The Debate----Who won?

Last night’s presidential debate turned out to be a big surprise to the Democrats who have been behind Barak Obama since 2008’s Presidential campaign and the past almost four years.

It has been the first opportunity to see Barak Obama mano a mano with a Republican opponent. since he took office The first debate was largely about the economy, a subject that Mitt Romney knows well, and has a market place recovery plan based on solid economic theory.

Obama seemed to be on the defensive, basing his facts on the present recovery plan initiated by him during his term in office. He seemed to be on the defensive, as well as unskilled in debate tactics and appearance at the podium.  His advisors either did not prepare him well for a debate, or he decided to ignore their advice.

This is typical of Barak Obama and reflects his actions and lack of bipartisan communications. He seems to march on and inevitably will self-destruct.

Anticipation will run high about the debate on health reform. Given his performance last night, health reform is in danger as Obama and the Democrats passed the law without one Republican vote. In fact Romney took the occasion to announce that his first action the day after he is inaugurated would be to repeal PPACA and put a hold on further implementation while revisions are studied.

Governor Romney’s  bold statement even before the debate on health reform announces the aggressive campaign the Republicans will run against PPACA. Mitt Romney is certainly the expert on working out bipartisan support for health reform he accomplished in Massachusetts.

His performance gives great hope to the health care community for significant revision and/or repeal of PPACA as it stands.

What the debate crystallized is the opportunity to significantly alter the present course of health reform.  It may polarize the debates further, although it may created an opening for more discussions.  Romney in his comments on PPACA emphasized the negative effect on Medicare Beneficiaries from PPACA.

What physicians need  to do now is to advance the causes of patients, advocacy for them and providers to strengthen that patient-centric model being espoused by supporters of PPACA, without real meaning for the term.  PPACA is not about patients and providers. It is much more about insurers, more bureaucracy, poorly devised cost control methods, fines, penalties and negative incentives.

Causes for concern include the lack of primary care providers to support 25 million or more patients entering the system, the uncertainty of how the federal government and states will partner ( and even in some cases, states have already balked at cooperation with the federal government),  the rapid rollout of HIT in the form of EHRs that may be unproven and even inaccurate,  HIEs that are still in their infancy, Looming changes for the ICD 10 diagnostic codes, planning and implementation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO).  In the real world whatever projected savings in health care will be eaten up by the sheer volume of technology and simultaneous projects, all inter-related.

Physicians are aware of the complexity of change and the laws of unintended consequences, health planners are optimistic that they can forecast unforseen changes, which has been disproven time after time. 

The debate will continue………..

 

Technorati Tags: aco,accountable care,ehr,icd10,hie,ppaca,medicare beneficiary,romney,obamacare,debate

Health Train Express Back on the Track ?

 

Here is a quick response from HIMSS (less than 24 hours after Congress asks for hold on HIT.

(from EMR and  Health IT News)

About HIMSS

Washington, DC)  HIMSS opposes the October 4^th call from four House Republican leaders for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “immediately suspend the distribution of incentive payments until [the Department] promulgates universal interoperable standards.”  HIMSS emphasizes the significant progress that has been made towards the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and exchange of health information since the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive program began in 2011.

The House Republican leaders’ letter asks HHS to take additional steps to “advance  interoperability and meaningful use” of health information technology (IT).  HIMSS notes that the Stage 2 Final Rule, published by the Department on September 4, moves the Nation definitively towards interoperability.

These conflicting opinions are undoubtedly due to the ‘rush to EMR and HIE’ in a frenzy of spending frenzy to benefit the HIT industry.

Congress and HHS rolled out incentives for unproven and largely non-vetted systems.

There are 3 stages in the meaningful use criteria for eligibility for federal incentives. The requirements are supposed to be staged in regard to difficulty to attain with new HIT and EMR systems. Now there is some disagreement to the credibility of the Stage II criteria as Stage I has been completed.  The government incentive is dependent upon an  unrealistic schedule which imposes penalties for delayed installation of EHRs , which motivates providers to buy immature and inadequate EMR systems.

