Jerry vs. Carla (not Simon)

 

California is a reflection of what ails our great nation. The major party gubernatorial candidates offer us very little to chose from with their ‘platforms’…During the recent debate between former Governor, Mayor Jerry Brown and ex-CEO entrepreneur Carla Fiorina several points were glaringly apparent.

Governor Brown, for all his experience seemed like a washed out politician-bureaucrat.  He has been a governor, a mayor, attorney general, and his political career seems pointless in the ‘great scheme of things. Once a possible Presidential candidate, he failed to generate enthusiasm for this post.

Brown has had a lengthy political career, spanning terms on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees (1969–1971), as California Secretary of State (1971–1975), as Governor of California (1975–1983), chairman of the California Democratic Party (1989–1991), the Mayor of Oakland (1998–2006), and is the current Attorney General of California (2007–present).[1]

Brown unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1976, 1980, and 1992, and was an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in 1982.

He has had a busy life of public service to California, and probably should retire, change focus, write some memoirs and books and perhaps teach political science at Berkely.

His performance in the debate failed to generate any enthusiasm on my part, and he and I are products of the 60s and 70s. He and I are about the same age, and I have decided to go quietly into the night and leave the stage to those younger, with brighter eyes, who are not singed with skepticism and cynicism.

CarlyFlorina also failed to generate any enthusiasm for me as well.

Attractive, well spoken, articulate she outshined Jerry Brown on stage and in content. There are some significant issues with her candidacy. Like Governor Schwarzenegger she has no previous governing or political cadence other than her time in the executive office and board of Hewlett Packard.

The following is quoted from Wikipedia.

Carly Fiorina (born Cara Carleton Sneed; September 6, 1954) is an American political candidate and businesswoman. She is the 2010 Republican nominee for the United States Senate representing California. Fiorina served as chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 and previously was an executive at AT&T and its equipment and technology spinoff, Lucent. She currently serves on the boards of several organizations.

Fiorina was considered one of the most powerful women in business during her tenure at Lucent and Hewlett-Packard. The spinoff, from HP, of Agilent Technologies – which had been initiated by her predecessor, Lew Platt – was completed shortly after she joined the company in 1999. Under her leadership, in 2002, the company completed a contentious merger with rival computer company Compaq. In 2005, the Hewlett-Packard board forced Fiorina to resign. She attended the UCLA School of Law but dropped out after one semester. Fiorina received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in marketing from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1980. She received a Master of Science in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management under the Sloan Fellows program in 1989. Fiorina worked various secretarial and receptionist positions, including a stint at Hewlett-Packard as a temporary worker through Kelly Services. She later worked as a receptionist at real estate firm Marcus & Millichap (including working briefly as a broker). During her speech at the 2006 ICSC convention in Las Vegas, Fiorina noted that her time at Marcus & Millichap helped her learn how to navigate the business world. Fiorina taught English in Italy; her first husband's career had taken them to that country.[4] She joined AT&T in 1980 as a management trainee and rose to become a senior vice president overseeing the company's hardware and systems division. In 1995, Fiorina led corporate operations for the spinoff from AT&T of Lucent, reporting to Lucent chief executive Henry B. Schacht;[5] she played a key role in planning and implementing the 1996 initial public offering of stock and company launch strategy.[6][7] Later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucent's consumer products business, reporting to Rich McGinn, president and chief operating officer.[8] In 1997, she was appointed chairman of Lucent's consumer communications joint venture with Philips consumer communications.[9] Later that year, she was named group president for the global service provider business at Lucent, overseeing marketing and sales for the company's largest customer segment.[10][11]

In 1998, Fortune magazine named her the "most powerful woman in business" in its inaugural listing, and she was included in the Time 100 in 2004 and remained in the Fortune listing throughout her tenure at HP. Fiorina was #10 on the Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women for 2004.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] She became regarded by many as being the first woman to head up a Fortune 20 company, and to have overcome the proverbial "glass ceiling".[19][20][21]

In 2008, Fiorina served as an advisor to Republican presidential candidate John McCain. In November 2009, Fiorina announced she would challenge incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer for her United States Senate seat representing California.[1] On June 8, 2010, Fiorina won the Republican primary election.

After resigning from HP, Fiorina was named to several board memberships. She was named to the boards of directors at Revolution Health Group (Steve Case-AOL) and computer security company Cybertrust. The following year, she became a member of the board of directors for chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.[49][50][51] She joined the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum. She is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School.[52][53][54] [55]

In October 2006, Fiorina released an autobiography, Tough Choices, about her career and her views on such issues as what constitutes a leader, how women can thrive in business, and the role technology will continue to play in reshaping the world. Fiorina signed on with the Fox Business Network to become a business commentator on the network.[58] She is Chairman and CEO of Carla Fiorina Enterprises where, according to her political campaign Facebook page, she is "bringing her unique perspective and experience to bear on the challenging issues of our world, championing economic growth and empowerment for a more prosperous and secure world."[59] She has appeared at many public events. She rang the opening bell of the Wall Street stock market on the official day of the HP-Compaq merger and in 2000 she was the ceremonial host opening the largest EasyInternetcafé at Times Square and the opening of the Epcot ride Mission: SPACE.[60] In 2004, Fiorina was a member of the President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, which produced a report for George W. Bush. She has appeared many times on TV such as in 2007 on Real Time with Bill Maher.

