OIG: Health IT remains a top challenge facing HHS

Health information technology remains a top management and performance challenge confronting the Department of Health and Human Services, as the healthcare industry attempts to leverage the universal adoption of electronic health records and achieve true EHR interoperability.

That’s the contention of the HHS Office of the Inspector General, which ranked health IT third overall in its annual ranking of the department’s top 10 management and performance challenges.

Specifically, auditors expressed their concerns about the meaningful, secure exchange and use of electronic information—not just for HHS but also the overall U.S. healthcare system, which increasingly rely on such data. For the full article click here 

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A Pioneering Spanish CIO Shares his Perspectives on the New Healthcare

In western Europe, as in the United States, IT-facilitated clinical transformation remains a work in progress, with tremendous variations by geography and by type of patient care organization. One organization in Spain that has made tremendous strides—and which became one of the first European hospital organizations to receive “stage 7” recognition from the HIMSS Analytics division of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), per its EMRAM schematic around electronic health record (EHR) development—is the Hospital Marina Salud de Dénia in the suburb of Valencia called Dénia, on the east coast of Spain. Indeed, the leaders of the hospital received the prestigious Davies Award from HIMSS in 2015, and the hospital’s CIO, Vicent Moncho Mas, was presented with the award at HIMSS’ World of Health IT conference in Riga, Latvia, that year.

Moncho Mas spoke of the journey into digitization and clinical transformation on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at World of Health IT 2016 (WoHIT2016), being held this week at the Centre de Conveniones Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB), in Barcelona, Spain. For the full article click here 

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4 things we learned from the annual ONC report on health IT

Thanksgiving is Thursday here in the U.S., which, for those of us in the publishing business, means it is a slow news week. So we amuse ourselves reading things like health IT reports from the federal government.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology this week released its annual report on health IT to Congress, as required by the 2009 HITECH Act. That’s the law that ushered in Meaningful Use in 2011.

There’s a lot of usual language in the report, talking about all the health IT programs and initiatives and standards ONC has launched or endorsed in the last 12 months, plus, of course, some interesting data. Here are four interesting things we learned from reading the document For the full article click here 

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3 Health Information Exchanges Make Health IT Investments

3 Health Information Exchanges Make Health IT Investments

New ‘Cures’ language coming soon

UPDATED 21ST CENTURY CURES BILL IMMINENT: The wait is over, or almost. A revised version of the 21st Century Cure Act might be released as soon as today in preparation of a House floor vote next week, sources on and off the Hill are telling Morning eHealth. The bill has been on hold for almost the entire year as Republicans and Democrats haggled over how to offset increases in NIH spending and funding for the cancer moonshot, Precision Medicine and opioid prevention and treatment. But Energy and Commerce Chair Fred Upton said last week a deal had been struck, and the rest of the world will see the fruits of their labor any time now. Lawmakers were trying to create a reconciled bill to pass through both chambers of a lame-duck Congress.

Some health IT things to watch:Check out our Pro Health Care colleagues for more pharma-centric coverage, but here’s a refresher on what eHealth items of interest:
— Definitions of interoperability – (the House bill was more specific)
— Interoperability standards – the House would contract with a standards-development organization to develop them; the Senate tries to create a trusted exchange framework
— TRUST IT Act – Sen. Bill Cassidy’s proposal to create a star-ratings system of EHRs wasn’t well received in the House, so its status in a reconciled bill is uncertain For the full article click here

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Is protectionism hurting health IT innovation?

The results of the U.S. election this month have got me thinking about protectionism.  Webster’s Dictionary defines protectionism as: “the theory or practice of shielding a country’s domestic industries from foreign competition by taxing imports.”  Advocates for a global trade system are obviously opposed to this idea and many attest that even though the strategy seems like a good idea at the time, in the long term it will never really work out.

So why am I discussing foreign policy strategies? I’m a data scientist and eHealth advocate after all. I bring it up because protectionism is exactly what is being practiced throughout the healthcare industry and it is systematically killing healthcare innovation. For the full article click here 

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Vital Signs: Could healthcare IT be the key to better addiction treatment?

In a new, landmark report on addiction, the U.S. surgeon general made a solid argument for the role of health information technology in improving the treatment of patients with drug or alcohol abuse as well as behavioral health problems.

Dr. Vivek Murthy’s office pushed for greater health IT adoption and use by providers of alcohol, drug abuse and behavioral health treatment. But it took no position on a pending federal rule that could relax the current strict privacy protections covering the medical records of many patients receiving those treatments.

The report, Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health, highlights a fundamental health IT dichotomy: Patients get better care if their records are shared among providers, but patients won’t seek treatment if they believe their information will be widely disclosed.

An estimated 23% of the U.S. population age 12 and older—some 67 million people—have engaged in binge drinking. Meanwhile, 10.2%—about 27 million people—used illicit drugs or misused prescription drugs. And more than 40% of people with a substance use disorder also have a mental health condition, the report said. For the full article click here 

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Health IT investors share lessons learned from early investments

If you were to ask a healthcare investor what their investment strategy is, it is likely the product of some brilliant foresight, a little luck, and some lessons learned from bad experiences or near misses.

In a series of phone and email interviews, we picked the brains of health IT investors at four firms. We asked them what they learned from early investments and how those lessons and insights informed their strategy going forward. One theme that threads its way through the investment narrative of these companies is that technology is all well and good, but you need a service to support it as well.

Cotiviti (originally iHealth) and athenahealth were two of the firm’s first investments made in the space, Lamont said in an email.

“They were very much about fixing broken processes through software, services, and data. That’s been our approach – addressing a broken system and improving it through the powerful combination of software, data, and services.  That’s particularly the case when behavior change is an important part of what needs to happen to improve healthcare and materially bend the cost/quality curve.  Appropriately, Aspire Health, Quartet Health, VillageMD and Axial Healthcare all have service as a component.” For the full article click here 

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Ireland to go-live with national maternity electronic record

Ireland’s biggest maternity hospital will go-live with Cerner next month, as part of an upgrade that will see all its maternity units switch to the electronic health record system.

Cork University Maternity hospital will deploy Cerner on the weekend of 3 December. By the end of 2017, the country’s 17 maternity hospitals that will share a single nationwide Cerner record.

eHealth Ireland chief executive Richard Corbridge told Digital Health News that Cerner had rebuilt and validated the system specifically for Ireland’s maternity context.

“This will be a single instance across 17 hospitals to promote the sharing of information,” he said. For the full article click here 

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Many Insured Children Lack Essential Health Care, Study Finds

Margo Solomon has health insurance for herself and her four children.

But actually getting treatment is another matter.

Ms. Solomon, a 35-year-old mother from the Bronx, says she has struggled to find a doctor who accepts her insurance. And with three of her children coping with asthma, and one with more complicated medical problems, locating a specialist is even more challenging. And once in the door, she cannot afford the costs, including for deductibles and medications.

“I feel like I am all alone out here,” Ms. Solomon said.

She is not alone.

A new study to be released on Monday by the Children’s Health Fund, a nonprofit based in New York City that expands access to health care for disadvantaged children, found that one in four children in the United States did not have access to essential health care, though a record number of young people now have health insurance. For the full article click here 

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Letter: ACA repeal would turn back century of health care progress

I commend Sen. Joe Manchin for calling for reform of the Affordable Care Act rather than repeal (W.Va. reps to seek repeal of EPA rules, ACA, Nov. 10).

It is shocking to think that President-elect Donald Trump and Congress might repeal the ACA and turn back the clock on a century of progress toward universal health care.

President Richard Nixon and President Ronald Reagan had plans that included some of the principles in the ACA. Access to affordable health care should not be a privilege for the rich and those employed full-time in big business. It is a fundamental right.