 

Technorati Tags: himss,interoperability,meaningful use,hit,emr,stage 2 final rule

EMR Incentives Derailed?

 

Friday, October 05, 2012

Lawmakers Urge HHS To Halt Payments for EHR Incentive Program

ln a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and GOP chairs of several House health subcommittees asked HHS to suspend incentive payments for Stage 2 of the meaningful use program,Modern Healthcare reports.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

Letter Details

The letter charges that nearly $10 billion might have been wasted because the rules under Stage 2 of the meaningful use program -- created by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology -- are "weaker" than the rules for Stage 1.

The letter specifically states that certain standards in Stage 2 are either "insufficient" or "woefully inadequate," including requirements that:

• A summary transfer be provided in electronic format only 10% of the time;
• Radiology and laboratory orders be electronic 30% of the time; and
• Medication reconciliation and electronic prescribing take place 50% of the time.

According to CMS data, the EHR incentive program as of June 2012 has disbursed $7.1 billion. Meanwhile, ONC has received $2 billion through the federal stimulus package for health IT programs (Zigmond/Conn, Modern Healthcare, 10/4).

ONC Response

During a forum in Chicago on Thursday, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari defended the stage 2 rules and downplayed the lawmakers' request, noting that the period before a presidential election is known as "the silly season."

Mostashari noted that the requested changes would require congressional and presidential approval (Cadet, Cardiovascular

 

Technorati Tags: Farzad Mostashari,ONC,Hitech,meaningul use,Kathleen Sibelius,stimulus package

HealthCare Oktoberfest and Social Media Planning

 

Yes, it’s true the beginning of October in healthcare signals a highpoint for innovation conferences in San Francisco.

Either  by design or fortuitous coincidence there as several major health reform meetings in the next two weeks in the city by the bay, San Francisco.

About Health Innovation Week

Following the success of Health Innovation Week in 2010 and 2011, Health 2.0, LLC and Health Care Conference Administrators, LLC (HCCA) are delighted to announce our return. For 2012 Health Innovation Week in San Francisco. will be October 3-12. (Yes, we’ve turned it into a 10 day week!)

Core events of Health Innovation Week include the National Medical Home Summit and the 6th Annual HIPAA Summit West, followed by the HealthCampSFBay unconference (CANCELLED) and the 6th Annual Health 2.0 Conference. You can click on the graphics above to get more information about any one of the conferences. Finally the DC to VC event will harvest the best startups.

 

The HIT Startup Showcase Challenge include these functions

• Care Transitions/Care Coordination
• Big Data/Healthcare Analytics/Predictive Risk Modeling
• Health Information Exchange/Interoperability & Integration
• TeleHeath/Remote Diagnosis/MD Virtual Consult
• Healthcare Transparency Solutions (Pricing, EBOs “made easy,” Risk Calculators)
• Marketplaces for Healthcare Services (Insurance, Directories, Pre-paid Cards, Discounts)
• New Models of Primary Care (Concierge Medicine, Patient Centered Home)
• Social Networking for Providers (Shared Best Practices & Evidence, Professional Networking & Referral Management)
• EHRs/Clinical Documentation
• Consumer Wellness & Gaming or Social Networking for Patients
• mHealth and mobile apps (with a large vision)

 

Technorati Tags: health2con,dc to vc challenge,social networking,telehealth,hie,oktoberfest,social media,health innovation week,hipaa,health2.0 2012

Health Information Technology Video Film Festival

     

 

Health Train Express is designed to bring health care providers out of their own silos.

The health care industry is already involved in data exchange and interoperability. The next step in order to move forward is  to dissolve distance and barriers between information, science, medical science and social media.  Social media allows all to dip their toes into areas physicians have previously ignored either intentionally, time constraints, or accidental negligence.

