MRO Lets Payers and Providers See the Same Ledger
Health care payers, such as CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, traditionally have only billing data on their patients. That’s why Mo Weitnauer, chief product officer at MRO, calls clinical data “the hottest commodity” in health care.
Piyush Khanna, Vice President Clinical Services at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, would like to store all their data in a single repository and use it for “bidirectional conversations” between the payer and providers. This can provide doctors with data at the point where the clinical decisions are being made—for instance, to perform dialysis at-home or in the clin...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - April 2, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: Analytics/Big Data Health IT Company Healthcare IT Interoperability CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Healthcare Information Exchange Healthcare IT Video Interviews Healthcare Payers Healthcare ROI Healthcare Scene Featured Mo Weitnauer Source Type: blogs
Monopoly Money
First, let me acknowledge Chuck ' s comment on the previous Economics 101 post. I ' m going to get to public goods, it ' s extremely important, but I figured I ' d push it down the list because it ' s easier to deal with the rest of the assumptions first. (To put it formally, the ones having to do with public goods are that all good are non-exclusive and non-rivalrous, and also that there are no positive externalities. I will explain anon.)Today, I ' m going to deal with the Many sellers, Many buyers assumption. It ' s obviously impossible even for Milton Friedman to bamboozle people into thinking that this is somehow a na...
Source: Stayin' Alive - March 8, 2024 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Hoovering up the cash
I think I might have shown this before. It ' s spending on " healthcare, " i.e. medical services and goods in the U.S., as a percent of GDP. It leveled off for a while after passage of the ACA, but it ' s going back up: All that moolah isn ' t buying us better health though. We ' re spending twice as much as comparable countries and getting the least for it: Naturally, all that cash is going mostly to one place: capitalists.Recent
decades have seen one overarching trend: consolidation of the medical industry into fewer and larger entities.•Horizontal
consolidation: similar institutions merge into chains. ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 22, 2024 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
How will you save this critically ill patient? A fundamental and lifesaving ECG interpretation that everyone must recognize instantly.
Written by Pendell MeyersA woman in her 30s called EMS for acute symptoms including near-syncope, nausea, diaphoresis, and abdominal pain. EMS arrived and found her to appear altered, critically ill, and hypotensive. An ECG was performed:What do you think?Extremely wide complex monomorphic rhythm just over 100 bpm. The QRS is so wide andsinusoidal that the only real possibilities left are hyperkalemia or Na channel blockade. Hyperkalemia is by far more common.Indeed, further history revealed two missed dialysis sessions. And of course on exam she has a dialysis fistula.EMS reportedly gave 4 grams of calcium (unknown w...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - February 22, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs
Acute dyspnea in an older woman, is it OMI?
Written by Willy FrickA woman in her 90s with a history of end stage renal disease and complete heart block status post dual chamber pacemaker presented from home with acute onset dyspnea. ECG is shown below.What do you think?The ST and T wave abnormalities jump off the page, but let ' s set that aside just for a moment to review the tracing systematically. The rate is 60 (and remember, slower heart rates are often seen in OMI). Close inspection revealsventricular pacing spikes, best seen in aVL. Many ECG readers will not comment any further on rhythm once ventricular pacing has been identified, but it...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - February 18, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Willy Frick Source Type: blogs
Chest pain with anterior ST depression: look what happens if you use posterior leads.
Don ' t forget to watch theWebinar: Smith and Pendell Meyers interpret ECGs for OMI or not OMI on Monday Feb 12 at 11 AM U.S. Central time. Register here:https://zoom.us/webinar/register/7617067094184/WN_LMN0vPb1Rz-HZu12K-QuYQWritten by Jesse McLarenA 65 year old
with a history of atrial flutter, CABG and end-stage renal disease on dialysis presented
with 3 days of fluctuating chest pain, which was ongoing at triage. What do you
think? Do you need posterior leads?There ’s atrial
flutter with controlled ventricular response, a non-specific intra-ventricular
conduction delay, borderline right axis, normal R wave...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - February 9, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Jesse McLaren Source Type: blogs
Too much fawning over Len Schaeffer?
By MATTHEW HOLT
There’s a lot of strum & dangst about the uptick in system utilization that has boosted hospital profits and hit Humana and United’s bottom line (But not so much Elevance’s). Kevin O’ Leary over at Health Tech Nerds brought this up today and I was reminded of this piece I wrote in 2006. And a big issue was, how much understanding and control do insurers have over the utilization in (and out of) their networks. So take a look at this piece and particularly, given the issues at the BUCAHs and at smaller players like Agilon, consider how much insurers actually know about spending...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 1, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Health insurers Len Schaeffer Medicare Advantage Oldies Utilization Source Type: blogs
Is the Future of Healthcare Modular?
When most of us think of modular buildings, we picture those trailer-like structures on construction sites – the ones with panel walls and the electrical wire that dangles outside. Modern modular buildings are a far cry from those flimsy seventies-era trailers.
Modern modular buildings are marvels of technology and engineering. To learn more, Healthcare IT Today went to visit Fero International, a company that fabricates advanced modular buildings for the healthcare, education and municipal markets. We sat down with Fero’s CEO, Sabrina Fiorellino to learn more.
Modular Buildings for Healthcare
For healthcare providers,...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 25, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Colin Hung Tags: Communication and Patient Experience Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Fero International Healthcare Buildings Healthcare Construction modular clinics modular construction modular OR Sabrina Fiorellino Source Type: blogs
Acute chest pain in a patient with LVH and known coronary disease. What does the ECG show?
A 40-something with severe diabetes on dialysis and with known coronary disease presented with acute crushing chest pain.Here is his ED ECG:What do you think?There is a flat and downsloping ST segment in V2 and V3. This could be due to posterior OMI. Is there an old ECG for comparison?Here is the most recent previous ECG:Indeed, there was some normal ST elevation in V2 and V3, discordant to a relatively deep S-wave which could be due to some LVH.Here is another previous ECG:So it looks like a posterior OMI.2 years prior he had an angiogram which showed 90% proximal stenosis of the circumflex. It...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - January 25, 2024 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
Patients – 2024 Health IT Predictions
As we kick off 2024, we wanted to start the new year with a series of 2024 Health IT predictions. We asked the Healthcare IT Today community to submit their predictions and we received a wide ranging set of responses that we grouped into a number of themes. In fact, we got so many that we had to narrow them down to just the best and most interesting. Check out our community’s predictions below and be sure to add your own thoughts and/or places you disagree with these predictions in the comments and on social media.
All of this year’s 2024 health IT predictions (updated as they’re shared):
John and ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 16, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: Ambulatory C-Suite Leadership Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC 2024 Health IT Predictions ABOUT ABOUT Healthcare Amanda Bury Amit Kapoor Cedar Chris Blackley Christian Hardahl Clarify Health Clin Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 25th 2023
This study generates a comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic atlas of human atherosclerosis including 118,578 high-quality cells from atherosclerotic coronary and carotid arteries. By performing systematic benchmarking of integration methods, we mitigated data overcorrection while separating major cell lineages. Notably, we define cell subtypes that have not been previously identified from individual human atherosclerosis scRNA-seq studies.
Besides characterizing granular cell-type diversity and communication, we leverage this atlas to provide insights into smooth muscle cell (SMC) modulation. We integrate genome...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 24, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Sizes of Immune Cell Subsets Correlate with Human Mortality
In this study, we found that T cells and natural killer (NK) cells with low expression of CD56 were inversely associated with mortality while neutrophils were positively associated with mortality. In addition, we found myeloid dendritic cells to be nominally associated with a reduced odds of mortality, and CD4+ effector memory T cells and IgD- memory B cells to be nominally associated with increased mortality odds.
Several previous studies have shown a positive association between neutrophils and mortality and our study confirmed these previous findings. The number of neutrophils are preserved in older adults though...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 22, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
How Patient Activation Made It Possible to Thrive with Kidney Disease
By DAVE WHITE
It had been 10 years since I’d seen a doctor when I arrived at the Emergency Room at George Washington University Hospital in October 2009. I was able to climb the first flight of stairs, but after I froze on the second, they brought me in on a wheelchair.
That was the first time I heard the dreaded words, “Your kidneys aren’t working.” I was put on dialysis immediately, and my life transformed into a series of tests and procedures. But even after three weeks at the hospital, it didn’t sink in that there was no cure.
I checked most risk factors for kidney disease: I ate the wrong foods, smo...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 27, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy chronic kidney disease Dave White Patient Activation Measure Patient Activism patient advocacy Source Type: blogs
Medical ethics dilemma: a hemodialysis decision
An excerpt from The Committee Will Kill You Now. “You couldn’t get her niece to budge on the hemodialysis decision?” Harper sank into the resident lounge’s threadbare couch and kicked up her feet. “Nope.” Noah slumped in the chair across from her. It was late afternoon, and he’d almost finished checking off the tasks on
Read more…
Medical ethics dilemma: a hemodialysis decision originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 9, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Jennifer Lycette, MD Tags: Conditions Nephrology Source Type: blogs
The dark truth about dialysis
When a colleague recommended a book, I hoped it would be something enjoyable – perhaps a sports anthology, a music biography, or even a novel. Unfortunately, it was about dialysis, the great American scam that it is. As a nephrologist (kidney doctor), I had already come to the same conclusion. Here’s why, supported by Tom
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The dark truth about dialysis originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 19, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Amol Shrikhande, MD Tags: Physician Nephrology Source Type: blogs