Repeal of the ACA would be “devastating” to West Virginia (to quote Terri Giles on Nov. 11). Health care is a large sector of our economy and West Virginia has poor health outcomes and higher morbidity and mortality than most states. For the full article click here For the full article click here 

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Study finds reasons for accumulated stress levels more complicated than thought

TORONTO, Nov. 17, 2016–African-American and Latina women have a higher accumulated stress level than Caucasian women, but a new study found that less than half the differences could be explained by expected factors such as poverty, neighbourhoods, stress and support systems.

Study author Dr. Pat O’Campo, a researcher with the Centre for Urban Health Solutions of St. Michael’s Hospital, said there was growing interest in the impact of stress on women’s health, including lifetime accumulated stress and the psychological toll of having to repeatedly respond to stress.

In a study published today in the journal Social Science & Medicine, Dr. O’Campo compared the “allostatic load” of African-American, Latina and Caucasian women enrolled in a large longitudinal health disparities study in the United States. For the full article click here 

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ML Tool Speeds Deployment of Health Predictor

Large health datasets are being used to develop predictive risk models for individual and population groups. The latest example is a partnership between a predictive analytics vendor and a machine-learning platform specialist to deploy a new health predictor.

Brooklyn-based Yhat, developer of a machine-learning deployment platform called ScienceOps, said this week that analytics vendor Lumiata is using its platform to launch its AI-powered health prediction tool. Yhat said its platform helps overcome incompatibilities between AI algorithms and emerging digital applications.

ScienceOps is positioned as providing the technical infrastructure “to transform statistical code on an analyst’s laptop into a product you and I can interact with,” explains Austin Ogilvie, Yhat’s CEO and co-founder. The goal is to help launch more AI-based applications, Oglivie added. For the full article click here 

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Hospital Impact: Trump, chaos theory and the OIG

It is not yet possible to predict what President-elect Donald Trump’s administration’s policies will be when it comes to EHRs and health IT.

Will he embrace some of President Obama’s projects, like precision medicine? Will anything happen to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the review of certified EHR technology? And what happens to the fight against information blocking? Will that continue? Or become less important?

So imagine how much more daunting it is for those in the government who have to follow through on policy in the face of all these questions, all this change and so much chaos. For the full article click here 

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Obamacare enrollment surges after the election; no spike in Washington state

During the campaign, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress vowed to immediately “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, yet now that dismantlement is possible, people across the U.S. are rushing to lock in coverage. More than 300,000 chose plans from Nov. 9-11.

For years the backers of the Affordable Care Act have fretted over how best to stimulate insurance enrollment on the exchanges so the law could work as designed. They might have finally found a way from the unlikeliest of sources: the election of Donald Trump as president.

During the campaign, Trump and Republicans in Congress vowed to immediately “repeal and replace” the health-care law known as Obamacare, calling it a failure. Yet now that dismantlement is possible and maybe even likely, people across the nation are rushing to lock in coverage for next year.  For the full article click here 

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In Trump’s Presidency, Value-Based Purchasing, Health IT Must Push Forward

With so much uncertainty around us, it’s critical to stay on course when it comes to value-based healthcare and the optimization of health IT

The results of last week’s presidential election were extremely unexpected to many, and in the days that followed, debates in media and social circles took front and center for many of us. Those discussions will likely not cease any time soon, but in a time of great uncertainty, it’s important to focus on what we know rather than what’s now behind us. What we know: Donald Trump is the 45^th president of the United States while Republicans maintained control of both the U.S. House and Senate. This will have a profound impact on healthcare’s already-changing landscape.

At a broad level, we also know what Trump and many Republicans think about the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare). On the campaign trail, President-elect Trump spoke about repealing the ACA which would mark a significant shift in healthcare policy. While it remains unclear on what exactly “repeal and replace” means, as Trump has said, there will be major changes in store. In a story last week, Healthcare Informatics spoke to multiple healthcare policy experts who had varying opinions on what this could mean for value-based purchasing and healthcare IT, with an underlying theme being that most of what our industry has been accustomed to will likely not be altered in any great way. For the full article click here

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Cambia, Mosaic merge venture groups to create Echo Health Ventures

Cambia Health Solutions and Mosaic Health Solutions have combined their respective investment groups into one new investor called Echo Health Ventures. Under the leadership of CEO Rob Coppedge, who has led Cambia’s investment division for the past six years, the new company will manage both companies’ existing portfolios as well as pursue new stage-agnostic investments in healthcare innovation.

“We have complementary portfolios, both by stages and by sector,” Coppedge told MobiHealthNews. “Both parents realized the future of strategic investing and corporate investing is partnership. Because we can’t do this alone. We’ve co-invested before, we’ve worked together on other things, so it made a lot of sense to bring the groups together.”

Echo will be an independent company but its board will include Mark Ganz, president and CEO of Cambia Health Solutions, and Brad Wilson, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Maureen O’Connor, current president of Mosaic Ventures, will retire at the end of the year. For the full article click here

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Just a little fitness protects your health

Researchers say it’s not necessary to be an athlete to lower the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

It is vitally important to stay fit to maintain good health. It appears you don’t have to work out nearly as hard as an athlete to gain the health benefits of fitness. The Université de Montréal reports that it has been shown in a new study that even low physical fitness is adequate to help prevent most of the risk factors which are associated with cardiovascular disease.

Exercise is a great way to help prevent and cure many diseases

It has often been observed that exercise is a great way to help prevent and cure many diseases. In a new study done in Canada it has been demonstrated that even a low level of physical fitness, up to 20 percent lower than the average for people who are healthy, is adequate to produce a preventive effect on most of the risk factors linked to cardiovascular disease. For the full article click here 

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Community advocates call for more transparency in med school spending

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Community advocates came together Monday, fighting for more oversight for your money spent on health care. A city watchdog says there are no records indicating $105 million Central Health gave to UT Dell Medical School is actually going to improve healthcare for the poor.

Healthcare advocates want Travis County commissioners to call for an independent audit of UT and Central Health to learn where the money is going. Keep in mind, it was in 2012 voters decided to increase property taxes to fund a medical school. That ballot language indicated funds will be used for improved healthcare, including support for a new medical school consistent with the mission of Central Health. It also said that support could include education and specialty medicine, as well as to obtain federal matching funds. Monday’s gathering was to address Central Health’s core mission, helping indigent people receive healthcare.

Attorney Fred Lewis, who’s been working to determine how the money is being spent, says if Travis County commissioners don’t call for an audit, he hasn’t taken a lawsuit off the table. In a report released Monday, Lewis says says the medical school, in conjunction with Central Health, appears to have For the full article click here 

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Merck animal health investing in swine vaccine innovation, manufacturing and people

Now more than ever, pork producers are looking for new and innovative ways to help support the care and wellbeing of their animals. The continuous threat of animal disease, social and regulatory pressure to reduce antibiotic use, along with increasing consumer interest in on-farm production practices has them looking more and more to prevention-based solutions. Merck Animal Health understands this challenge and has responded by making investments in swine vaccine advancements and new manufacturing facilities, as well as building a team of industry and veterinary experts.

Disease outbreaks have significantly impacted all aspects of production agriculture: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, avian influenza in poultry and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in swine, just to name a few. Recognizing the need for greater preventive strategies across the industry, Merck Animal Health acquired an innovator in animal vaccine technology – Harrisvaccines – to add value to its already robust portfolio of vaccines.

The unique RNA Particle technology represents a breakthrough in vaccine development with a highly versatile production platform able to target a wide range of viruses and bacteria. Pathogens are collected from a farm and specific genes are sequenced and inserted into the platform, making safe, potent vaccines that provide herd-specific protection. For the full article click here 

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Trump may maintain support for health IT, cut funds for HIPAA audits

Health information technology and interoperability are expected to stay top priorities for health officials in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, according to one expert.

While bipartisan support for health IT initiatives is likely to remain in the new administration, funding for some programs may change, Harry Greenspun, chief medical officer and managing director for advisory firm Korn Ferry, told Bloomberg BNA last week. The size of some initiatives, like those run by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, may also be “reduced and the office scaled back,” Greenspun said.