It is equivalent to the ‘cocktail party’ of social circles….many of which have led to great discoveries and collaborations.

2012 and the Developer Challenge has thus far brought major innovative mobile health applications to the world stage. Winners will harvest not only a moderate of cash prizes, but attract the world stage of kick starter funds and venture capital. The cast of new possible star will create enthusiasm to industry critical analysis. This is occurring as electronic health records are adopted by hospitals and physicians alike.

 

Health2con is occurring in San Francisco next week and is anticipated to bring more new players to mHealth. Physicians and hospital managers as well as health information technology producers are observing the potential connect with other industries and adoption of not only information technology  robotic, analytic and even gaming applications in design of  healthcare and scientific problem solving.

Medicine X at Stanford University took place September 28th - 30th

Rhiju Das, PhD in his video found below  outlines the use of online gaming in analyzing and producing proteins and uses RNA as a model.  Players log in online to participate in analyzing structure of RNA, not only it’s nucleotide base,

ARCHIVED EVENTS FROM FRIDAY’S PRESENTATIONS

SATURDAY’S PROGRAM

Stanford Medicine X  Rock Health

23andMe

Sonny Vu on Wearables: A Coming Revolution?

Dr. Larry Chu gives opening remarks at Stanford Medicine X

David Van Sickle on Asthmapolis

Rhiju Das, PhD on RNA Design Rules from a Massively Multiplayer Cloud Laboratory

 

SUNDAY’S PROGRAMS

Design Prototypes Emergency Situation on a Large Display. Adding Order to Chaos

Esther Dyson  A view from Space.

A well known creative and visionary Innovator, and Venture Capitalist (over 20 investments in HIT.  Artificial Intelligence is often invisible, embedded in things like ‘Siri’. Several markets for IT, Consumers, Employers especially HR People (human resources who want people to be healthy), and market for good health. Health Providers individually and in concert with Employers to optimize health, wellness, and good data from applications like Healthtap, Fitbit, Social Media is a large catalyst for adoption of mobile health applications.

Design Conundrums

Michael Graves, Architect & Patient distinguished for many architectural awards and a diversity of design fields. You can follow him on social media.

Our Present reimbursement system is a problem and hinders data collection.

Safecast, a data collection web site

How much data, where is it coming from, and is it accurate ?

 

All videos were taken from Livestream in real time.  Our thanks to them.

 

Technorati Tags: Stanford MedicineX,Esther,mhealth,developer's challenge,rock health,23andme,sonny vu,wearable sensors,asthmapolis,artificial intelligence,consumers,venure capitalist,providers

The IRS wants your Health Insurance Premium

 

The Numbers just do not add up………..so let’s print more money. Would you ever believe that your health care would involve the IRS as an enforcement arm of the government.

Yes, the collection and enforcement arm of the IRS with all it’s powers that be, including wage levies, seizure of assets, and bank levies will monitor your health finances. 

And rumor has it that there will be blood collection centers set up at each IRS office.

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly 6 million Americans - most of them in the middle class - will face a tax penalty for not carrying medical coverage once President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law is fully in place, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday.

The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises.

The numbers from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are significantly higher than a previous projection by the same office in 2010, shortly after the law passed.

The earlier estimate found 4 million people would be affected. The difference - 2 million people- represents a 50 percent increase.

That's still only a sliver of the population, given that more than 150 million people currently are covered by employer plans. Nonetheless, in his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.

And the budget office analysis found that nearly 80 percent of those who'll face the penalty would be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level. Currently that would work out to $55,850 or less for an individual and $115,250 or less for a family of four.

Average penalty: about $1,200 in 2016.

 

"The bad news and broken promises from Obama care just keep piling up," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who wants to repeal the law.

There was no immediate response from the administration.

The Congressional Budget Office said most of the increase in its estimate is due to changes in underlying projections about the economy, incorporating the effects of new federal legislation, as well as higher unemployment and lower wages.

