Health Care, Disagree Better
BY KIM BELLARD
On one of the Sunday morning news programs Governors Spence Cox (UT) and Jared Polis (CO) promoted the National Governors Association initiative Disagree Better. The initiative urges that we practice more civility in our increasingly civilized political discourse. It’s hard to argue the point (although one can question why NGA thinks two almost indistinguishable, middle-aged white men should be the faces of the effort), but I found myself thinking, hmm, we really need to do that in healthcare too.
No one seems happy with the U.S. healthcare system, and no one seems to have any real ideas about...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 25, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Health insurance Healthcare Access Healthcare system Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
CloudMD Divests Non-Core U.S. Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management Business
CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (CloudMD), an innovative health services company transforming the delivery of care, today announced that it has closed the sale of its U.S.-based Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Practice Management (PM), and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) assets for approximately US$6.3 million. The sale was pursuant to a definitive agreement with a subsidiary of N. Harris Computer Corporation (Harris) and follows the sale of CloudMD’s Canadian EMR business in October 2022.
Karen Adams, CEO at CloudMD, commented, “We continue to successfully execute our strategy of focusing on our higher growth an...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - July 25, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP CloudMD CloudMD Software & Services Inc. EMR Harris Health IT Acquisitions Healthcare M&A INFOR Financial Inc. Karen Adams N. Harris Computer Corporation Source Type: blogs
Outpatient Vascular Care: Good, bad or ugly?
BY ANISH KOKA
Filling in the holes of recent stories in the New York Times, and Propublica on the outpatient care of patients with peripheral arterial disease
Most have gotten used to egregiously bad coverage of current events that fills the pages of today’s New York Times, but even by their now very low standards a recent telling of a story about peripheral artery disease was very bad.
The scintillating allegation by Katie Thomas, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Robert Gebeloff is that “medical device makers are bankrolling doctors to perform artery clearing procedures that can lead to amputations...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 24, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Anish Koka Medical Devices Outpatient vascular care Source Type: blogs
The corporatization of medicine: Part two
2016 was in fact the first year in which fewer than half of
physicians had an ownership stake in their practice, based on a survey by the
American Medical Association.[i] The
pace of acquisition of practices by hospitals and health systems during this
period was astonishing. From 2014-2018, just four years, corporate ownership of
practices increased from 24.1% to 45.6% of all physicians in a nationally representative
sample. After selling out, physicians actually experienced a reduction in their
income.[ii]The evidence that increasing concentration of medical
services is associated with higher prices is consistent and exte...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 21, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The corporatization of medicine: Part One
This will be a multi-part series. The days of independent community hospitals and small
physician practices are just about over. Paul Starr ’s famous book The Social
Transformation of American Medicine tells the story
of rise of a “sovereign” medical profession, consisting largely of
entrepreneurs who owned their own individual or small group practices and made
their living as independent business people. They were generally suspi cious of
alternative models such as large group practice and salaried employment. But recent
decades have been marked by one overarching trend: the consolidation of the
medical institu...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 20, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Mindlessness
Academy Health is the rather oddly named society for health services researchers. They sent me a press release which I excerpt: Today, the House Appropriations Committee released a
breathtakingly reckless bill that decimates federal research, science,
and medicine programs, and puts the health of all Americans at risk. It
is so extreme that many pundits presume it has zero chance of becoming
law, but that very extremism requires that we respond quickly and
unequivocally. . . . " This bill would eliminate the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) in its entirety. AHRQ supports r...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 14, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Opinion Piece from Pharmacists United for Truth & Transparency ( " PUTT " )
Pharmacists United for Truth& Transparency ( " PUTT " ) is a non-profit advocacy organization founded by independent pharmacists and pharmacy owners devoted to exposing what they describe as anti-competitive tactics deployed by the largest Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs - aka Pharmacy Benefit Companies or PBCs as the trade organization known as the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association or PCMA has tried to rebrand its industry since the acronym PBM has become toxic) recently published an opinion piece with an interesting title: " The Deadliest Addiction in the U.S. Isn ' t What You Think It Is " (read it athttps:...
Source: Scott's Web Log - July 12, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 drug prices PBM Pharmacists United for Truth & Transparency PUTT Source Type: blogs
Rationing Health Care
Lately we ' ve touched upon the absurd cost of medical services in the U.S. -- we spend twice as much as the next biggest spender and three or four times as much as others -- and we ' re less healthy for it. There are a few reasons for this, but here I ' m going to touch the third rail.In the United States, in contrast to other nations, if the FDA approves a treatment, insurance has to pay for it. The FDA does not consider cost, but only whether there is evident of clinical benefit that outweighs risks or (non-financial) harms. The definition of benefit and harm, and how to value them, is of course far from obvious, but we...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 7, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Oxiline Pressure 9 Pro Review: State Of The Art Blood Pressure Monitor
This article will introduce you to one such smart blood pressure monitor, the Oxiline Pressure 9 Pro. We will discuss its working, features, certifications, price, and much more below. So without further ado, let us jump into the crux of this article.
