Bonus Features – September 3, 2023 – 60% of cybersecurity incidents impact patient care, the average medical device has six or more security vulnerabilities, 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.
News and Research
ONC renewed its contract for The Sequoia Project to be the Recognized Coordinating Entity for TEFCA implementation. That process will involve working with seven current Qualified Health Information Network can...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 3, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Healthcare IT AION Biosystems Akshay Sharma Alexander Group American Telemedicine Association Asimily ATA Atropos Health BeMe Health Carenet Health Claroty Cognizant Craig Hovda Digital Medicine Society eClinicalWorks eCW E Source Type: blogs
Podcast Episode Recommendation for Deconstructed: Medicare Drug Pricing Negotiations Advance
So, today I am going to share a podcast episode which provides an interesting history of how Medicare ended up being unable to negotiate prescription drug prices which, on its face, seems like it SHOULD make no sense, but somehow price negotiations never happened and the reasons were really absurd. Naturally, since the list of the first 10 drugs to get Medicare price negotiations was published, there has also been considerable discussion of insulin prices which is the poster-child for how broken the prescription drug market is, and even more interestingly was how, included in the first round of Medicare price negotiat...
Source: Scott's Web Log - September 1, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Biden Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Joe Biden Part D price negotiations Source Type: blogs
Time for a universal “exercise prescription” for kids and adults to boost cognition and mental health?
Welcome to a new edition of SharpBrains e‑newsletter, featuring this time a range of brain research findings, tools and controversies plus some brain teasers to challenge your (and our) working memory.
#1. Major evidence review supports an “exercise prescription” for most adults to boost mental health
“Higher intensity physical activity was associated with greater improvements” and “Effectiveness of physical activity interventions diminished with longer duration interventions.”
The sweet spot was four or five half-hour effortful sessions per week. Are you hitting it?
#2. (Separate) Evidence review: Ph...
Source: SharpBrains - August 31, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Attention & ADD/ADHD Brain Teasers Brain/ Mental Health Education & Lifelong Learning Peak Performance SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter Technology & Innovation AirPods Apple boost mental health brain teasers for adults brain-activity Source Type: blogs
Let ’ s Start Over
BY KIM BELLARD
When I first read the reports about some Silicon Valley billionaires wanting to start a new city, I figured, oh, it’s just a bunch of rich white guys wanting to take their toys and go to a new, better home. After all, they’ve seen what’s been happening to downtown San Francisco (or Portland, or Chicago – pick your preferred city).
Cities these days may be an what one expert calls an “urban doom loop” – struggling to recover after having been hollowed out by the pandemic. These so-called elites probably figured it’s easier to build something new rather than to try to fix what already ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 29, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: The Business of Health Care Flanner Associates Kim Bellard Silicon Valley Urban Doom Loop Zoning Source Type: blogs
Upcoming Healthcare Regulations and Their Impact on Healthcare IT
For something as important and as sensitive as healthcare, there are plenty of rules and regulations in place to protect both patients and organizations. However, with healthcare being ever-evolving our regulations are also ever evolving. This can make it extremely difficult to not only follow all of the ones in place today but to prepare our organizations for the upcoming regulations.
To help out, we reached out to our amazing Healthcare IT Today Community to see which healthcare regulations they foresee having a big impact on healthcare IT. The following is what they had to say.
Stephen Sofoul, SVP, Data & Decision S...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - August 28, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Grayson Miller Tags: Administration Ambulatory C-Suite Leadership Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC Regulations Andrew Harding athenahealth Brightside Health Cassie Choi Darena Solutions e4 Services Freshpaint Healthc Source Type: blogs
20th Birthday Classic: “Healthcare” vs. “Health Care”: The Definitive Word(s)
This is the last of the classics that THCB will run to celebrate our 20th birthday. And we are finally tackling the most important of questions. Is what we call this thing one word or two? Back in 2012 Michael Millenson had the definitive answer–Matthew Holt
By MICHAEL L. MILLENSON
A recent contributor to this blog wondered about the correctness of “health care” versus “healthcare.” I’d like to answer that question by channeling my inner William Safire (the late, great New York Times language maven). If you’ll stick with me, I’ll also disclose why the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Serv...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 25, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy health care Healthcare Michael Millenson Source Type: blogs
Insurance Deductibles Don't Work Well for Patients with Chronic Illnesses. Some strategies for PWD's With HDHP's to Consider.
The U.S. IRS defines a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) as a health plan with an annual deductible that is not less than $1,500 for self-only coverage or $3,000 for family coverage, and for which the annual out-of-pocket expenses (deductibles, co-payments, and other amounts). About half of all Americans with employer-sponsored healthcare insurance plans have deductibles to satisfy before the insurance covers much although some employers provide Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) to help offset the deductible. That said, the IRS has also ruled that an HDHP can cover certain types of " preventive " care without a deducti...