Starting in 2014, the new health care law requires virtually every legal resident of the U.S. to carry health insurance or face a tax penalty. The Supreme Court upheld Obama's law as constitutional in a 5-4 decision this summer, finding that the insurance mandate and the tax penalty enforcing it fall within the power of Congress to impose taxes. The penalty will be collected by the IRS, just like taxes.

The budget office said the penalty will raise $6.9 billion when fully in effect in 2016.

The new law will also provide government aid to help middle-class and low-income households afford coverage, the financial carrot that balances out the penalty.

Nonetheless, some people might still decide to remain uninsured because they object to government mandates or because they feel they would come out ahead financially even if they have to pay the penalty. Health insurance is expensive, with employer-provided family coverage averaging nearly $15,800 a year for a family and $4,300 for a single plan.

The Supreme Court allowed individual states to opt out of a major Medicaid expansion under the law. The Obama administration says it will exempt low-income people affected by state decisions from having to comply with the insurance mandate.

Most Americans will not have to worry about the insurance requirement since they already have coverage through employers, government programs like Medicare or by buying their own policies.

Many Republicans still regard the insurance mandate as unconstitutional and rue the day the Supreme Court upheld it.

However, the idea for an individual insurance requirement comes from Republican health care plans in the 1990s.

It's also a central element of the 2006 Massachusetts health care law signed by then-GOP Gov. Mitt Romney, now running against Obama and promising to repeal the federal law. The approach seems to have worked well in Massachusetts, with virtually all residents covered and dwindling numbers opting to pay the penalty instead.

 

del.icio.us Tags: irs,penalty,uninsured,insurance mandate,health insurance premium,obamacare,ppaca,health reform law

Expect The Unexpected

 

Caregivers are a hearty lot.  Social media can play a distinct supportive role in their activities. Most of us at some point in our lives will care for an aging parent or relative.  If not, there is certainty you will be in a relationship with someone who is a care giver.

When outfitting an expedition, one has to plan for everything: from the rare but potentially catastrophic dangers (raging lions, swollen rivers, thunderous storms) to the mundane, commonplace annoyances (fleas, thorns, thirst, hunger) that can be just as deadly.

When people look back in the future at the circuitous route of technological progress in the caregiving space, Rajiv Mehta will probably garner a decent mention. A tireless advocate on the topic, he’s devoted his considerable energy, and brain, to bringing about easier and simpler ways to manage the challenging, often misunderstood and frequently overwhelming issues around family caregiving.

 Wen Dombroski M.D. is also on this team of visionary leaders

 

Now he’s getting ready to launch the next version of his caregiving tools (called Unfrazzle). He gave a talk recently in Australia about the ‘journey’ that caregivers (even though they don’t know that’s what they are) set off on, and his sensible advice was to think of this as an adventure, and spend the time and effort necessary to outfit yourself for the journey. What I like about that analogy is that it effectively focuses the mind on the need to prepare, without triggering shutdown in the listener from calamitous tales of woe and horror that are never an easy sell. Looking forward to seeing the next rev when it’s live and hearing Rajiv present at a future Aging2.0 event.

 

 

Rajiv mehta outfitting families for caregiving journeys from  .

Rajiv Mehta , “At Australia’s Health Informatics Conference 2012 in Sydney recently, I gave a keynote address on “Outfitting Families for Caregiving Journeys” highlighting the importance and challenges of dealing with the mundane aspects of caregiving — the overwhelming, and seemingly never-ending, torrent of widely varying, trivial tasks shared amongst a loose network of family and friends. Through stories of actual caregiving situations I make these issues “real”. In the talk I also describe my own efforts over the past few years to address this issue, and the opportunity for healthcare professionals to better prepare families for caregiving crises via addressing the mundane.

