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Congress Shouldn’t Pass The 21st Century Cures Act In A Summer Rush
The full Senate may in the next few days consider companion legislation to the 21st Century Cures Act that passed the House last year. The legislation—currently 19 separate bills—makes substantial changes to the way the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves drugs and devices. Set to adjourn for an extended election-year summer recess on July 15, the clock is ticking. The congressional calendar in the fall is full and the Senate may simply not have the time to take up the complex legislation, and reconcile it with the House version, before the November elections. We believe that’s a good thing. The legi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 11, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Paul Brown, Tracy Rupp and Steven Findlay Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Public Health Quality 21st Century Cures Act Congress FDA NIH regulation Source Type: blogs

The Patient and the Snake Oil Salesman
By JIM PURCELL On June 11, 2016, James Madara, MD., addressed the American Medical Association’s Annual Meeting with some wonderful hyperbole. Dr. Madara is the CEO of the AMA, and he likely felt some pressure to rally the troops (a/k/a physicians) and show that the AMA is advocating for their “side.” And it got attention, with articles trumpeting that Dr. Madara called digital products “modern-day ‘snake oil’.” He indeed did. We do need to give Dr. Madara a little leeway here.  The role of the AMA is to represent physicians, and he’s the CEO.  That being said, consider for the moment that one of the maj...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 28, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Some doctors do it for the money. Here are some reasons why.
If you stay in medicine long enough, you will encounter physicians who seem to care more about the paycheck than the patient in front of them: think Dr. Farid Fata.  You may find those colleagues revolting; I know I did.  I despised these physicians and felt nauseated even to be in the same room as them.  But as time went on, I realized that almost nobody starts a career in medicine only for the paycheck, and I started to become more interested in how these physicians became that way.  Here are the factors I was able to identify through my personal observations on why some docs do it for the money. Pure greed. Let&#...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 28, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs

What went wrong with health care IT
x One of the topics’s that I’ve written most about, and also do a considerable amount of non-clinical consulting work on, is how we can improve health care information technology and electronic medical records. As they currently exist, there are unfortunately many drawbacks to health care IT systems, and they have as yet failed to fulfill their immense promise. I’m not a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination. I embrace technologies and see the enormous benefits that they have brought to humanity over the last couple of decades. But I like good information technology. I’m a fan of technology that makes li...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 24, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Tech Health IT Source Type: blogs

Reckless indifference to nurse's concerns about bad health IT results in showing her the door?
At numerous past posts I referred to hospital executives' reckless indifference to the concern of seasoned clinicians about bad health IT, such as at  http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/rns-say-sutters-new-electronic-system.html and  http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/11/another-survey-on-ehrs-affinity-medical.html and other posts.I now see a stunning story of the results of EHR iconoclasty and patient advocacy:CNO claims hospital forced her out after she raised concerns about EMRBecker's Hospital Review Written by Akanksha Jayanthi  June 14, 2016 http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulato...
Source: Health Care Renewal - June 22, 2016 Category: Health Management Tags: Autumn AndRa RN Dan Smith Harmoni EHR healthcare IT dangers healthcare IT risk Patient care has not been compromised Raymond Hino Sonoma West Medical Center Source Type: blogs

Reckless indifference to nurse's concerns about bad health IT results in showing her the door?
At numerous past posts I referred to hospital executives ' reckless indifference to the concern of seasoned clinicians about bad health IT, such as at & nbsp; < a data-saferedirecturl= " https://www.google.com/url?hl=en & amp;q=http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/rns-say-sutters-new-electronic-system.html & amp;source=gmail & amp;ust=1466705014477000 & amp;usg=AFQjCNEwBLpDIFbOC2fuOgOszA72dk9xfQ " href= " http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/rns-say-sutters-new-electronic-system.html " target= " _blank " > http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/ < wbr > < /wbr > 2013/07/rns-say-sutters-new- < wbr > < /wbr > electronic-system.h...
Source: Health Care Renewal - June 22, 2016 Category: Health Management Tags: Autumn AndRa RN Dan Smith Harmoni EHR healthcare IT dangers healthcare IT risk Patient care has not been compromised Raymond Hino Sonoma West Medical Center Source Type: blogs

Understanding the True Costs of ACOs and Medical Homes
By KIP SULLIVAN One of the privileges of being a managed care advocate is that you never have to discuss the unpleasant question of how much your proposed intervention will cost. Whether your proposed intervention is HMOs, report cards, pay-for-performance, ACOs, “medical homes,” or electronic medical records, you never have to estimate what your bright idea will cost. With this privilege comes another: You are free to criticize doctors and hospitals for being “cost unconscious.” Over the last decade, CMS has become a proponent of this double standard – cost consciousness for doctors and hospitals and cost uncons...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 22, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Will Federal Court Back Rules Treating Health Insurance as a Utility, Not a Luxury?
BY HOWARD GREEN, MD On June 14, 2016 a Federal Court ruled that broadband internet is as essential to American as phones, electricity, water and sewer systems and should be available to all Americans as a utility, rather than a luxury that doesn’t need close government supervision. In the United States, public utilities are often natural monopolies because the infrastructure required producing and delivering a product such as electricity or water is very expensive to build and maintain.  As a result, they are often government monopolies, or if privately owned, the sectors are specially regulated by a public utilities c...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 21, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Affordable Care Act Healthcare monopoly Utility Source Type: blogs