In 2008, Fiorina joined as a part of the Senator John McCain presidential campaign. In early 2008, Fiorina was referred to in media sources as a potential vice presidential candidate.

The Los Angeles Times research of public records indicated Fiorina had failed to vote in most elections. Fiorina responded: "I'm a lifelong registered Republican but I haven't always voted, and I will provide no excuse for it. You know, people die for the right to vote. And there are many, many Californians and Americans who exercise that civic duty on a regular basis. I didn't. Shame on me."[99][100]

HP survived much because of her leadership which included axing the employment of 30,000 American workers. Her argument that it was necessary due to governmental regulations in the United States which prevent companies from operating economically on our own soil. This was a cheap shot because there are many factors that drive up costs for businesses in the United States.

Neither candidate will light fires for most voters, but if I had to vote, or lose everything I would have to vote for Jerry Brown….at least it is same old, same old, and he has been there before. Carly Fiorina has enough money to not work, having enjoyed entrepreneurship at it’s best. (however she did not start anything….she walked into several positions at the right time.) She has invested a considerable amount of her personal fortune into her campaign.

An important thing to remember is that the Governor has Veto Power.

 

And what does this have anything to do with health care? Damned if I know, but then again I am in the back 40 of the pastures.

I am going to take a hard look at lesser candidates and if nothing draws my attention I will write myself in for (other).

LiveJournal Tags: Jerry Brown,Carly Fiorina,Health train express,HP,Governor,attorney general,election

Do You Know What your Ratings are?

Internet web based rating sites have grown substantially in the past five  years.  At first I thought this would be a short lived phenomenon, however like most things on the internet they have flourished.

I must admit that I now Google for most of my colleagues’ information, because it is so efficient.  Usually the top rated first page results from a Google search brings up ‘Ucompare”, Healthgrades, Wellness, Doctor.com

If you don’t know the name and who John R. Morrow is and what he  does you need a quick brief on what he does and how it may matter to all of us.

John R. Morrow has founded, created and contributed to a variety of national and international ratings programs including; 100 Top Hospitals : Benchmarks for Success℠ a Thomson-Reuters product, The Patient Satisfaction Index™ a National Research Corporation product, The Hospital Value Index™ a Press Ganey & Associates property, and is currently in Beta with Distinguished Doctor™, a new doctor profiling initiative. Morrow was a Principal at HCIA/Solucient, CEO of CHKS (UK) Ltd, SVP at HealthGrades and is Principal at The Ratings Guy LLC.

Matthew Holt published an article by Mr. Morrow in today’s The Health Care Blog.

Understand that all of this rating stuff is here, and it will remain so. It will be better to learn how to deal with it….it is not going away (until the flow of money stops to those web publishers.

Did you Know???

The IRS would apply the withholding to physicians' tax obligations for the year. The remainder would be refunded after doctors file their tax returns the following spring, but in the meantime, the federal government would hold that money, interest-free.

Physician practices face a 3% reduction in payments, as well as potential accounting headaches, under a little-noticed tax provision.

A little-known provision tucked into a 2005 tax bill requires the Internal Revenue Service, starting in 2012 at the earliest, to withhold 3% of payments to any contractor doing work for federal, state or local governments. The Medicaid program is excluded because it provides services based primarily on patient need. But Medicare, which is age-based, is not exempt.

The GAO issued another report in March 2007 finding that approximately 5% of physicians and others who billed for Medicare Part B services continued to receive money from the program, despite having significant outstanding federal payroll and income tax liabilities.

Supporters of the withholding concept say it is a necessary response to widespread failures by contractors both to pay their taxes and to render good service.

Physicians may be able to escape the withholding, even if the provision remains in place by 2012. The MGMA's Smith said defense contractors, not the medical community, appear to be the intended target of the 2005 policy. He remains hopeful that physician practices will be exempted.

WTF ?

The Complete Meal

Thanks to Dr Wes for this,

 

“Parents the world over know the magic of McDonald's Happy Meals. There's something about the promise of a Happy Meal - the way it's packaged, the free toy - young families and especially kids find them irresistible. But anyone who's purchased one of these knows the reality: that toys within the Happy Meal are typically played with for no more than three minutes and the plastic tchotchkes are discarded faster than the accompanying 2% milk.

There's a common sense saying: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true."

A complete meal for $0.99. (It may be small, but it’s what we promised.)