 

Rajiv Mehta is a NASA scientist with heady degrees from Princeton, Stanford and Columbia and four years as a product manager at Apple , who has devoted himself to sharpening the cutting edge of technology and caregiving, working with the Quantified Self movement, developing Tonic, a mobile-based self care assistant and joining the board of the Family Caregiving Alliance. Now he’s getting ready to launch the next version of his caregiving tools (called Unfrazzle). He gave a talk recently in Australia about the ‘journey’ that caregivers (even though they don’t know that’s what they are) set off on, and his sensible advice was to think of this as an adventure, and spend the time and effort necessary to outfit yourself for the journey. What I like about that analogy is that it effectively focuses the mind on the need to prepare, without triggering shutdown in the listener from calamitous tales of woe and horror that are never an easy sell. Looking forward to seeing the next rev when it’s live and hearing Rajiv present at a future Aging 2.0 event.

Next:  Social Media and Telehealth:

 

Technorati Tags: telehealth,social media,nasa,quantified self,Tonic,family caregiving alliance,aging 2.0,Rajiv Mehta,Unfrazzle

Health Information Technology Moves at The Speed of Light

 

The title of this post is both literal and figurative. Yes data does travel at the speed of light, however progress in developing a nationwide interoperable network has been much slower.

The idea of a NHIN has been around since the early 21st Century and there have been many regional attempts, a few which have been successful, thus far.

Regional health information exchanges have made some progress, however ‘buy in’ is still difficult to promote in competing hospital systems.

Fueling this progress has been the following, promoted by the “Open Government” policies which encourage and entrepenurial spirit in both government and the private venture capital market.  No longer will government be the main engine for building a national network, it will function as a “convener” as stated by Aneesh Chopra

The White House and ONC announced that providers and public health agencies in Minnesota and Rhode Island began exchanging health information using specifications developed by the Direct Project, an 'open government' initiative that calls on cooperative efforts by organizations in the health care and information technology sectors. (February 2, 2011)
The press conference was moderated by Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy, ONC, and includes remarks from Dr. David Blumenthal and Aneesh Chopra.

There is has been progress in the NHIN is outlined here:

It was obvious from the enclosed video from this meeting that the principals (lots of fist pumps, back slapping, and handshakes)

Speakers included industry and government professionals who helped make the Direct Project launch a success: Mark Briggs, MSc, Chief Executive Officer, VisionShare; Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer, Allscripts; Sean Nolan, Chief Architect, Microsoft Health Solutions; and, Albert Puerini, Jr, MD, President and CEO, Polaris Medical Management, President and CEO, Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians; and, Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Some consternation was expressed about the barrier of HIPAA as it is now structured. Many secure transactions already do occur via the internet and some of those secure features should be used to transmit health data.

It becomes obvious technology is outstripping regulatory and legal concerns. It became obvious as well that ‘data” can be transmitted packaged in secure email as a pdf or text file from provider to provider. That is an elegant and simple means to do so.  It does not allow for data fields for analysis, however that is another matter. And it is truly separate.

The basic patient centric model involves only provider-patient-provider interaction, and this must take precedence. The rest is frosting on the cake. (author’s opinion)

Insurers and government agencies who want that data should develop a system that can extract what they need as a separate and isolated goal.

 

Technorati Tags: nhin,direct project,chopra,park todd,david blumenthal,patient centric model,hipaa,internet,ssl,data,open government,white house,microsoft,vision share,onchit,entrepenur,venture capital

Looking for a Donor Organ?

 

We often associate searching for almost anything by querying Google. In fact the word “Google” is now synonymous with searching.

Social media now provides a new means of obtaining information. Now we can “Facebook” it.     

As reported in iHealthBeat (published by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF)

Four months ago, Facebook launched an initiative that aims to leverage its network of 161 million users to more quickly match patients who are waiting for organ transplants with possible donors.

Blair Sadler -- an attorney and senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement -- said the new Facebook feature "shows the enormous potential of social media," noting that people are more likely to be persuaded to donate by friends and family than by activists or public health officials.