Your medical records are a gold mine for cybercriminals
Some say privacy is an illusion. I hope that isn’t true, but I do know that our medical records are not safe. Why should you care? Because our medical records contain our social security numbers, health insurance information, our home addresses, phone numbers, emergency contacts and their phone numbers, our email addresses, possibly our driver’s license numbers, and likely credit card payment information. Ever paid your co-pay with a credit card? Your medical record is worth ten times more to a cyber criminal than your credit card number. And with health care’s mandatory transition to electronic medical records, cyb...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 27, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Patient Health IT Source Type: blogs

Seven Principles For Better Information Technology
By JAMES S. GESSNER, M.D. Physicians well know the rapid advance of information technology in medicine over the last decade.  Pushed by federal and state regulations and requirements, the adoption of electronic medical records has been swift. Today, some 90 percent of physicians in Massachusetts use some form of electronic medical records. While health information technology (HIT) arrived with great promise and adoption has been quick, widespread acceptance has lagged, and EHRs remain a major concern among physicians of all specialties. Among the most contentious issues: interoperability, clinical workflow efficiency, and...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 24, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Obama’s Lousy Suboxone Offer
I was reading more about Obama’s executive order over at Dr. Burson’s blog.  I guess she is a ‘competitor’ in the blogging world, but I have to admit that her blog has a lot more detail about the issue than I do.  If you haven’t been there yet, check it out.  Keep coming back here too of course! She wrote recently about the rules that would be required by the Feds, in order for them t o allow us the ‘right’ to treat people with buprenorphine.   I wrote to Dr. Burson after reading her post that she is providing the facts, and I can’t help but provide the emotion.  And af...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - May 15, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Jeffrey Junig MD PhD Tags: Addiction Buprenorphine Public policy Suboxone treatment heroin addiction obama suboxone treatment Suboxone treatment cap TREAT Act Source Type: blogs

Obama ’s Lousy Suboxone Offer
I was reading more about Obama’s executive order over at Dr. Burson’s blog.  I guess she is a ‘competitor’ in the blogging world, but I have to admit that her blog has a lot more detail about the issue than I do.  If you haven’t been there yet, check it out.  Keep coming back here too of course! She wrote recently about the rules that would be required by the Feds, in order for them t o allow us the ‘right’ to treat people with buprenorphine.   I wrote to Dr. Burson after reading her post that she is providing the facts, and I can’t help but provide the emotion.  And af...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - May 15, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Jeffrey Junig MD PhD Tags: Addiction Buprenorphine Public policy Suboxone treatment heroin addiction obama suboxone treatment Suboxone treatment cap TREAT Act Source Type: blogs

Why EHRs are Essential for Patients and Healthcare Providers
Physicians and other health care providers are overworked. The number of patients seen daily has grown dramatically in recent years. In fact, according to a 2012 survey by The Physicians Foundation, 40.7% of American physicians see over 20 patients a day. Such a large caseload presents many opportunities for errors, miscommunication, and omissions. Electronic health records (EHRs) can provide a solution for these issues. What are EHRs? Simply put, EHRs are health records in a digital format. They usually contain all the data of a traditional paper chart plus billing information, imaging and records across different insti...
Source: ePharma Summit - May 13, 2016 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Digital Health eHealth EHR EHR systems Electronic health records Electronic Medical Records ePatient healthcare providers patients' data primary care Primary care doctors Source Type: blogs

“Medical homes” aren’t cutting Medicare costs
Conclusion I have described three reasons why MedPAC’s pessimistic assessment of the PCMH as an APM prototype is correct: Medicare’s PCMH demos are showing that PCMHs cannot cut Medicare costs and are having little impact on quality; PCMHs are expensive, and are probably costing doctors more than they are getting back in the form of “care management fees” and “shared savings”; and PCMHs can add to the emotional stress that is already at epidemic levels among physicians. For all these reasons, we may conclude that the PCMH cannot play the role of an APM under MACRA. But that doesn’t mean CMS won’t force the ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Gomerblog On EHR's...
Gotta love Gomerblog. In fact, I urge all of you to subscribe for a dose of medical humor far more sophisticated than what I provide here.Today's entry follows upon the heels of the wishful thinking April Fools' Day post. (I do have it on good authority that Apple really IS working on medical software, but my source would have had to kill me had he elaborated.)The dirty little secret seems to be that the EHR programmers didn't know their software would be used on real, live patients!  Wow...From Gomerblog:EMR Developers Shocked to Learn How Their Software is Actually UsedBy Gomerblog Team on Apr 12, 2016 07:00 pmSever...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - April 13, 2016 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs