15% under budget — and still having everyone on the team like each other after the project.

Phil is very sharp and sensible, but always calm and good humored under pressure. We were working together in a not-too-calm start-up in 2000–2, and Phil’s team built a PHR which is still as good as many if not most on the market today—spending way way less money than most competitors.

He also kept a big score card on his cube wall on which he recorded how nasty I was being to the interns, who sat in the cubes next to us. For example if I bought cookies the score went down. After one particularly maladroit comment from me he had to add more paper above his cube to track my “nasty” quotient. Don’t worry, that intern still loves me and is inviting me over to dinner with her and her husband next week.

In any event, expect Phil to be a big star in health care IT in the future.

JOB POST: Physician Advocate: Siemens Medical Solutions

Specific requirements: Medical Degree (MD) . Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills along with strong analytical skills required. Ability to travel 70%.

Demonstrates assigned products to prospective or existing clients in sales situations which include demo system operations in conjunction with a detailed explanation of system functionality.

Maintains current knowledge on all aspects of the assigned product, which could have sales/marketing implications. This includes product capability, utilization, technical issues and installation implications. Assists with the design and delivery of education sessions for assigned products. Participates in the design and presentation of application seminars for clients and prospective clients. This includes either new business or client renewals/”add-ons” where assigned products are included. Support activities must be targeted toward achievement of sales quota. Participates in sales calls with sales personnel for all levels of client/prospective client personnel, up to and including the CEO. Explains assigned product in terms that relate to hospital environment and to SIEMENS’ long-range plans.

Interested candidates, please apply at: www.usa.siemens.com, using Requisition Code: 61228

Please mention that you found this listing on the THCB job board in your cover letter.

JOB POST: Director of Medicare and Medicaid Markets

Silverlink Communications, Inc. December,
2007

Summary
of duties and responsibilities:

Information availability and communications effectiveness
are among the top drivers of member satisfaction with health plans. Providing
members with the right healthcare decision-support and self-management information
and tools at the right time can engage members, support health decisionmaking
and ultimately reduce administrative and medical costs. Industry research shows health plans that
implement innovative communication strategies connect more effectively with
their members and drive satisfaction and loyalty.  Silverlink helps make communications
effectiveness a key competitive differentiator for its customers.

Continue reading…

HEALTH PLANS: Populist Republican attacks sweet, innocent non-profit

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Blue Shield of California, the cuddly non-profit, is going to the mat with the state over recissions. Essentially Shield is saying, “It was fraud, so the recissions are legal.” Everyone else has settled.

This has mightly pissed off California insurance commish Steve Poizner. A Republican, albeit one I voted for:

Calling the allegations "serious violations that completely undermine the public’s trust in our healthcare delivery system and are potentially devastating to patients," Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said he would announce today that he would seek a $12.6-million fine.

That’s almost real money.

But what really got me was an interview I heard with Poizner on NPR just now. He said that first, none of the cases he’s raising have any hint of fraud by the consumer. Second, and this is the controversial part, as soon as an insurer issued a policy, it had the obligation to live up to it. Once the policy was issued, he assumed that the insurer had completed its investigation into the application and that was that.

Blue Shield is one of two plans that investigated my application a couple of years back, and the one that did the most thorough job. Healthnet accepted what I said (after I said it twice). Blue Shield accepted what I said and looked at my medical records (which duplicated what I said). But then they decided I was uninsurable.

I suspect that Blue Shield is correct in its interpretation of the law. But in winning that battle it’s helping to lose the “war”, in as much is the war retains the right to make huge profits in the individual insurance business.

And what is most bizarre is that culturally and politically, Blue Shield and its CEO Bruce Bodaken are probably on the side of massive insurance reforms that would eliminate the individual market as we know it. So quite why they’re fighting so hard I don’t know.

But when you lose the support of the Republicans….

 

Bad Medicine: How The AMA Undermined Primary Care in America – Brian Klepper

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On Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal website, Dr. Benjamin Brewer describes
physicians’ reactions to the 10.1% cut in Medicare physician payments
that will take effect January 1. He argues that the onus will fall,
once again, disproportionately on primary care physicians, who are
already losing the struggle to keep their heads above water.

He is right, of course. There is no question that Medicare must rein in
cost. But the cuts are approximately the same across specialties and
therefore regressive. Insensitive to its distinct role, its lower
revenues and its high operational costs, they hit primary care harder
than they do specialties. Given its already battered status, the cuts’
impact on primary care could translate to real consequences this time.

Continue reading…

Health IT breakthrough possible in Washington by Eric Novack

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Capitol2
Unnamed senior officials at CMS confidentially report that serious bipartisan discussions are ongoing to help get the Health IT bill completed.

“Electronic medical records and e-prescribing, if mandated throughout the country, would save thousands of American lives each year”, one CMS official stated.

A senior Democrat house staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the leadership thinks that the current situation, where dozens of private companies are aggressively competing against one another to get a foothold in the world of health IT, is counterproductive, wasteful, and costing lives.

“Venture capital and the drive for profits is a distraction that this country, with 47 million uninsured, can simply not afford.”

Proposals apparently under consideration include banning advertising of health IT to doctors, licensing requirements for anyone involved in the sale or promotion of health IT products, and a special ‘health IT tax’ on health IT companies which would allow the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) to distribute funds to areas of the country that lack a health IT infrastructure.

Calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for comment have not been returned.

Continue reading…

HEALTH 2.0 UPDATE

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Meanwhile, if you’ve been thinking about signing up for a pass to the next Health 2.0 conference you have until midnight today to qualify for our early bird rates. Health 2.0 Connecting Consumers and Providers will be held March 3-4 in San Diego at the Westin San Diego.  We’ve worked out a great deal with the Westin that will get you a room for the low rate of $229 plus tax a night. The Reservations Hotline is 888.627.9033. You’ll need to mention Health 2.0 when you call to be eligible for this rate. 
As a gentle reminder, if you’ve signed up for Health 2.0 San Diego but not completed the registration process you’ll need to finish the process by giving us a credit card in order to qualify for the rate.

Continue reading…

POLICY: Try and reconcile these two basic statements

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The National Federation of Independent Business, which says it has 350,000 members with active lobbyists in 50 states, warned politicians and policy makers on Wednesday not to impose new health-benefit obligations on small employers. The group said in a statement of principles that “a health care system built on employer mandates or on pay-or-play taxes is unacceptable.”

***

In its statement of principles the federation called for universal health care, with a government safety net to help the neediest obtain coverage. But it opposed proposals to place health care under an umbrella of Medicare-style “single payer” financing. Government safety nets should not be allowed to “crowd out private insurance and care,” the federation said.

Yup, it’s the math challenged folks at the NFIB staking out their territory–hating the current system, fraudulently demanding universal health care and opposed to any solution.

The incredible thing is that a single pool/social insurance system would be incredibly positive for small business—especially if based on progressive taxation. First, the number one impediment to people starting small businesses is job-lock due to fears over losing health insurance. Second, most small businesses don’t make that much money, so a social insurance scheme would only “hurt” the very few very wealthy small business people. Somehow that group manages to politically dominate the discourse at the NFIB—when they’re not shilling for the richest families in America, that is.

My real analysis of the NFIB was done over at Spot-on last year. It’s well worth a read as it spells out the math on why a universal health care system funded by progressive tax would be a godsend for most small businesses. But sadly they just can’t ideologically get their heads around it.

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