As the national healthcare reform debate revs up, there’s lots of discussion about the Massachusetts reform experiment, which includes a mandate for all state residents to buy insurance. According to the state, its effort has reduced the number of uninsured to 2.6 percent of the population, partly through subsidies to the less affluent. Critics cite the soaring costs of the program, which...
Health Care Industry Archive
March 2009
If you wonder why health costs continue to rise rapidly, even in the midst of the worst recession in half a century, you need look no further than the events unfolding in the Hartford, CT, healthcare community. Connecticut lawmakers are considering a proposal from University of Connecticut (UConn) Health Center to merge with Hartford Hospital. The deal would include the construction of a new...
The gold rush has begun, as communities, states, and software vendors look for ways to cash in on the health information technology provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The proposals don’t concern only electronic health records (EHRs), but also electronic prescribing and health information exchanges. For example, the University of Southern Florida Health...
New Massachusetts regulations that limit the inducements that drug and device companies can offer to physicians for prescribing or using their products are said to be among the toughest rules adopted by any state. Adopted unanimously by the Massachusetts Public Health Council, the regulations will require public disclosure of payments of over $50 to physicians for speaking and consulting. In...
The value of pay for performance, like much else, is in the eye of the beholder. In a survey of 66 health plans, including Aetna, WellPoint, and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans across the U.S., 56 percent of the insurers said that clinical quality improved in 2008 among physicians participating in pay for performance (P4P) programs. That was a big jump compared with the 37 percent of survey...
A study that shows how the use of electronic health records and connectivity with patients has made Kaiser Permanente more efficient also points to something of equal importance: why EHRs might not add much efficiency to the rest of the U.S. healthcare system unless it’s restructured. Published in Health Affairs, the study measured the impact of implementing an EHR in the Hawaiian division of...
If there’s one group of people who must definitely believe in the value of government investment in health information technology, it must be health IT professionals, right? Well, not exactly. According to a survey by the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS), 48 percent of professionals don’t think that the health IT provisions of the economic stimulus law will reduce...
The outlines of President Obama’s healthcare reform plan are coming into view. Instead of proposing a grand scheme, like the Clinton reform plan, the President first threw out some ideas about where where to make cuts in government funding of healthcare to help finance an expansion of coverage. Then today, he called the major stakeholders to the White House to try to reach a consensus. The...
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has stepped up his criticism of not-for-profit hospitals by slamming what he regards as the high salaries paid to hospital CEOs. He told The Boston Globe that he is planning to introduce legislation to address the issue. This revelation follows the release of an IRS report that looked at the salaries paid to...
President Obama has started his term like St. George going off to fight the dragon of special interests. But the health-care industry is so big and powerful that he can’t seem to find a czar or czarina of reform who isn’t tied into those interests. Tom Daschle, Obama’s original nominee for both reform chief and Secretary of Health and Human Services, had to withdraw because of a flap over...
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- Grassley's Attack on Reform Belies Some Earlier Stands
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- White House Puts Focus On Medicare and Medicaid Fraud
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- Interest Groups Redouble Fight on Healthcare Reform
- Kerry Bill Would Help Physicians Borrow Money For EHRs
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- Hospital Mergers Are A Major Health Cost Driver
- Comparison of Health Reform Bills Reveals Key issues
- New Mexico Information Exchange Shows Potential of Obama HIT Campaign
- House Health-Care Reform Bill Deserves Public Support
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- NEJM Roundtable on Health Cost Control Offers Insights
- House Health-Care Reform Bill Deserves Public Support
- No Rationing, Say Experts, But Public Doesn't Hear
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- White House Puts Focus On Medicare and Medicaid Fraud
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