Above the Fold
POLICY: As Goes California, So Should Go the Nation, by Mary Kay Henry
Now I can’t claim to be an optimist about the future of California’s health reform bill. But at least someone is. And that someone is SEIU Executive Vice President Mary Kay Henry. Here’s her take on the latest California news and why the SEIU is at least one union buying in.
ABx1 1: no, it’s not the holiday season’s hot new video game. It’s the bill name for historic legislation approved yesterday by the California State Assembly to make healthcare more secure and affordable for those who have insurance, and provide coverage to millions who don’t.
Months of intense negotiations drew on the collective creativity and wisdom of elected officials, consumer groups, healthcare professionals, and labor and business community leaders to generate the comprehensive plan. The measure has the potential to transform the healthcare reality for millions of Californians, and it will fundamentally change the healthcare debate nationally.
THCB Sponsor Shout out
A quick reminder that THCB would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. We’d like to give a shout out to
CDW-Healthcare, who were the first gold sponsor to sign on this year. If you haven’t been over to take a look at their site since they remodeled it’s well worth a quick look. They specialize in everything tech for the Healthcare market, from surge protectors to PACS systems to cool little gadgets with blinking red and green lights that look really useful. Your purchases help THCB continue to provide cutting edge industry analysis, commentary and discussion of the issues that matter. Tell ’em we sent you.
We’re pleased to announce CDW Healthcare have signed on again as gold sponsor for 2008. Meanwhile,if you are interested in reaching a monthly audience of 35,000 plus healthcare professionals, wonks and other healthcare observers, we are accepting sponsorship applications for the coming year. You may also want to consider a sponsorship of the Health 2.0 conference, which (unbelievably, horrifyingly) is just right around the corner. The theme of the March event in San Diego is connecting patients and providers. There will be an exclusive, tres cool healthcare crowd in attendance. For details on opportunities john@health2con.com
Policy- vs. Market-Based Reform: RHIOs as a Case Study – Brian Klepper
As Anonymouse insightfully commented, the Harvard team’s RHIO study in Health Affairs is very telling
about the barriers facing do-gooder health care projects. That said, I wanted to add two comments.
First, while RHIOs are unquestionably good public policy, what they might accomplish can be seen as counter to their interests of many organizations expected to support them. (The same can be said for EHRs, by the way)
Second, this is why health care reform will emerge not from within health care and not from policy, but from the marketplace, driven by non-health care interests.
Read the rest over at the Health 2.0 Blog
BLOGS: Diabetes Year in Review
Our friend and colleague Amy Tenderich has a just excellent Diabetes Year in Review up at DiabetesMine. It covers Health 2.0 (of course) but also drugs devices, design, and the growth of people with diabetes as a social force.
Amy knows that she’ll always be the #1 blogger in my heart!
TECH: RHIO, RHIO, ree-ay-yo,by anonymouse
OK, the title is a take off on the Police song, but the subject has got a little more influence lately. A sometime THCB correspondent had these thoughts:
The December 11 edition of Health Affairs contains a very important article on “The State of Regional Health Information Organizations.” At first glance, the article seems to pile on to the prevailing wisdom that RHIOs are a bad idea, because, of course, RHIOs are failing.
A more careful read, though, differentiates the issue of whether fully-functioning RHIOs (or clinical health information exchanges, more broadly) could provide value to a community and its (healthcare) stakeholders and the issue of whether the current model for funding RHIOs is sustainable – two very different issues.
The study takes no issue with the notion of the value of RHIOs: “Electronic clinical data exchange promises substantial financial and societal benefits…”
TECH: Shout-out for Phil Chuang
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.
HEALTH PLANS: Populist Republican attacks sweet, innocent non-profit
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….