Greenspun also noted that Congressional groups, such as REBOOT Health IT, are also expected to play a major part in informing the Trump administration on health IT initiatives. For the full article click here 

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How Michelle Obama Always Puts Health and Wellness First

Without a doubt, Michelle Obama will go down as one of the most impactful First Ladies in American history. Among her many accomplishments, the December Vogue cover star stands out for her commitment to health and fitness—not only for herself and her two daughters, but for the entire nation, as her Let’s Move! campaign can attest. Here, five times Obama revealed her personal wellness philosophy—words to live by.

Practice what you preach.
“We can’t lie around on the couch eating French fries and candy bars and expect our kids to eat carrots and run around the block,” Obama pointed out in a 2013 keynote address. “But too often, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Fitness benefits are physical and mental.
“Exercise is really important to me—it’s therapeutic,” Obama said in 2008. “So if I’m ever feeling tense or stressed or like I’m about to have a meltdown, I’ll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls.” For the full article click here

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What will a Trump presidency mean for digital health?

The unexpected election of Donald Trump who, as a candidate, was weak on specific policy promises, has mired a lot of industries in uncertainty about their future, but perhaps none more so than healthcare. The Republican party has long sought to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a landmark piece of legislation that has affected most parts of the healthcare landscape since it was passed in 2010.

There’s no way to know for certain what’s going to happen come January, but plenty of writers around the web have spoken with experts to get their best bets. Below we’ve rounded up some perspectives on different facets of health IT, government infrastructure, and digital health.

The Affordable Care Act

While Trump has stood by his campaign promise to “ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare”, in reality that could be very difficult. For one thing, the ACA consists of not only the government-run health exchanges the law is best known for, but also cost-saving and quality improvement measures with broader support. And even getting rid of the exchanges, without something to replace them with, would leave some 18 million people without health insurance, something that could be devastating for Republicans in the 2018 mid-term elections. This piece in Quartz lays out some of the challenges Republican leadership would have repealing ACA. For the full article click here

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Collaboration between user and designer advantageous, reveals paper

[Gloucestershire, UK] A close working relationship between users and designers can provide several benefits for the functioning of the healthcare system, reveals an analysis of the development and piloting of an IT system in the UK.

“It was through this close collaboration that the system could be fine-tuned according to the needs of its end users,” the article states, which was published this week in the Advances in Medical Education and Practice Dove Press Journal.

“Unanticipated requirements can be realised more quickly, and superfluous ones removed. Having adaptable requirements is a strength, as predicting every requirement at the outset is not always possible.

“The project was user driven, with a clear vision of the end product and its purpose.”

The article offers a detailed examination as developments of affordable IT systems in the UK for healthcare organisations have received a lot of publicity in the past. For the full article click here 

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Will Trump presidency disrupt current health IT policy?

Healthcare IT executives are anxiously looking for a sense of how HIT policy will turn under the Trump administration.

Some of the president-elect’s positions on healthcare are well-known, such as his stated intent to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with health savings accounts, and working with Congress to create a “patient-centered healthcare system that promotes choice, quality, and affordability.”

But, when it comes to Trump’s approach to health IT, little is known about the kinds of changes and policy prescriptions he would bring to the White House. For the full article click here 

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Artificial Intelligence to Strain Health IT Infrastructure

Pennsylvania has 1M in path of Obamacare repeal

If president-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress repeal Obamacare as they promised, more than 20 million Americans — including about a million Pennsylvanians — could lose their health insurance.

Congressional Republicans have been trying to repeal the federal Affordable Care Act since it was passed six years ago, even as millions of Americans signed up for subsidized health plans on the law’s insurance marketplace and enrolled in expanded state Medicaid programs. When repeal proposals reached President Obama’s desk, he vetoed them.

Some of the latest proposals, which could be revived when Trump reaches office, would reverse the Medicaid expansion and eliminate the subsidies. Changes outlined in a proposal that both houses of Congress passed early this year would cut an estimated 22 million people from insurance, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

“I don’t think we’ve seen anything on this scale,” said Julie Donohue, an associate professor of health policy and management in the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. “… It would be unprecedented.” For the full article click here 

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Facebook Friend Requests Linked To Overall Health Benefits

Facebook friend requests, a social action we see daily on Facebook or in any social media partaining to that sort of idea. Did you ever think that this could affect our overall health?

Did you even know about how it affects us overall? Well think again. This might be real interesting.

According to The Washington Post, Studies from Scientists found out that people who received tons of friend requests were less likely to die over a two-year period than those who don’t. However, this has seem to have not affected on the poll on death rates.

William Hobbs said he has known for decades now that the offline social networks, especially social integration, were related to longer life, but not to the point of online interactions as well For the full article click here 

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BU to begin offering public health program

Starting next fall, Binghamton University plans to offer a new graduate program for public health. The program will add to the University’s already expanding areas of studies, including the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, which will open next fall.

Public health refers to the research, education and implementation of medical policy on a local and global level. It focuses on protecting and insuring public health. It differs from physicians and other medical jobs in that they do not directly treat the patients, but focus on the causes and effects of their condition and how it can be prevented in the future through medical policy and administration. It encompasses a large variety of fields in science and can manifest itself into a number of careers, including health insurance management, health care or careers at government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Provost Donald Nieman said he recognizes the importance of expanding the University’s academic offerings to satisfy growing demands from students. The University currently offers master’s programs in nursing that prepare for administrative health jobs, but they are tailored toward the nursing field. For the full article click here 

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4 tips for hospitals implementing population health analytics

Hospitals are increasingly focused on leveraging predictive analytics to streamline their services — but how many organizations have successfully met this goal?

Since 2014, Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based research and consulting organization Healthcare Center of Excellence has been tracking how the healthcare industry uses data analytics. J. Bryan Bennett, founder and executive director of HCOE, spoke with Becker’s Hospital Review about the results of the organization’s third annual State of Population Health Analytics report, which integrated interviews with healthcare executives, survey responses from hospital employees and findings from recent research on health IT. Here’s what he had to share:

1. Health IT is a spectrum, from EHRs to decision support. The State of Population Health Analytics report evaluates hospitals’ evolving use of health IT
based on a model developed by Mr. Bennett, called the “healthcare transformation change model.”

The model predicts a technology continuum from non-analytic to analytic-focused, with the implementation of complex, analytical decision support services as the ultimate goal.

The suggested timeline begins with descriptive technology (characterized by EHR implementation), and moves through phases of diagnostic technology (characterized by integration of data sources), predictive technology (characterized by analysis and modeling) and prescriptive technology (characterized by real-time decision support). For the full article click here 

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Treasury flags concerns over downturn in DHB finances

A leaked Treasury report warns the financial performance of district health boards has deteriorated severely over the past two years, and flags eight regions where there are serious concerns over services.

The results leave the Ministry of Health with two options, according to Labour’s Annette King: increase funding, or expect cuts in services.

The report measured financial and non-financial performance of the country’s 20 DHBs, and was presented to Health Minister Jonathan Coleman in June. For the full article click here 

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Health care costs for needy down slightly at Casper hospital

The Wyoming Medical Center in Casper is experiencing a slight downward trend in the amount of charity care it provides, but it still had over $24 million in costs for fiscal year 2016.

While care for the needy declined by about $300,000, bad debt was still trending upward. The hospital had $32.8 million in unpaid bills for those who did not qualify for charity care, or $6.3 million more than in 2015.

The total of the two categories came to $57 million, compared with $51 million in 2015.

In its annual report to the Natrona County commissioners, hospital officials said they still had a profit margin of 1.8 percent. Part of that, however, was due to a $10.8 million budget cut following five months of losses in the first half of the year. The cuts included the layoffs of 58 staff and other cost-saving measures. For the full article click here 

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New social prescribing service benefits people with mental health conditions

People with mental health conditions are benefitting from being prescribed non-medical treatments by their doctors, according to a new report.

