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Above the Fold

Genetic Testing, Fact or Fiction: You Be the Judge

Dec 8, 2009• 11

By MICHAEL MILLENSON

Which of these two events is fact and which is fiction?

Organizations representing employers and health plans call for a moratorium on implementation of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, asserting that the new rules could have a “significant and adverse impact…on wellness and prevention efforts” in the workplace.

One of the largest companies in America begins matchmaking its employees based on their genetic compatability, hoping to save on the health insurance bills associated with imperfectly bred children.

Answer: No. 1 is a Dec. 2 press release from the Disease Management Association of America. No. 2 is a description of the Dec. 8 episode of the ABC-TV comedy, “Better Off Ted.”

Coincidence? You be the judge.

2009: A Year of Surprises and Change for the EHR Technology Market

Dec 6, 2009• 21

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER

2009 began with a bang for legacy Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors, promising strong sales and windfall profits on the heels of stimulus package incentive bonuses initially worth more than $19 billion to doctors and hospitals. But things changed dramatically along the way.

Here ten surprises and notable events that have impacted the EHR market:

Payment for Meaningful Use of EHR technology, not for the software and hardware itself.

The idea that using EHR technologies ought to produce improvements in quality of care, better communication with patients, enhanced safety, and better public health reporting — and that these outcomes ought to be monitored and providers held accountable for their achievement — was itself a surprising innovation in 2009. It has to be counted among the best 10 health care ideas to come out of government in the past generation.Continue reading…

Four grumpy lefties with Laura Flanders

Dec 4, 2009• 1

By Matthew Holt

Maggie Mahar, Jon Cohn, Jon Nichols and Olga Pierce hang out with Laura Flanders on the amusingly titled GRITtv and discuss how screwed up the politics of health care are in the Senate. Twenty minutes of amusing chat without a “moderate” or a Rpublican in sight. (Can’t get the video to embed here, so sneak over there).

Health Journos Protest FDA Interview Rules

Dec 4, 2009• 4

By MERRILL GOOZNER

The Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists and 9 other scribbler groups have asked the Food and Drug Administration to lift its requirement that agency officials first get permission from the public relations office before speaking with reporters. The demand came in a letter sent to Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, who is running the FDA's Transparency Task Force.

Good idea. In fact, it should be extended to every government agency.

Deb Peel–Good Grief

Dec 3, 2009

Healthcare journo Neil Versel almost defends Deb Peel as she rants inanely about PHR vendors. What she and her gang of nutjobs want is to hide behind privacy to prevent potentially lifesaving used of health data because they hate “the government”. More of my disparagement here

someone’s end

Dec 3, 2009• 2

@contagionhealth Dunno. It may be my end or yours. Been having lots of trouble logging in from Tweetdeck. But that was from twitter.com

webinars incoming!

Dec 3, 2009

Health 2.0 will be launching a webinar series next year…leading to much good natured internal bickering this morning. Look out world!

tweetdeck can bite me

Dec 3, 2009

Starting a flame war with @SusannahFox because I can’t get Tweetdeck to work and therefore feeling grumpy

Why Wait Four Years?

Dec 2, 2009• 81

By PAUL LEVY

I was struck during President Obama’s health care speech before Congress several months ago that the reforms he advocates would not go into effect for four years, until 2014. This timetable, too, is written into both the House and Senate versions.

Why the delay? It is hard for me to imagine, even given the federal rulemaking process, that it should take four years to establish an insurance exchange from which people can buy coverage. This is the exchange that would eliminate the nasty practices of insurance companies: Denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions; limiting annual or lifetime payments; and rescission of policies. It is hard for me to imagine, too, why it should take four years to fully deliver targeted subsidies to lower income people so they can afford insurance.

As noted by Princeton Professor Paul Starr in an article in the New York Times earlier this week: “By comparison, when Medicare was enacted in 1965, it went into effect the next year.”

This leaves me with a bad feeling. It looks like the Obama team does not want implementation of the health care bill to take place during their first term. Why? Perhaps they know that the cost of the plan is higher than they are saying. Or maybe they know that the options available to consumers will be less attractive than currently portrayed.

The Patient Safety Movement Turns Ten

Dec 2, 2009• 56

By BOB WACHTER

On December 1, 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report entitled To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Although its authors hoped to spark a national movement, they had little cause for optimism. After all, early efforts by advocates like Berwick and Leape and organizations like the National Patient Safety Foundation had barely moved the needle of public and professional attention.

The IOM Report succeeded beyond its framers’ wildest dreams, and the movement they spawned turns ten today. Please indulge me while I spend a nostalgic moment recalling the remarkable spin that launched the patient safety field. I’ll then segue to a summary of my assessment of what we’ve accomplished over the past decade (I outline this more fully in an article in this week’s web version of Health Affairs, which I hope you’ll take a look at).Continue reading…