Source: Scott's Web Log - August 24, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Ascensia CGM E3 Eversense HDHP Senseonics Source Type: blogs
THCB 20th Birthday Classic: Value-based care – no progress since 1997?
As the 20th Birthday rolls on I thought I’d bring out a more recent piece first published in October 2020, albeit one that relies heavily on 25 year old data to make a point. This is some evidence to back up Jeff Goldsmith’s comment on the original that for all the talk “ ‘Value based” payment is a religious movement, not a business trend’ ” By the way, Humana updated these numbers last year and there’s been basically no change — Matthew Holt
By MATTHEW HOLT
Humana is out with a report saying that its Medicare Advantage members who are covered by value-based care (VBC) ar...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 24, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: The Business of Health Care Capitation Humana Medicare Advantage VBC Source Type: blogs
Waystar Acquires HealthPay24, Accelerating Mission to Simplify Healthcare Payments
Expands Impact of Waystar’s Industry-Leading Technology to More than 2,000 Provider Locations and Millions of New Patients
Waystar, a leading provider of healthcare payments technology, today announced that it has acquired HealthPay24, an EngageSmart solution and a premier enterprise patient payment platform.
In acquiring HealthPay24, Waystar welcomes a complementary and highly regarded patient financial engagement solution to its already award-winning payments platform, augmenting Waystar’s industry leadership in healthcare software, and furthering Waystar’s mission to simplify healthcare payments for providers a...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - August 24, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Bob Bennett EngageSmart eSolutions Health IT Acquisitions Healthcare M&A HealthPay24 Matt Hawkins Patientco Recondo Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Waystar Source Type: blogs
THCB 20th Birthday classics: A Brief History of Price Controls by Annoyed Republican Administrations
By UWE REINHARDT
One of the greatest pleasures of running THCB has been to get to know and host the writings of some of my health policy heroes. This week I have already published work from Jeff Goldsmith, and Ian Morrison & Michael Millenson among others will be featured next week (as the party won’t quite stop). Perhaps one of the most amazing things was that the doyen of health economists, Uwe Reinhardt, offered to write some original pieces for THCB…prodded by former editor John Irvine. This is one of my favorites, riffing on a talk I heard him give in (I think) 1993 about how HCFA was like the Kreml...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 18, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Price controls Uwe Reinhardt Source Type: blogs
Hopes and Questions raised by Alzheimer ’s drug Leqembi (lecanemab)
The FDA has approved Leqembi, the first disease-modifying treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s and a precursor condition, mild cognitive impairment. Medicare has said it will pay for the therapy. Medical centers across the country are scrambling to finalize policies and procedures for providing the medication to patients, possibly by summer’s end or early autumn.
It’s a fraught moment, with hope running high for families and other promising therapies such as donanemab on the horizon. Still, medical providers are cautious. “This is an important first step in developing treatments for complex neurodegenerative disea...
Source: SharpBrains - August 17, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Judith Graham at Kaiser Health News Tags: Brain/ Mental Health cognition early-stage Alzheimer’s Eisai FDA lecanemab Leqembi Medicare mild-cognitive-impairment Source Type: blogs
THCB 20th Birthday Classic: As I’ve always suspected, Health Care = Communism + Frappuccinos
By MATTHEW HOLT
Our 20th birthday continues with a few classics coming out. Back in 2005 I was really cutting a lyrical rug, and would never miss a chance to get that Cambridge training in Marxism into use. This essay about whether health care should be a public or private good has always been one of my favorites, even if I’m not sure Starbucks is still making Frappuccinos. And 18 years later the basic point of this essay remains true, even if many of you will not have a clue who Vioxx or Haliburton were or why they mattered back then!
Those of you who think I’m an unreconstructed commie will correctly suspec...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 15, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Matthew Holt Communism Frappuccinos Source Type: blogs
THCB 20th Birthday Classic: McKinsey wants to inspire lots of change; caveat emptor
by MATTHEW HOLT
So to celebrate 20 years, we’ll be publishing a few classics for the next week or so. This is one of my faves from the early days of THCB, back in 2006. It’s interesting to compare it with Jeff Goldsmith’s NEW piece from yesterday on vertical integration because at the time a pair of Harvard professors, Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg were telling hospitals to change their operations in a way that seemed to me were going to destroy their business–cut down to one or two service lines they were best at and stop with the rest. McKinsey picked up on this and I went to town on wh...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 14, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: The Business of Health Care Elizabeth Teisberg Hospitals Matthew Holt Mckinsey Michael Porter Source Type: blogs