The Rotherham Social Prescribing Mental Health Pilot was developed to help people with mental health conditions overcome the barriers which prevent discharge from secondary mental health care services.

The 12-month pilot – which has now been extended to March 2017 – helps service users build and direct their own packages of support by encouraging them to access personalised services provided by local voluntary and community groups.

The pilot was delivered in partnership by Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) and a group of local voluntary sector organisations led by Voluntary Action Rotherham on behalf of NHS Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). For the full article click here 

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Colorado could revolutionize the health care reform as it did on legalizing recreational marijuana

Coloradans will vote Nov. 8 on a plan that would provide all state residents with health care when they need it.

Amendment 69 would replace an inefficient private insurance system with a cooperative insurer that would cover Coloradans similarly to how Medicare covers our seniors.

The measure, called ColoradoCare, builds on the Affordable Care Act, which has succeeded in expanding health insurance coverage but failed to stop the rise of health care costs.

The average premium on Colorado’s health insurance exchange will rise by 20 percent in 2017, and voters are looking for solutions. For the full article click here 

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FactCheck: Does this year’s Budget include the biggest ever investment in health?

ONE OF THE government’s biggest talking points in the aftermath of last month’s Budget announcement was the claim that they had just made the biggest investment in health in Irish history.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said it during his Dáil speech, Health Minister Simon Harris said it during a post-Budget press conference, and Taoiseach Enda Kenny repeated the claim in the Dáil later on.

You can see excerpts of government ministers reiterating the claim, in the video above.

In his Dáil speech on Budget Day, Paschal Donohoe described the health budget as “the highest ever level of health funding in the history of our country”. For the full article click here 

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Meningococcal vaccination urged by SA Health after Adelaide toddler death

Parents should consider paying hundreds of dollars to vaccinate their children against the potentially deadly B-strain of meningococcal disease, South Australian health authorities have said.

The issue is in the spotlight again after this week’s death in an Adelaide hospital of 16-month-old toddler Charlie Mason.

Vaccinating against the C-strain of meningococcal has been part of the free National Immunisation Program since 2003, with successful results.

But Eliza Ault Connell, director of Meningococcal Australia and a survivor of the disease when she was a teenager, said the danger was from other strains.

“We see just a handful of meningococcal C cases now in Australia,” she said. For the full article click here 

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How technology will shape healthcare in the future

Thirty six years from now medical clinicians may be a quaint memory, and people might turn to artificial intelligence to diagnose their health problems and prescribe remedies.

It might be possible to monitor a patient’s vital statistics remotely and detect poor health before it became a serious problem.

This vision of the future was laid out by Wellington area registrar Michael Chen-Xu, speaking at the Health Informatics New Zealand (HiNZ) discussion panel, one of the events held on the conference’s final day on Thursday.

Along with fellow panellists Mariam Parwaiz, Michael Quirke, Shreya Rao, and Ann-Marie Scroggins, Dr Chen-Xu discussed various possibilities that might await the New Zealand health sector in 2050.

All speakers agreed technology would play a major role in healthcare’s future.

IT essential for dialogue with the public

Dr Quirke believes information technology will be essential for health professionals to engage in a dialogue with the public about healthcare and deliver services. For the full article click here 

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Brad Pitt health issues revealed, actor spotted at infectious disease specialist

#Brad Pitt health questions are on the rise. The “Fight Club” star may be fighting some serious health issues these days according to recent reports. Pitt health concerns have become a big question for fans after a celebrity news site reported that Pitt was spotted sneaking into an infectious disease specialty center recently. Brad, (52), is said to have arrived before office hours for a very early morning appointment hoping to enter the building unnoticed.

Is Brad Pitt hiding a secret health issue?

Things did not go as Pitt had plannedbecause the source claims that staff members were running late and Brad was left waiting outside the building. The employee was hurrying to get to work and arrived at the gated parking lot a little later than usual. Using the key card to gain entrance the staff member was surprised when the gate opened and a man behind her rushed inside the gates, startling her enough to call for security. For the full article click here 

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Tackle men’s health globally with Movember this year

Have you heard about #Movember? Don’t worry if not. It’s only been in recent years that it’s become a major thing. It’s something that everyone can get involved in, and is no longer only for men. However, the money raised from this charity event does only go to support men’s health. It’s the only charity of its kind, helping to only tackle men’s health globally all year round. You can find out more about Movember and what it means right here. Is this your year to get involved?

30 days and 30 days only to grow a moustache

The name “movember” comes from the amalgamation of “moustache” and “november.” Those taking part have 30 days and 30 days alone to grow their own moustache to show off to their friends. You’re supposed to start from the very beginning and build it from there, but there are now different ways that you can get involved.

This is no longer just for men, with many women getting involved in the fundraising part of the monthly event. There are now many women taking part, as men’s health problems affect everyone around the world. While the focus was originally on testicular and #Prostate Cancer, there is now a focus on depression and suicide in men. For the full article click here 

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mHealth apps could reduce hospital costs, shows study

[London, UK] A new study shows there is a strong belief among mHealth app developers that platforms “will become an integrated part of the healthcare system” while reducing the costs for hospital readmission and length of stay.

Research2guidance published their 6th annual study on mHealth in October this year, analysing the current status and trends of the global market.

Since 2015, reportedly 100,000 mHealth apps have been added although the demand side has gradually decreased from 35% to only 7% this year.

The research2guidance study shows that the number of global mHealth app publishers has doubled over the past four years.

‘Health professionals think health apps would really benefit their patients’

Liz Ashall-Payne, Co-founder of the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications (ORCHA)  talked exclusively to BJ-HC about the complex process of app reviewing. For the full article click here 

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Technology could transform primary care by 2025, says Gartner

IT research firm, Gartner, presented research last week predicting that virtual personal health assistants, or VPHAs, could replace human interfaces in primary care – and that by 2025, 50% of the population would rely on them.

What’s more, said Gartner analysts when they presented the findings, at the Gartner Symposium/ ITxpo in Orlando Florida last week, they could actually be more effective, with patients finding them “more responsive and accurate than their human counterparts”.

Demand for doctors ‘outpacing supply’

“There is significant evidence that the majority of primary healthcare visits are of little value to the patient, and represent a massive drain on trained physician time,” said Laura Craft, research director at Gartner. “Physician demand is outpacing supply, begging the need for alternatives.”

“Technology has advanced to the point where computers have become superior to the human mind; they are more accurate and consistent, and they are better at processing all the determinants of health and well-being than even the best of doctors,” continued Craft. For the full article click here 

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First NZ smokefree outdoor dining trial underway

It is part of the first formal trial of smokefree outdoor dining in New Zealand.

“We signed up because it really isn’t cool anymore to light up when you’re sitting in a busy garden,” said Under the Red Verandah cafe owner Amanda Heasley.

“We get really busy here and I’m a grandma, so I hate to see someone light up beside a baby or other children so we just thought it was time.”

For the next six months they’ve pledged to make their outdoor areas completely smoke free, which has approval from regulars.

“It does invade your space a wee bit when you’re sitting down with other people so I think it’s a great initiative,” Martin Anderson said. For the full article click here 

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ONC Revises Health IT Certification Program Requirements

The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has adopted a final rule to enable the ONC to directly review certified health information technology (IT) to determine whether it conforms to the requirements of the ONC Health IT Certification Program (‘‘Program’’).

Such ONC review would be independent of, and may be in addition to, ONC-Authorized Certification Body (ONC–ACB) surveillance.  This direct review authority will apply (1) when ONC has reason to believe that the certified health IT is causing or contributing to serious risks to public health or safety, or (2) in cases where practical challenges prevent an ONC–ACB from effectively investigating the suspected non-conformity or providing an appropriate response (e.g., because of the need to access confidential information or if overlapping reviews by multiple ONC-ACBs would be required).