Through the initiative, members of the social networking website can declare themselves as organ donors under a new "Health and Wellness" section, which includes biographical information and updates on their health. The section also includes links to state donor registries

In a recent opinion piece published by the Hastings Center, Sadler argued that more should be done to fully leverage the power of social media networks.

The announcement was greeted with great enthusiasm by leaders in the organ donation field. Andrew M. Cameron, the surgical director of liver transplantation at Johns Hopkins Hospital, stated in the New York Times,

Historically, 98 percent of registered organ donations come through the states’ departments of motor vehicles donor registration programs. While this is the most successful strategy for recruiting registered donors in most states, the numbers could pale by comparison if the full potential of social media could be harnessed by state donor registries.

Interactions with the DMV occur infrequently for most young people, compared to Facebook interactions, which occur multiple times every day. Indeed, if the full potential of Facebook and other social media were to be engaged over an extended period of time, it is possible that enough young people could be registered to address the needs of their own generation and beyond.

Inspiring stories of lives saved through organ and tissue donation could be posted on Facebook or tweeted to friends. To create the “stickiness” and staying power Gladwell describes, organ donation organizations need to embrace this new technology in a way that translates possibilities into reality.

State registries must also be easy to find and use. If the common perception is that in order to register as an organ donor, one needs to go through the DMV, people may be less inclined to donate. But if people know that they can register easily by visiting a Web site and clicking a button or two, their willingness should increase. State registries could include social sharing on their sites, so that once a person joins the registry, he or she has the option to share this information via Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks which should drive awareness among family and friends.

Social media could also allow donor registries to advertise at no cost.

Of course all of the good features of Facebook would have to carefully be evaluated to eliminating the possibilities of PROFITEERING.  And this is a significant precautionary warning.  Identity verification, accountability and tracking are essential requirements.

The Facebook listing could easily become an eBay or Craigslist, Organ For Sale’

Medical professionals will be skeptical (and for  very good reasons)

 

Technorati Tags: facebook pages,organ donors,dmv,organ donor registries,inspiration,google,chcf,brian sadler,institute or healthcare,improvement,health and wellness,liver,skin,cornea,bone,bone marrow,facebook effect

Harvard Medical School takes Medicine 2.0 by storm

 

Or was it the other way around?

If  you were on twitter last week and were following #med2 it became apparent that this was an active meeting.

Medicine 2.0 Trailer

Several observations and questions result from the reporting by Dave Harlow who wrote in Health Works Collective about the nuts & bolts and speakers at the Medicine 2.0 social event of the year in Boston, MA.

1. The interest in health care social media #hcsm follows the significant acceptance of electronic health records.

2. Boston hosted 500 cutting-edge health care practitioners, academics, researchers, app developers and students – and all of those appellations applied to some of the participants simultaneously.

3. The program organized by Gunther Eysenbach who publishes the JMIR is also known for his philosophy on open source publication for medical peer reviewed aticles via the internet. (self-description:

JMIR is the leading peer-reviewed eHealth/mHealth journal (Impact Factor: 4.7),
ranked #1 in Medical Informatics, and #2 in Health Sciences/Health Services Research

The event played to a full room, if not a sellout crowd in Boston.

4. The integration of multiple social media platforms, twitter, twitpic, flickr, facebook for announcement, meeting progress, couple with visuals (static and video) allows for non-attendees to observe and gain from a distant meeting. And many events are archived on social media sites such as YouTube, Ustream and other network silos.

5. Speakers presented a rich mix of expertise and content. Topics ranged from the international presence of social media, publisher expertise, physician experts in various specialties, to patient advocates who have developed content such as Patients Like Me, Pharma, Entrepenurship  and Social Media How to topics.

 

How and Why is Health Care Social Media growing and is the sky the limit or are their significant barriers.

