Mona Baker tells us about a new market entry: Banks to Deliver Personal Health Records Online
Above the Fold
PHARMA: Remember the AIDS medicine in Africa fuss?
Remember when big pharma got its PR arse handed to it for denying third world countries the right to make cheap generic AIDS medicines? There seems to be the same kind of controversy starting up with biologic products in cancer too. One to watch.
HEALTH PLANS/POLICY: Meter Reading–How Regulation Might Fail
Today I’m up at Spot-on in a piece about the influence of big health plans on reform efforts called Meter Reading: How Regulation Might Fail.
Maybe, just maybe, we’re getting serious about health care.
This week’s news says yet more unlikely allies are advocating healthcare overhaul.
The alliance between the Business Roundtable, unions and interest groups – an even more unlikely bunch of reformers than Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the insurance association (both already out with their own plans) – are all saying, loudly and clearly, that something must be done. It’s all leading to an odd sense of optimism – one I don’t, sadly share.
Forces outside of health care are starting to talk the talk about
forcing change. Former Massachusetts governor and Republican
presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s health plan, the election of a
Democratic majority in Congress, and ever- increasing costs are all
forcing everyone to get those old reform plans out again. And as
evidenced in this discussion even political columnists from the WaPo think that something is going to happen – although they do tend to misread the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Continue
As ever come back herre to comment
POLICY: Kling’s Response to Holt, Havighurst, and Cohn
Arnold Kling’s response to Holt, Havighurst, and Cohn is up at Cato Unbound. You know that I and Jon Cohn are going to largely find fault with Arnold Kling, while Clark Havighurst is a fellow traveler who actually says very sensible (but probably unrealistic) things about the tax treatment of health benefits.
In his response Kling agrees with my premises but doesn’t agree with my conclusions. Fancy that! Still go over there and read all the essays, because it’s good stuff!
TECH: More on Revolution Health
Over at tech blog TechCrunch, there’s a piece on Revolution Health. What’s most interesting is the comment section, where the CEOs from DailyStrength, Organized Wisdom, and others and the Chief Medical Officer of Revolution itself all pitch in.
Frankly, the nit-picking over who does what best reminds me of the line about the fleas arguing about who owns the dog. For this Health2.0 stuff, these are such early days that the only people I really discount are the ones arguing that we shouldn’t rate doctors or allow patients to talk to each other in communities. (Yes, there are a few commenters saying exactly that).
Of course people will still be trying to close that door long after the horse has bolted.
TECH: Free eRx from Allscripts and friends, with UPDATE
Allscripts, backed by a cast of friends, is going to let any physician in America sign up for its ASP-based eRx system (which links into Surescripts) for free. The coalition is called the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI) and it has its own website and press release and everything!
Also in on the deal are two biggie health plans, Wellpoint and Aetna, several tech companies (Dell, Cisco, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Sprint, & Google), Surescripts (connection to pharmacies) and Wolters Kluwer (drug databases). I assume there is some money flowing around (presumably from the health plans) to cover the costs, but it’s not clear how much or to whom. I’ll endeavor to find out.
The old joke is that for physicians to adopt technology, free isn’t cheap enough. I guess that we’re about to find out.
UPDATE: Well I actually listened to the whole webcast (yes, my life is pretty sad!). The most interesting thing is the Glenn Tullman (Allscripts, CEO) said that the 5 years commitment was $100m. That’s real money, and the only real place that they can expect to get (most of that) is from the health plans—unless Glenn’s got the negatives of Bill Gates or Larry and Sergey with the goats. And it’s probably a similar amount that Wellpoint and the others have already spent on these initiatives, much of that with Allscripts—so there’s probably a migration of those regional projects going on.
The other thing mentioned was that the system would have interfaces with practice management systems—what that means in reality remains to be seen of course.
TECH: Sermo gets a little more famous
Sermo, which has been featured on THCB as one of those Health2.0 companies that are changing the game, gets a little more fame in this Long Island Newsday article.
POLICY: The Other Losing War
Well worth a read — a NY Times op-ed from a Jamaican academic called The Other Losing War and this column from a Scottish Labour Party MP about prohibition in Scotland, which is causing a little fuss there.
CONSUMERS/QUALITY: A DIY Approach to the Diabetes Epidemic by Amy Tenderich
#1 health care blogger, well actually #1 patient blogger, but probably the most important one in the whole medical blogosphere, Amy Tenderich has written a book called called Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes about (obviously) how to manage diabetes. We don’t deal much with actual medical care over here at THCB, but for your holiday Monday I thought that an introduction to her book would be a great start. And of course who better to introduce it than Amy herself!
Forget any inkling you may have had that the media is sensationalizing the "diabetes epidemic" story. It’s real folks. In fact, the American Diabetes Association just launched a campaign called "Every 21 Seconds" as in that’s how often another American is diagnosed. Diabetes now affects the lives of 20.8 million children and adults in this country, and at the going rate, could rise to 50 million by the year 2025.
With the medications and tools available here in the US, the devastating effects of this disease are largely preventable.
POLICY: California’s Healthcare Plan: Setting the National Debate By Bart Mongoven
Bart Mongoven is an analyst with Austin-based Stratfor.com and the author of the Stratfor Public Policy Intelligence Report. In this piece he examines the obstacles facing the Schwarzenegger health care plan on the national and local levels and reaches a contrarian conclusion — the proposal is likely to succeed after a major fight with special interests. Mongroven predicts "a victory within the year" for Schwarzenegger, a bold claim that if true will clearly have major national implications. If you’re unfamiliar with their work, Stratfor is the private corporate intelligence firm founded by political scientist Dr. George Friedman. While most of the firm’s work focuses on national security and foreign policy issues, its analysts also track domestic policy issues — as in this case. You may not agree with Mongoven’s conclusions, but his analysis is insightful and his arguments well worth noting. The piece remains copyright Stratfor.com of course. — John Irvine
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger outlined
a proposal Jan. 8 for a massive overhaul of California’s healthcare system.
In his State of the State speech, the Republican governor only lightly
touched on the core elements of the ambitious plan. But as even a few details
of his proposal have become known, controversy has begun to roil.
At
present, just about no one in California seems happy with the proposal. The
California Chamber of Commerce has called it a tax on employers. The
California Nurses Association condemned it as a gift to big business.
Conservatives call it socialized medicine. Liberals say the
pro-health-insurer GOP has co-opted the proposal.
National interest
groups, meanwhile, have been silent. The voices of business — the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses —
have not issued press releases either supporting or criticizing the proposal.
National labor organizations are not issuing press releases, and neither are
healthcare advocacy organizations, like the AARP or Families USA. On the
surface, a number of reasons explain why the national organizations have left
this battle to state lobbyists in Sacramento.