In addition, the rule sets forth ONC’s enforcement authorities when certified health IT does not conform to certification requirements, including correction of non-conformities, certification suspension or termination, and a ban on the future certification of any of a health IT developer’s health IT. For the full article click here 

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PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN CHALLENGED ON MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

A social care charity in Glasgow is looking to tackle mental health stigma by changing the way young people think about it at an early age.

The charity Quarriers is working with primary school children to improve mental health knowledge and awareness – with the long-term aim of removing the taboo about mental health, helping to end stigma.

The project funded by See Me, Scotland’s programme to end mental health discrimination is focused around the north east of the city, an area where mental health issues are more prevalent than other parts of Glasgow.

The project has found that children are aware of mental health, but don’t have an understanding of what it means and what impact it can have on their own lives. For the full article click here 

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What’s behind New Zealand’s mental health funding crisis?

According to many Kiwis working in mental health, the system in this country is broken, seriously underfunded and in crisis.

They say there is a constant waiting list for beds in all mental health care facilities, and not enough staff.

New Zealand’s only 24-hour suicide counselling service Lifeline, which receives 15,000 calls a week, is struggling to find the funds to keep operating and will likely close next year.

Tragically, more Kiwis are taking their own lives more than ever before, and suicide is now our third highest cause of death behind heart disease and lung cancer. For the full article click here 

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Tech and Biotech: Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite goes health-tech; Madison Vaccines shows good early results with prostate cancer vaccine

Sonic Foundry, the Madison company that morphed from music-editing software to streaming video, is diving into the health tech field — at least, indirectly.

Sonic Foundry has signed a strategic partnership with Noordhoff Health, a Dutch company that provides training and education to health care professionals.

A division of Noordhoff Publishers, Noordhoff Health offers services to more than 4,000 hospitals, nursing schools and health care organizations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Noordhoff says it will use Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite technology to create and sell a package of 100 training videos to health care organizations, and will offer its clients Mediasite Video Cloud subscriptions to produce their own content. For the full article click here 

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Survey: Ransomware, malware among top concerns for health IT executivesa

Regardless of size, healthcare facilities report similar cybersecurity concerns, according to a recent survey.

The survey included responses from 190 members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security. When considering size, respondents were divided into three groups: those from facilities with more than 400 beds, those from facilities with 100 to 399 beds and those from facilities with fewer than 100 beds.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. All three groups ranked ransomware their highest concern when considering potential security exploits; other major concerns included malware and hacking. However, when asked to consider which security exploits were most common, malware proved the most cited response.

2. When considering potential security threats, facilities with fewer than 100 beds cited social engineering as their greatest concern, while the other two groups cited data theft. However, when asked to consider which security threats were most common, social engineering proved the most reported response for all three groups. For the full article click here 

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Wes Needs CAPS Campaign Aims to Expand Mental Health Services

“At Williams and Trinity, students from 2014-15 waited at most two days to get non-emergency mental health counseling,” reads a petition circulated earlier this week. “At Amherst, they waited a day and a half. At Bowdoin and Connecticut College, they had no wait. At Wesleyan, they waited three weeks.”

Last summer, University Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Dr. Jennifer D’Andrea announced that Advanced Practicing Nurse Practitioner (APRN) Katina Varzos had left to pursue a full-time employment opportunity. Dr. D’Andrea indicated that although no prescriptions would be issued through CAPS, students could schedule consultation appointments with their clinicians to locate a prescriber in the community.

In response, University students, led by a group that includes Paige Hutton ’18, Nat Warner ’17, Aliya Shecter ’20, and WSA Student Life Committee Chair Lizzie Shackney ’17, have launched a “Wes Needs CAPS” petition and photo campaign. The petition and corresponding Facebook event details the obstacles students face without an APRN available. It also argues that the University is generally less responsive to the non-emergency mental health needs of the student body compared with its peer institutions. In addition to increasing the CAPS budget for the first time in six years, the petition calls for the hiring of two new full-time psychologists and the promotion of half-time therapists to full-time positions. For the full article click here 

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‘Wearable trackers have particular resonance for diabetics’

The average person with diabetes will only see a healthcare professional for three hours a year – the other 8,757 hours they have to manage their own health, says Simon O’Neill, Director of Health Intelligence and Professional Liaison at Diabetes UK, in BJ-HC’s vox pop this month.

Some of that requires specific condition management, but much of it is ensuring the body can work properly – maintaining a healthy weight, eating well and exercising, says O’Neill, in the article, which talks about the technologies that are helping revolutionise chronic care. “That means that many wearable fitness trackers and apps aimed at the general market have particular resonance for diabetics,” he says.

Diabetes clinics have also started making good use of Skype and phone consultations, says O’Neill. “These have specific benefits with the diabetes community,” he says. “For example, people from Black and South Asian communities are two to four times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a group which includes some people who don’t speak good English. At Newham University Hospital, remote consultations have made it easier to include a son or a daughter for 10 minutes of translation, rather than trying to bring both the patient and translator into a hospital for a lengthy wait and appointment. Do Not Attend rates have dropped, and patients are much more engaged – vital to ensure that self-management happens after the appointment.” For the full article click here 

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Creighton University expands Phoenix health-education program

One of Arizona’s largest health-care providers announced Wednesday that it is expanding its partnership with Creighton University to help bring more doctors and health professionals to Arizona and keep them.

Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Maricopa Integrated Health System, District Medical Group Inc. and Creighton University School of Medicine entered into an agreement Wednesday to expand their current health-education programs.

The partnership will develop programs in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and allied health. It is tentatively called the Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance.

Residency and fellowship programs are planned to begin July 1, 2017, according to a news release. Creighton University plans to begin an accelerated nursing program by January 2018. For the full article click here 

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Health insurance rates on the rise

COLUMBUS, Ga. – This week, the Obama Administration announced an increase in premiums under the Affordable Care Act.  Georgia currently has nine health insurance carriers under the Affordable Care Act.

Starting at the end of 2016, four of those carriers will be leaving.  Cost increases are on the horizon for the remaining five carriers.

Harry Underwood’s first insurance policy he has had on is own is under Humana, which is in the health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act.

“It worked well for getting me onto healthcare,” Underwood said. For the full article click here 

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At the DC Health IT Summit, Intermountain’s Chief Strategy Officer Sees a Data-Driven Future

Intermountain’s chief strategy officer Greg Poulsen frames the path ahead around improving outcomes

How can clinician and other patient care leaders move the U.S. healthcare delivery system forward to improve care quality and value? Data, information, and analytics will be absolutely essential, says Greg Poulsen, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare. And that is precisely the message that Poulsen shared with attendees on Oct. 25, in his plenary presentation, entitled “Using Information to Improve Clinical Quality and Value,” at the Health IT Summit in Washington D.C., one of the Health IT Summit Series sponsored by Healthcare Informatics, and being held at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, a Washington, D.C. suburb.

Poulsen walked his audience of healthcare leaders through a detailed narrative around quality and value, in a journey that ended with examples of some of the advances that he and his colleagues at the 22-hospital Intermountain Healthcare integrated system have made using data and information.

Early on in his presentation, Poulsen brought up the concept of capitation, framing it in a nuanced way. “The idea of capitation is more profound than payment: it’s what your idea of healthcare is,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is to maintain people’s health, or fix them when things go badly. It’s summarized well in this new book by Clayton Christensen, Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. Poulsen shared this quote from Christensen’s book: “The job [most people want to have done] is to be so healthy that they don’t even think about health. Yet, in systems where the providers of care are reimbursed for services they provide, they actually make money when members of their system get sick—it’s effectively ‘sick care’ rather than ‘health care.’” For the full article click here 

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YOU ARE NOT ALONE: Chesterfield College students help combat stigma of mental health issues

Mental illness affects one in four adults and one in ten children and young people.