1. Curiosity. The early adopters are enthusiastic users of the new form of social intercourse, and are verbal champions for the new medium. Those observing on the sidelines are cautiously dipping their toes into #hcsm #medsm. Quickly their use increases as they experiment with the platforms. Ingenuity creates new uses with each adopter. Rather than being a structured entity such as an electronic health record, it allows for creativity in content and direction.

2. The powers that be, (medical societies, medical boards, state licensing authorities have found social media an efficient way to disseminate information.

3. Licensing authorities are struggling to maintain relevance in a society that is rapidly discarding old paradigms of communication. And in many cases are led by leaders who are not using social media.  This struggle at times leads to confusion about other areas such as patient physician telemedicine, remote monitoring.  This is evidenced by the recent controversial decision about telemedicine in the form of emails, instant messaging and video telemedicine by the Oregon State Medical Board’s Statement on Telemedicine.  At the same time a video was posted on the OSMB’s website on Telehealth . Clearly the usual and customary standard of care is in a state of flux. In a state of mind where health care costs are extreme, which is better? No care, or care that is affordable and accessible.?

 

Technorati Tags: oregon medical board,telehealth,telemedicine,health20,medicine2.0,early adopter,ehr,harvard medical school,#med2,twitter,facebook,facebook pages,#hcsm

How A Low Literate Adult Experiences the Healthcare System

 

October is Health Literacy Month

"Health literacy is the currency of success for everything we do in health, wellness and prevention."

- 17th U.S. Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS

What is health literacy?

Health literacy refers to an individual's capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions and follow instructions for treatment. It is a shared responsibility, meaning both the patient and the healthcare provider must communicate in ways that the other can understand.

The American Medical Association has found that poor health literacy is a stronger predictor of a person's health than age, income, employment status, education level and race.

The problem is widespread: almost 9 out of 10 Americans lack the knowledge and skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease. Understanding the breadth of the gap between an average American's comprehension of healthcare and the high level at which health information is communicated is a vital first step to improving patient safety and treatment adherence. 

It has been estimated that low literate adults increase health care costs by $ 76 billion dollars a year. That figure rivals the amount of ‘fraudulent billing’ and other financial losses to Medicare.

Yet the Patient Protection and Affordability Act completely misses this important fact.

Imagine you are sitting in an exam room feeling sick, stressed and anxious after hours of waiting in the hospital to be seen. You are wearing nothing but a loose fitting hospital gown and have goosebumps because the room is so cold. Finally your in rushes your doctor and within what feels like seconds is preparing to send you on your way. She hands you a piece of paper and says, "Read this and let me know if you have any questions."

The paper reads:

Your naicisyhp has dednemmocer that you have a ypocsonoloc. Ypocsonoloc is a test for noloc recnac. It sevlovni gnitresni a elbixelf gniweiv epocs into your mutcer. You must drink a laiceps diuqil the thgin erofeb the noitanimaxe to naelc out your noloc.

How did you FEEL reading the passage?

Example:

“Inspect hcae esoh along its eritne length, and ecalper any esoh that is dekcarc, nellows, or swohs signs of noitaroireted”

Can you translate that sentence?

Or what about this one?

“kcehc the egral and rewol rotaidar sesoh rellams retemaid sesoh, ecihw run morf the engine eht llawerif.”

Definitely ‘food’ for the spelling checker

Low illiterate patients experience this phenomenon.  Low literate adults often nod in agreement even if they have no idea what they read, or hear.

October is Health Literacy Month

Little known amongst physicians are the presence of literacy scholars, devoted to Health Literacy.

Peter Morrison, Health Literacy Program Manager

This week I was privileged to attend a tweetchat #hchlitts which focused on this topic.  The guest was Peter Morrison, BA, Health Literacy Program Manager, Peter is an American Medical Association certified vendor-consultant providing communication assessments for healthcare agencies, the unique AMA vendor-consultant for this service in Texas and one of ten nation-wide. By developing health literacy interventions in collaboration with the end user (low literate patients and English Language learners) and national leaders.  Peter has developed a suite of health literacy services with proven efficacy throughout the state of Texas health literacy services.

