Don Berwick resigned from head of The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), now that Republicans have successfully blocked his Senate confirmation, the Associated Press reports today. After he steps down Dec. 2, Deputy Administrator Marilyn Tavenner will take over. Berwick became head of CMS (centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services)and healthcare reform, with [...]
A patient recently asked “Why is it that I fill out patient information forms everytime I go to a new doctor or dentist? Isn’t there an app I can complete once and send it in…seems like it would be much easier for everyone. Many patients ask a similar question. There are two solutions for this [...]
For those sitting on the side lines when it comes to adoption of EMRs, Practice Fusion, a San Francisco-based EMR developer has identified the top five worst EMR myths: EMRs are bad for “bedside manner.” Does a computer ruin the interaction between patients and doctors? The opposite is true, according to a 2010 Government Accountability Office report. [...]
The latest statistics show that up to 81% of the American population is going to the internet to get information about their health. Now, according to a survey of more than 300 doctors by Wolters Kluwer Health, doctors are seeking their information from the internet as well. Web browsers like Yahoo and Google are utilized [...]
According to Ezra Klein, in the Washington Post, “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has received thousands of comments on preliminary exchange regulations issued this year, which laid some ground rules for what the new marketplace would look like,” Klein writes. “Under the health overhaul, every state will have a new health insurance marketplace [...]
The question of advertising and the health profession was posed by a General Surgeon, Dr. Lowenfels. He wants to know if advertising is unethical or bad for hospitals and physicians. Furthermore, he questions whether this is a help to patients and who actually foots the bill for advertising costs. Not surprisingly, many physicians found advertising [...]
This article written by Laura Landro entitled “Informed Patient: Tying Hospital Payments to Patient Satisfaction” appeared in the Wall Street Journals’ blog on health and the business of health. In reading this, you will be able to find in your own mind, the problems that this policy poses. Read on…. Hospitals are scrambling to improve [...]
Like most large healthcare facilities or hospitals, implementing digital formats for all records at once can be an impossible and overwhelming tasks. Starting small and easing into electronic systems makes the task doable. Like projects when we were young, the principles still hold- take a large task and make it into bite-sized pieces. For EHRs [...]
You have read many times in my blogs how I believe that the only true way to save money with healthcare reform is to have tort reform. The following is an article by Brenda L. Mooney that puts actual dollar figures to support this argument. While most legislatures are members of the legal system, the [...]
Under the premise that the most ideal way to save Medicare is to pay for things that improve health and stop paying for things that don’t, Health Affairs met at Capitol Hill to discuss this in the briefing called “Saving Medicare Dollars and Improving Care,” sponsored by the ABIM Foundation. The purpose was to come up [...]