It can rob victims of their self-esteem, make them feel isolated, afraid or ashamed to confide in others. Maintaining mental health and educating the public are the aims of a collaboration between college students and healthcare professionals which is the first of its kind in Derby-shire.

The initiative will target learners at Chesterfield College next week and be rolled out to the town’s wider community in the spring. Karen Wheeler, of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The aim of the project is to build resilience in our future generation. “We’re also looking to combat the stigma around mental health problems and help people to understand what it is like to live with.” For the full article click here 

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CDHB contracts more $20m of surgeries out to private clinics

Five years after the Canterbury earthquakes damaged many of its operating theatres, Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) is fundingmore surgeries than ever, many at private facilities.

The CDHB has been spending more than $20 million a year on procedures at private hospitals and clinics for the last three financial years.

The health board has struggled with funding since the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes damaged several facilities and forced it to invest in new ones.

The earthquakes damaged 200 CDHB buildings and 7500 hospital rooms, escalating the need to use private sector care.

In the financial year to June 2016, the CDHB spent $22.3 million on 4717 elective procedures at private facilities. Costs included follow-ups and other expenses.

Some procedures were carried out by CDHB staff working in leased operating theatres. For the full article click here 

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Citizen group to appeal Boston Children’s Hospital expansion approval

BOSTON (State House News Service) – Opponents of an expansion at Boston Children’s Hospital are not dropping their fight after the $1 billion project won state approval last week.

A citizen group that has fought against the project, pointing to both a possibility of increased health spending in Massachusetts and the demolition of a popular healing garden on hospital grounds, announced Monday it plans to pursue an administrative appeal of the Public Health Council’s 10-0 vote in support.

The same group, known as the Anne Gamble Ten Taxpayer Group, continues to pursue a lawsuit against the expansion in Suffolk Superior Court.

“On both fronts, we look forward to continuing to press our strong case against this immensely expensive and wrong-headed proposal – this time free of the political pressures that apparently influenced the Public Health Council’s vote,” Gus Murby, a member of the group and lead plaintiff in the court case, said in a statement. For the full article click here 

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From California to Costa Rica to Missouri: Assistant research professor finds her home at MIMH

Rachel Winograd was in an internet café in Central America when she found out that she got accepted into the University of Missouri–Columbia’s graduate program for clinical psychology. The San Francisco Bay Area native, who studied both psychology and theater at Emory University in Atlanta, was working on a farm while waiting to see where tentative future plans for graduate school might take her.

Fast forward through seven years of research, study and clinical experiences, and those plans have brought her to another UM System campus – the University of Missouri­–St. Louis, where she’s an assistant research professor and primary investigator for the Missouri Institute of Mental Health.

The new position allows her to do every day what she did back then when she was just deciding to pursue her PhD: follow her curiosity.

“I knew I wanted to be able to have a profession where I could be intrinsically motivated to learn more about it and feel like the work I was doing was going to have a tangible impact,” she explains. “The way I described it then, when I was trying to figure out what direction to go in, was, if I would walk into a bookstore, what section did I gravitate towards? Or if I was looking for something to watch on TV, what kind of shows would I watch?” For the full article click here 

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Mental health in the U.S. increases and Americans are not receiving treatment

Mental Health of America released its annual State of Mental Health Report that ranks all states of America based on mental health facts. The analysis shows that the rates of youth depression are on the rise and although more people have access to insurance, more than half of them do not receive treatment.

The State of Mental Health Report shows different numbers regarding mental health issues of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It assessed both people with mental health and measures to treat their condition. Sadly, the results show that even when Americans are more insured, the state and federal government fails to meet the needs of those facing a mental condition, especially for people in jail and prison. Around 40 million Americans are dealing with mental health concerns, which means that the number is bigger than the populations living in New York and Florida combined. And the numbers show that 56 percent of them do not receive treatment, even with insurance. For the full article click here

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UCSD Emergency Medicine prof. likens state of ER geriatric care to “cruise ship medicine”

Although the rising senior population is widely acknowledged, the need to change  geriatric care in emergency rooms in light of the “silver tsunami” is not. Seniors generally have more complex conditions than the typical emergency room patient, posing challenges for ER staff. Add dementia to the equation and their visit may be a troubling sign that a family caregiver is overwhelmed and can no longer manage.

The ER has been at the crossroads of acute care and population health for some time, but the current state of geriatric care in hospital emergency rooms is no better than “cruise ship medicine,” according to University of California San Diego emergency medicine professor Dr. Ted Chan. He highlighted some of the ways hospitals are trying to change that in a fireside chat at the MedCity ENGAGE conference in San Diego this week. Chan noted that University of California San Diego is working with West Health on a project to test different models in UCSD’s emergency department to see which ones are most effective. For the full article click here 

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Plan would see QMG take over clinical services at Keokuk Health System

QUINCY ­– Leaders at Keokuk Health Systems and UnityPoint Health have signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding to explore an affiliation.

Under the agreement, UnityPoint Health would become the sole corporate member of KHS, and Quincy Medical Group will expand the clinical services that it provides in Keokuk as part of QMG’s relationship with UnityPoint.

“Our proposed partnership with Unity Point Health and Quincy Medical Group provides substantial stability to our organization and greatly enhances our ability to deliver on our critical health care mission for many years to come,” Walt Stephens, chairman of the KHS board of directors, said in a news release.

These efforts will increase access to primary care providers, specialists and hospital services while improving care coordination and patient experience. The partnership also will provide KHS of management, operational and infrastructure support.

UnityPoint Health will take financial responsibility for initial capital investments, ongoing capital needs and operating results. Capital projects such as renovating KHS’s emergency department will be a focus of both parties. For the full article click here 

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Instagram adds mental health support feature

Let’s say you notice someone posting some alarming things and you think that person needs help. Now, you can anonymously flag a photo or post.

Then, that person will get this message: “Someone saw one of your posts and thinks you might be going through a difficult time. If you need support, we’d like to help.”

Different options are provided that include “talk to a friend,” “contact a helpline,” or “get tips and support.”

Instagram worked with the National Eating Disorders Association and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to create this feature.

That’s something Bay News 9’s mental health expert, Dr. Steve O’Brien, applauds.

“I think the fact that they are consulting with mental health organizations and mental health experts, then I think this is good,” he said. For the full article click here 

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Influence Health Wins Frost & Sullivan 2016 Enabling Technology Leadership Award

Influence Health today announced that it has been awarded the 2016 North American Enabling Technology Leadership Award for Patient Engagement. Influence Health’s comprehensive cloud-based technology solutions, coupled with pioneering support services, have helped it firmly entrench itself at the top of the leader board.

“Influence Health is a leading example of a best-in-class patient engagement vendor that enables diverse health systems to achieve clinical, operational, and financial success through intuitive and next-generation health IT solutions, bridging the communication gap between patients and health systems,” said Frost & Sullivan Transformational Health Analyst, Koustav Chatterjee.

Influence Health’s consumer experience solutions help provider organizations build and nurture consumer relationships at scale, across multiple channels and device types. The company’s digital marketing cloud enables targeted marketing and direct patient communication through effective data-driven consumer engagement programs tied to key digital touch points such as search and social, email, and branded, personalized digital experiences, including a best-in-class enterprise patient portal. For the full article click here 

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NHS England sets up £400k innovation fund for mental health

[London, UK] NHS England has launched a £400k fund that gives six to eight mental health digital innovators the chance to accelerate their technology towards adoption and endorsement.

It is estimated that the strain that mental ill health puts on the economy, the NHS and society adds up to £105bn per year.

A digitised NHS system would improve mental health services

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health predicts that digital technology is going to play a crucial role in developing mental health services and the Wachter Review highlights the importance of a digital NHS system that would improve the quality of healthcare and lower costs at the same time.

