First interview is Peter Seiff from Aethon who make the tug robot which potentially could change how hospitals move stuff around, and very nifty it is too. Here’s the interview.
Above the Fold
PODCAT/TECH: Vocera–Brent Lang interview
Want to know more about Vocera, the cool lapel-based VOIP company that’s grown fast in health care since it was founded at the height of the boom in 2000? Then listen to my interview with President & CEO Brent Lang.
POLICY: Underfunded? By Eric Novack
Governors from around the country are in Washington D.C.this week for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association. One of
the main bones of contention at this years’ meetings has been the expansion of
federal funding for state SCHIP programs. The governors want more, and lots of it. THCB’s own Eric Novack has been following this story like a hawk. And, as usual, he’s got a question.
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program was designed
by Congress to help states have money to provide Medicaid services to, well,
kids. The intent of Congress was clear,
given the “C” in the program’s name. Now
governors are screaming that SCHIP funding proposals by the federal government
are woefully inadequate.
Except for one thing—many states use SCHIP dollars to pay
for Medicaid for adults! Using 2005 data: In Minnesota, 87% of total SCHIP
enrollees in 2005 were adults, and 66% in Wisconsin. In Arizona, 56% of those enrolled
in SCHIP were adults.
Perhaps the states ought to use the funds for what they were
intended before complaining that they are being underfunded. If a child spent his ‘snack bar’ allowance on going to the movies, and then complained he was short, we would be likely to
require guarantees that the money would be spent properly in the future before
handing over the cash.
TECH: HIMSS–Balmer, MSFT and some early thoughts
So I caught the bus outside the Ritz-Carlton (no I wasn’t staying there but a few government employees were!) which took a long roundabout route to the convention center. After the nice people in the press room gave me a tote bag I don’t want.
I staggered to the overflow room to see the video screen. Microsoft says Connect, Collaborate, Informed Decisions. We heard it from Steve Ballmer a lot. Not too sure where he was going with the talk beyond that other than to say that Microsoft rally really cares about health care, but he did have one really cool futuristic video about the future of health care technology…very reminiscent of the great AT&T “You Will” videos—not that they did the company any good!
Then he brought in some guys from Scripps to show us a very cool app for drug development. I think it lost the health care service audience totally, (including me) but it looked cool. I just had no idea why it was in his talk and why he couldn’t show a health care services app? Especially as Ballmer then said that Azyxxi (or whatever it’s spelt) is the most exciting piece of software in all of Microsoft. Not sure whether that’s a reflection of how good Azyxxi is, or of the rest of what his shops putting out!
Two announcements. First MSFT has announced its Connected Health Framework (a software tool set for SOA in health care) One major gripe. Kaiser, Cisco, Partners, the UK NHS, now Microsoft. Can someone please come up with a name not including Connect and Health?
More interestingly for the Health2.0 crowd Ballmer also announced that they’re buying Medstory. Guess that’s why Alain Rappaport never wanted to talk to me! That’ll certainly shake up the search market in health care.
Then the lieutenant-governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu came to offer his fairly genuine thanks that we actually showed up & that things are getting better—at least the tourist area of the French Quarter and the Convention Center. But he also laid into the emergency response system, and the fact that we haven’t rebuilt New Orleans. And he got a big hand when he said we don’t have the moral authority to build other nations if we don’t have the commitment to do it here.
UPDATE #1: Via Silicon Valley.com. Snip:
"Redmond’s intent regarding the booming health care industry
is reflected in the resources it’s throwing that way. The company had
six health care-focused staff members in 2000; now, its Health
Solutions Group numbers more than 600."
HEALTH PLANS: Glasscock names female successor at Wellpoint
Larry Glasscock at Wellpoint is stepping down this summer and has named a woman, Angela Braly, as his successor. Braly, 45, is an executive vice president, with responsibility for WellPoint’s Medicare claims processing business, federal employees’ health benefits business, and public policy development, among other areas.
Is this the first major health care company with a female CEO? It’ll certainly be the biggest US Corporation with one. At any rate, I wonder if we’ll start to see some slightly “gentler” behavior from the for-profit Blues conglomerate?
As for Glasscock? Well he probably never imagined quite how well he’d do when he got into health care 10 years or so ago. Or how little he’d get criticized for the things his company’s done!
BLOGS: What’s a Blog?
The Boston Globe reports that other executives in town are
less than thrilled with Beth Israel Deconess CEO Paul Levy’s new blog, Running
a Hospital. Levy has been blogging on industry issues for the past few months,
offering a rare glimpse at the decision-making process inside a major teaching hospital, posting on topics ranging from the size of his own salary ("Do I get paid too much?") to negotiations with labor organizers.
Recently, he took the unusual step of posting data Beth Israel’s monthly hospital acquired infection rates on his site and publicly
challenged his competitors at Mass General to do the same. Under Massachusetts law, hospitals are not yet required to make the information public – and most have hesitated to do so, fearing negative publicity.
Picking up from the Globe’s report:
"There are some things that Boston hospital executives generally believe are
best kept quiet. Gripes about competitors are one. The rates of
hospital-acquired infections among patients are another, at least at this
point. Then came Paul Levy’s blog. In his blog, Levy also has needled Partners HealthCare, the parent
organization of Mass. General and Brigham and Women’s, about their formidable
market share of patients, saying they get paid more from insurers because of
their size."
Partner’s CEO Dr. Peter Slavin responds in an interview on White Coat Notes, the Globe’s new health care blog, with the CEO’s PR department-blessed version of "Oh yeah, buddy? You and your ‘blog’ want to step outside?"
"There are at least two ways to compete in health care, provide great
care, do great research and excel at teaching — that’s the way we
choose to do it," Slavin said. "The other way is to criticize one’s
competitors. That’s not the method we choose to employ."
Indeed!!
TECH: It’s HIMMS and even USATODAY has noticed
Don’t believe me? Go read their article about how Microsoft and IBM now care about health care: Tech firms in a fever about health – USATODAY.com.
I’ll be blogging and podcasting from HIMSS for the next three days. I first went to HIMSS in 1994, so I guess I’m starting to feel old.
BLOGS: HWR one year old
Health Wonk Review—one year old and up at Workers Comp Insider
TECH: Trotter wins beer with Bush
Fred Trotter says that he won the beers with Bush (Jonathan Bush of AthenaHealth, that is) on HISTalk. I suppose he’s going to use his time to persuade Johnathan to put his source code on the Web!
BLOGS: A very big thank you
Finally before I go off to get bathed in the glow/spittle of Steve Balmer this a.m, a huge thanks to Eric Novack, Michael Millenson and Maggie Mahar for their just excellent guest posting while I was away. And also thanks to John Irvine for keeping the buses running on time here at THCB.
I note that the NY Times today does not agree with Maggie about the HPV vaccine Gardasil. But on reading it last night I thought that Maggie’s piece and the very intelligent comments were some of the best uses of blogging that I’ve seen anywhere.