His leadership in the field of health literacy is evident in several instances, including a collaboration request by Joint Commission on a nation-wide hospital assessment project, selection as one of ten nation-wide American Medical Association consultants for the Communication Climate Assessment Toolkit (CCAT), featured health literacy expert in articles published in Patient Education Management, Community Literacy Journal, and Patient Education and Counseling, as well as presentations at national conferences, including the 2012 Health Literacy Leadership Institute. He is also a certified adult literacy instructor, community health Promoter, and has extensive experience in health literacy training design and facilitation.

Most states have their own Health Literacy Projects: This page offers a Portal to these agencies

October is Health Literacy Month

 

Information provided by:

Technorati Tags: health literacy,communication,low literate adult,community literacy journal,Peter Morrison,ama

Major FCC Development in HIT for wearable Body Sensors

 

FCC finalizes wavelength ruling for medical body area networks

The Federal Communications Commission has officially set aside a portion of the nation's wireless spectrum to wearable medical sensors, reportedly becoming the first nation in the world to do so.

In a Sept. 11 announcement, the FCC finalized a vote taken on May 24 to set aside spectrum in the range of 2360-2400 megahertz for medical body-area-networks, or MBANs, with the 2360-2390 MHz range restricted to indoor use. The decision, to take effect on Oct. 11, means wearable sensors will be able to send and receive non-voice data in that range without interference from Wi-Fi or other devices, though they'll still be considered secondary users.

This announcement sets in play the further development of remote monitoring either in hospital ICUs, during transportation in and out of hospital as well as remote-monitoring from the home or chronic facility facilitating  Real cost savings as opposed to governmental edicts, such a PPACA

The medical device can now be certified by a standard, and a secure protocol established.  Undoubtedly the FCC will want to finalize and certify the device(s) as reliable and accurate under a variety of circumstances.

The light is now green for device and remote monitor companies to proceed.

 

Technorati Tags: medical devices,wifi,hipaa,fcc,fda,remote monitoring,icu

New Requirements for Non-Profit Status of Hospitals

 

More IRS and HHS chicanery:

A little known tax provision listed in Obama Care adds additional mandates on all non-profit hospitals in order for them to maintain their non-profit status.  If all new requirements are not met, hospitals may lose their non-profit status and be fined $50,000 annually. 

The new mandatory requirements read right out of a community organizer's handbook.  Any non-profit hospital must meet the following new requirements or lose non-profit status and face a $50,000 fine annually:

POWER TO THE PEOPLE !

The citizens’ community’ will decide the following:

1. Meet the community health needs of all citizens

a. Health needs will be determined by persons who represent the broad interests of the community served by the hospital

2. Meet the financial assistance policy requirements which include:

a. Eligibility requirements and whether service includes free or discounted care

b. Must show how the hospital came up with the prices for care

3. Must impose price controls so to charge the same for all people whether patients have insurance or not

4. Must provide audited financial statements to show how the hospital spent their money servicing the community healthcare needs

a. If not all needs are being addressed then why not and what is being done to address the needs

The trick to these new regulations is that they are ambiguous.  There are no specific guidelines thus; someone (federal bureaucrats) will need to decide pricing, financial assistance guidelines and how the hospitals get paid. What this tax provision does in the real world is give the government and the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sibelius dictatorial control of over 50 percent of all hospitals in the United States.  Their oversight and mandates will impose price controls and force hospitals to provide regular care to everyone regardless of insurance or ability to pay. 

Through new ambiguous regulations hidden within laws and with the largest set of tax provisions in the last 20 years, the IRS and HHS are now in financial control over a majority of U.S. hospitals and the healthcare industry.

Please ensure all your friends and family know the truth. Please forward this email and get the word out.  November 6^th is election D-Day.

The Team at Generation America

 

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