Juliet Bauer, Director of Digital Experience at NHS England, said: “We’re particularly interested in tools that support the mental health of young people and families. This might include more self-care at home, managing conditions before they escalate and building mental resilience.  It also means NHS commissioners will be able to update or newly commission digital products for their population with confidence.”

To apply for a share of the fund, the mental health digital innovation must have an existing user base, be a standalone tool, exclude advertising and address at least one of the following issues: early intervention and improving access; parenting; perinatal health; transitions to adulthood; employment, education and training. For the full article click here 

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Nursing home pharmacy to pay $476K settlement to Mass. after kickback charges

The nation’s largest pharmacy serving elder care facilities will pay Massachusetts nearly half a million dollars to settle allegations that it got kickbacks more than eight years ago from Abbott Laboratories to promote the anti-seizure drug, Depakote.

The settlement was signed by Omnicare, a pharmacy services company that was acquired by CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) in August 2015. The $476,216 payment to Massachusetts is part of a $28 million multi-state settlement.

According to a release, Omnicare solicited and received illegal payments from Abbott (NYSE: ABT) through agreements that required Omnicare to participate in certain promotional programs, grants and other financial support. Those agreements, intended to increase the use of Depakote, resulted in alleged false claims to Medicaid and other federally-funded health care programs from 2001 through 2008.

The settlement was based on two cases filed by whistleblowers in Virginia. Those cases were consolidated and are pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. For the full article click here 

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Health IT overhaul set to deliver landmark tender

A big government tender could be on the horizon for local partners, with the Department of Health announcing plans to replace the ageing IT system it uses to deliver Medicare payments to Australians.

“The Australian government will replace the IT system to deliver reliable and accurate health, aged care and veterans’ payments,” said Minister for Health and Aged Care, Sussan Ley, and Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, in a joint statement.

“Australia’s existing health and aged care payments system is 30-years-old and is now obsolete.

“The new system will support the Australian government continuing to own, operate, and deliver Medicare, PBS [Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme], aged care, and related veterans payments into the future,” the ministers said. For the full article click here 

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Bacolod hosts 1st health IT locator

A HEALTH care outsourcing firm has chosen Bacolod City as the site for support operation to its headquarters based in Chicago City, Illinois.

The Grab Support Inc., with Assure Home Healthcare Inc. as its supporting company in the US, entered on Tuesday an agreement with the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNEFIT) for a two-year renewable lease contract at the Negros First Cyber Centre (NFCC).

Brandon Mahinay, president and chief executive officer of Assure Home Healthcare Inc., told Sun.Star Bacolod they are initially investing about P10 million in operating a 52-square meter space at the NFCC, employing some 15 individuals, mostly nurses, from the city.

These nurses will be employed for the support operation that the company has in Chicago, Mahinay said, adding that they target to start recruiting in December, and the actual support operation will begin by January next year. For the full article click here 

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Clay Oven restaurant to reopen under new management

GREENFIELD — A local Indian food restaurant that had its food service license suspended indefinitely until the ownership could come up with a plan to fix ongoing food safety issues intends to reopen in the coming weeks under new management and new staff.

The Clay Oven at 286 Main St. is to be run by Madan Rathore, one of three co-owners who previously ran the business. However, Rathore said he’s been absent from the establishment for at least a year and a half, leaving to open another restaurant in Keene, N.H. He relied on the other two former co-owners, Shashi Sharma and Swostik Rana Magar, to run The Clay Oven.

“I’m taking over,” Rathore said. “I’m working hard on it so we will open as soon as we can.”

Rathore is hoping to change the restaurant’s name and said he’s working with an attorney to see whether that’s possible. He’s also hoping to make several renovations to the restaurant, including replacing the floor and possibly the ceiling, and repainting the walls. He said he wants to make it “a totally different restaurant.”

“There’s a lot of money involved,” he said. “It’s a really big expense building a restaurant from scratch.” For the full article click here

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Mercom Capital sees jump in accelerator investments in health IT startups in Q3

Healthcare accelerators and incubators have been re-evaluating how they work with startups, such as dropping the investment for equity formula that so many started with. But a quarterly health IT investment report from Austin-based Mercom Capital Grouppoints to these groups continuing to play a role in early stage investment.

In the third quarter of 2016, 47 of the 87 deals at $2 million or less involved either an accelerator or incubator compared with 12 such deals in the second quarter, according to an executive summary of the report. For the third quarter last year, there were 69 early-stage deals under $2 million, including 22 accelerator and incubator deals, Mercom Capital CEO and Co-founder Raj Prabhu noted in response to follow-up questions. There were only 55 deals involving accelerators and incubators for all of 2015, Prabhu said. There have been 74 accelerator and incubator deals for year to date, Prabhu added.

Earlier this year 500 Startups took the wraps off of a dedicated digital health program, as did MassChallenge. But several accelerators dedicated to digital health that have been around since 2011 or longer have been making changes to their approach. Some have backed away from a traditional three-month program in favor of long-term sustainability, building funds with strategic investors and customized programs for payers, integrated health systems and other healthcare stakeholders. Although GE Healthcare is a partner with StartUp Health for its StartUp Health Academy, GE pledged to invest $50 million in an accelerator to foster digital health startups in developing countries. For the full article click here

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Here are the MACRA final rule changes you need to know

“We’re looking to make a long term program successful,” Slavitt said.

Last week, HHS released a barrage of regulations and guidance under it’s various arms. One final rule focused on health IT but the big news centered on CMS’ release of the highly anticipated Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2105 (MACRA) implementation final rule. The announcement differed somewhat from CMS’ previous releases. For one, the agency gave interested parties the news in the morning hours as opposed to within the happy/witching hour of 4 p.m. at the end of a working week. Another is the agency teamed up with the U.S. Digital Service team to produce an easy-to-use, informative website detailing the program.

Quick MAC-ground

The Medicare program covers about 55 million people, CMS’ acting Administrator Andy Slavitt noted on a call for reporters.

MACRA will eliminate the sustainable growth formula and replace it with a .5% annual rate increase through 2019, after which physicians are encouraged to shift to one of two Quality Payment Programs: 1) Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or 2): Alternative Payment Model (APM).

MIPS sunsets and packages up Meaningful Use, the Physician Quality Reporting System and the Value-Based Payment Modifier where physicians will receive payment adjustments based on quality (via both evidence-based standards and practice-based improvement activities), cost and use of certified EHR technology use. For the full article click here 

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Tolan Group Launches Digital Health Search Practice

October 16, 2016 –

The Tolan Group, a member of the Sanford Rose Associatesnetwork, has launched a new telehealth / digital health practice. Associate partner Kaye Johnson has been named practice leader.

“The digital health market is projected to reach $233 billion by 2020 and we needed a dedicated search professional to lead our efforts in this fast growing niche,” said Tim Tolan, the search firm’s chief executive officer and managing partner. “Patients and physicians are looking for a more streamlined approach by using smart phone and video technology to make faster clinical decisions by having access to data anywhere and at any time.”

Digital health, he said, will present huge growth opportunities and the need for talent in this sector will be highly competitive. “We have worked within the tele / mobile health niche on numerous positions, however creating a specialized practice will keep us at the forefront of the momentum and better able to serve our clients. Kaye is the perfect person to lead our efforts in digital health.”

A PricewaterhouseCoopers‘ study put healthcare in the top three biggest mobile trends for 2016. Digital technology looks set to revolutionize the future of health and social care. In 2017, the mobile health market is expected to reach $24.2 billon dollars worldwide. For the full article click here 

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Still Time –Nominations for HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards

Nominations close on Oct. 17 at 11:59 p.m. CDT for the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards. The awards, established in 2016, honor female visionaries who have used the power of IT to transform health and healthcare. Online nominations and applications will be reviewed by a panel of judges that will select the first year’s recipients. Nominations must include two letters of recommendation, a resume/CV, and a 1,500 word write-up of the nominee.

“The HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards program is unique, in that it is inclusive of all women of influence, no matter where they are in their career,” said Diane M. Carr, MA, FHIMSS, healthcare executive and educator, and Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards panel judge. “These awards will recognize women who have improved health and healthcare through the best use of health IT, and bring to light the importance of eliminating the gender pay gap in the field of health IT.”

In a September blog post, Carr noted that “findings of the HIMSS Longitudinal Gender Compensation Assessment report take direct aim at the claim that, in health IT, ‘You’ve come a long way.’” She suggests four guidelines in her post to achieve gender equity in the workplace.

This perspective continues with an online review, by Carla Smith, MA, FHIMSS, CNM, executive vice president, HIMSS, of the inequities in salary between men and women in health IT. Smith leads the Women in Health IT initiative at HIMSS. For the full article click here 

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Health IT startup using analytics to assess pain treatment, costs raises $16.5M

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published guidelines earlier this year in a bid to reduce opioid dependence sparking a mixed bag of support and outrage. The challenge to find ways to easily and efficiently manage opioid abuse is one that has attracted several healthcare startups, some of which have approached this subject from the perspective of patients or clinicians or both.

Axial Healthcare in Nashville, Tennessee developed a set of clinical support tools to analyze claims data and coordinate pain treatment between pharmacists, physicians and their patients. The company has raised $16.5 million in a Series B, according to a news release. The funding will be used to ramp up Axial’s customer base and double the size of the 50-staff workforce over the next 12-18 months, Axial Healthcare CEO John Donahue said in a phone interview. He added that insurers work with the company to give their providers access to Axial’s services. The health IT vendor’s client base includes large insurers and accountable care organizations.

Donahue noted that part of the startup’s mission is to check opioid misuse while supporting evidence-based care, physicians, and patients. Among the services Axial enlists are predictive analytics, a provider dashboard, network performance monitoring, and consultation between pharmacists and providers. The business also developed an app for patients with chronic pain. For the full article click here 

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No more waiting room clipboard? CrossChx launches mobile app for patient health history

CrossChx Inc. has started selling its digital appointment check-in service to independent physician practices and started directly reaching patients with a free mobile health history app that’s been downloaded 20,000 times.

The Columbus health IT company, assembling puzzle pieces toward a secure “internet of health care” for true portability and patient control of health records, also has expanded its board for the first time since its 2012 founding. Dr. David Agus, an oncologist at the University of Southern California and best-selling author, was named as the first independent director alongside the co-founders and lead investor.

“We probably delayed it longer than most do to expand the board,” co-founder and CEO Lane said. “I guarded that position very carefully.”

Agus advises Silicon Valley venture capitalists on health technology and is friends with tech moguls such as Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison and Salesforce.com Inc. CEO Marc Benioff. That can lead to product ideas, business opportunities and introductions to potential investors. For the full article click here 

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How Hemet officials are trying to cut health costs

As Hemet works to fix its budget, the biggest deficit remains the cost of health insurance for retirees.

The city is looking at paying at least $87 million over the next four to five decades to cover the cost of benefits for 265 workers, retired workers and their dependents.

Although the lifetime healthcare benefit was discontinued in 1998, there are still 225 retirees and 40 active employees in the program.

In an effort to help reign in those costs, the City Council voted Tuesday, Oct. 12, to create a trust account strictly for the program.

The account – referred to as an Other Post-Employment Benefit Trust – will earn higher interest and be easier to manage than the city’s current pay-as-you-go model, Deputy City Manager Jessica Hurst said. For the full article click here 

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Cost of health care in area on rise

MANKATO — Medical care costs for insured patients in Minnesota rose by more than 5 percent last year, according to new data analysis.

The 5.6 increase in medical costs statewide is the biggest since the MN Community Measurement nonprofit started releasing cost of care data for medical groups two years ago.

The nonprofit measures costs by tallying insurance claims made by the more than 1.5 million patients enrolled in the four health plans available in Minnesota last year.

On top of being a larger increase than the 3.2 percent one highlighted in last year’s report, the uptick also far outpaces income increases for Minnesotans over the same time period. For the full article click here 

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South Australian ED doctors attack Transforming Health changes

A MODBURY Hospital emergency department doctor has bravely spoken out about a raft of major concerns following the State Government’s controversial Transforming Health overhaul which has led to an average of 10 patient transfers everyday, putting people at unnecessary risk.

Dr Jackie Davidson, director of Modbury Hospital’s ED, told a parliamentary committee meeting today clinicians were not adequately consulted about the changes, that they were rushed into implementing them and there was huge concern among staff because no one wants to work at the hospital anymore.

She was one of three emergency department heads, speaking of behalf of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, who reported on the progress of changes at the Lyell McEwin, Modbury and Royal Adelaide hospitals. For the full article click here 

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Diving into Healthcare’s Data Blocking Enigma

Key healthcare stakeholders have argued both sides. Where does the truth lie?

I recently had a great conversation with Dr. Farzad Mostashari, M.D., one of the leading voices in health IT. A former National Coordinator for Health IT, Mostashari subsequently founded Aledade in 2014—a Bethesda. Md.-based company focused on physician-led accountable care organizations (ACOs).

During our interview, which can be read in full here, we touched on a multitude of industry-wide issues, but there was one thing that Mostashari said that definitely deserved a deeper dive. We were talking about IT challenges that ACOs in the trenches were having, and then I asked him about other physician pain points when it comes to IT. Here is what he said:

“First, there is the real world data blocking that we’re seeing. The first example is EHR [electronic health record] vendors—in order to fully develop that picture and really know your patient, and to know who needs your help, you need to do predictive modeling with the clinical data. It’s about getting clinical data out of EHRs that the practices have paid for and spent tens of thousands of hours putting data into them. Wanting to get your own data out is way too hard, expensive and slow. It’s neither cheap, easy nor fast; you get zero out of those three, and honestly I would settle for getting two out of those three. So that needs to be fixed.” For the full article click here 

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DHB member joins call for national mental health inquiry

Waikato District Health Board is reviewing the care its mental health service provided to Ross Bremner, who killed three people including his mother last week, before killing himself.

The 34-year-old had a number of brief in-patient stays at Waikato Hospital’s specialist mental health unit between 2003 and 2007, and spent six weeks in hospital in 2013.

Since then he had been living in the community under the care of his GP, with support from DHB services.

MidCentral Health DHB member Lindsay Burnell said there was huge pressure on the system, not just in Waikato but in other areas, including his own. For the full article click here 

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Health IT Platform Results in Better Patient Care

A nonprofit adopts a health information technology platform to decrease challenging conduct and restrictive residential living for people with behavioral issues.

Services for the UnderServed (SUS) is a New York City-based nonprofit organization that provides $185 million in services to individuals with disabilities, people living in poverty and those facing homelessness. The organization, which has a staff of close to 2,000, needed a way to track measurable results for people with behavioral issues, so it adopted a health information technology (HIT) platform.

HIT platforms make it much easier for health care organizations to gather and report results of value-based care delivery to governmental organizations and foundations. Proven success rates can also pave the way to get program funding. For the full article click here 

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In Trump’s America, towns in poor health don’t think he will save them

GEORGETOWN, Ohio — Here at the Brown County Fair — the biggest event of the year, when schools close for the week — is Donald Trump’s America.

People carry Trump/Pence yard signs across the promenade. Families stop to take pictures with a Trump cutout at the local Republican Party’s cabin.

But beyond the campaign swag is another sign you are in Trump Country.

This is an unhealthy place. Its residents die younger than all but a few other counties in this important swing state. The suicide rate is well above the national average. Brown County saw a 50 percent increase in drug overdose deaths over two years.

In one barn at this year’s fair, people stop to learn how to administer Narcan, the opioid overdose medication. On a wet September afternoon, the booth still had visitors. For the full article click here 

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