What Is Oxiline Pressure 9 Pro?
The Oxiline Pressure 9 Pro is a state-of-the-art blood pressure monitor manufactured by Oxiline LLC, a reputable company based in the USA. It is a cutting-edge device designed to measure and monitor blood pressure levels accurately.
The Oxiline Pressure 9 Pro is an upgraded version of its predecessor, the Oxiline Pressure 7 Pro, in...
Source: The EMT Spot - July 6, 2023 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Rotman, MD, FRCPC, PhD Tags: Monitors Source Type: blogs
The Business Reality of Healthcare AI
BY KIM BELLARD
I was at the barbershop the other day and overheard one barber talking with his senior citizen customer about when – not if – robot AIs would become barbers. I kid you not.
Now, I don’t usually expect to heard conversations about technology at the barber, but it illustrates that I think we are at the point with AI that we were with the Internet in the late ‘90’s/early ‘00s: people’s lives were just starting to change because of it, new companies were jumping in with ideas about how to use it, and existing companies knew they were going to have to figure out ways to incorporate it if they ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 4, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Tech Healthcare AI healthcare delivery Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
Oxiline Pressure 7 Pro Review: The Best Basic Blood Pressure Monitor?
If you are new to at-home blood pressure monitoring and planning to purchase one, then check out this review of the Oxiline Pressure 7 Pro. Happy reading!
Oxiline Pressure 7 Pro
Features:
VIBRA technology detects even the slightest arterial wall vibrations thanks to the accuracy of its patented VIBRA T7 sensor.
Easy color reference indicator to compare your reading with the World Health Organization color codes of various blood pressure levels.
Fully automatic and easy to operate with FDA clearance and world-class standards in accuracy.
It has a high-contrast LED display that features bright and ...
Source: The EMT Spot - July 3, 2023 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Rotman, MD, FRCPC, PhD Tags: Monitors Source Type: blogs
Moral Injury: A Physician ’s Premature Retirement
Calder Wedding
BY HAYWARD ZWERLING
Synopsis:
After a 3 decade career in a solo private practice the healthcare environment shifted
As an employed physician, my institution’s policies hindered my ability to care for my patients
The consequent moral injury left me unwilling to re-engage with the healthcare industry
I retired early from the profession that I loved because the devolution of the healthcare system had made it impossible for me to provide care to my patients in a manner which met my own standards. The resultant “moral injury” left me leary of again becoming involved with our healthcar...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 28, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Hayward Zwerling moral injury Premature Retirement Source Type: blogs
This and that
Responding to some of the responses to my last post on global carbon emissions, yes, we agree on the facts, the issue seems to be the implications. It is correct that at this moment, the U.S. accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and we have been heading downward; while China in particular has been going in the wrong direction and is the largest emitter. Maybe " fairness " is an issue here, since the U.S. is responsible for far more cumulative emissions and China ' s emissions per capita are not as large, but given the crisis facing humanity I think that ' s pretty much beside the point. What matters i...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 26, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Matthew ’s health care tidbits: Time to get Cynical
Each time I send out the THCB Reader, our newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB (Sign up here!) I include a brief tidbits section. Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt
Plenty of reason to worry about the future of American health care this week. The biggest for-profit hospital chain–HCA–was accused of aggressively pushing patients into hospice care, sometimes in the same room, in order to make their hospitality mortality numbers look better. Most of the leading benefits consulting companies were exposed as taking payments from PB...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 26, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Matthew Holt Babylon Health HCA Medicaid Medicaid Work Requirements PBMs UnitedHealth Group VBC Source Type: blogs
Bonus Features – June 25, 2023 – 77% of healthcare workers think burnout will cause a healthcare crisis, 62% of patients want digital communication to match the in-person experience, and more
This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.
Surveys
More than 75% of healthcare leaders and workers have experienced burnout in the last year, according to a Holon Solutions survey. A similar percentage believe addressing burnout should be a top priority for their organiz...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - June 25, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT 4medica Alpha Nodus Andrew Slutsky Atropos Health AvaSure AVIA Marketplace Banyan Medical Systems Carol Boston-Fleischhauer CentralReach CliniComp Datavant Dexcom DrFirst Eldermark Engage Tec Source Type: blogs