 

Even if we find that the $19.99 infomercial slicer/dicer doesn't work at home as it did on television, American's love the psychological reassurance that this time the government will make health care available to all without restriction, expense, or consequence, be they boys or girls, legal or illegal, young or old, right-handed or left-handed, with preexisting condition or not, - no one will be left behind in our new omnipotent era of Patient Protection and Affordability.
We should all know better, but the sad fact is, we're all suckers.
Not that some of the promises made wouldn't be useful, helpful, or even critical to many families. But to position health care reform (and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in particular) as a win-win with no hard choices, no limits to health care for our seniors, no future commoditization of medicine, unlimited access to procedures and doctors, and all with no enormous financial cost, is to stick one's head in the sand.
Package it, spin it, wrap it in plastic - then put it next to a cheeseburger.
No matter what you call it, it's still Hopium.”

HOW DID JEFFERSON KNOW??????

 

It has been said the greatest volume of sheer brainpower in one place occurred when Jefferson dined alone..." John Kennedy

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.   A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

 

Seems to me that Thomas had it right.  Now, how can this basic principle of our Republic be applied today?

LiveJournal Tags: Thomas Jefferson,Republic,Freedom,Government,tyranny,taxes,right to bear arms,democracy,debt,kennedy,health train express

The Amazing Carelessness Of ObamaCare Grace-Marie Turner Investor's Business Daily, May 11, 2010

I don’t think Grace-Marie would mind if I give her attribution for this article she wrote.

All bets ARE off as to what really is going to transpire with health reform.  Passing this legislation was a sham for the democrats and President Obama, just to  pass something, workable or not.

DO’S & DON’T’S

 

There are many comments circulating on the social media networks, first the blogs, now Facebook and Twitter. Rumor has it that facebook and twitter are passing google and RSS feeds by, so blogging is now old hat.  (it used to be a challenge to make a blog.) Thanks to all you super-geeks guys like me can pour it on with little effort . 

Many well known bloggers now don’t even write their own stuff, leaving it to ‘interns’ in the blogville.and syndicating many blogs into one place, such as Better Health.

 

I often wonder if these bloggers see any patients.  They always seem to be right there, posting my news just before I click on “publish”.

The big thing now is should doctors participate in social media? What are the rules? 

Fierce Practice Management analyzes this well

Despite all of the benefits and pitfalls surrounding the use of social media by physicians, formal rules for medical professionals to follow online are still in the making. But even as The American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, The American College of Physicians' Center for Ethics and Professionalism and other organizations continue to work on new policies, social media pioneers have identified some general do's and don'ts for practicing physicians

The  American Medical Association weighs in as well.

 

In summary,  or as a tweet should be, short and sweet.

Social media do's and don'ts

Here are social-media experts' answers to ethical dilemmas physicians face when using Facebook, Twitter or similar sites.

Should I accept Facebook friend requests from patients? Probably not. Keep your personal profile only for friends, family and colleagues. Create a separate business page to share general health information with your patients.

Should I respond to personal medical questions on Facebook or Twitter? No. Refer questions to the patient's physician. If the question comes from your patient, handle it through an office visit, phone consultation or encrypted e-mail exchange.

Should I post any identifying information about my patients? Absolutely not. It is unethical and illegal.

Should I blog or tweet anonymously? Probably not. Anonymity can make it easier for doctors to post content that is disrespectful to patients or that undermines patient trust in the profession.

LiveJournal Tags: social networks,doctors networks,AMA,fierce practice management,health train express

Inspector General Reports CMS to who?? or

Failure is an OPTION

 

A recent report in iHealthbeat from the California Health Care Foundation states that CMS did notcomply with identifying and reporting to the

Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank as required by law, according to a new report from HHS' Office of the Inspector General, "ProPublica Blog" reports (Wang, "ProPublica Blog," 9/22).

Read more:

iHealthbeat

Since CMS cannot keep up with present reporting requirements, why should anyone believe CMS will be able to comply with  HHS’ demands for meaningful use reporting, or P4P, or outcome statistics. 

The system is set up to FAIL !!

CMS REPORTING TO THE HEALTHCARE INTEGRITY AND PROTECTION DATA BANK

Background on Data Bank

HIPDB aims to help hospitals and other organizations hire health care providers who are in good legal standing with health care regulations, and Medicare and Medicaid program requirements (Clark, HealthLeaders Media, 9/23).

Federal law requires CMS to update the database with information on:

• Civil monetary penalties levied against health care providers, managed care plans and prescription drug plans;
• Terminations of participation in Medicare; and
• Revocations and suspensions of laboratory certifications.

Report Findings

The inspector general report found that CMS disciplined numerous medical entities but failed to report many of those actions to the database.

Some of the actions that CMS failed to report include:

• 148 sanctions imposed against laboratories in 2007; and
• 30 sanctions imposed against managed care plans and prescription drug plans between January 2006 and July 31, 2009.

Although CMS banned 45 nursing homes from participating in Medicare between 2004 and 2008, the agency did not report the terminations to the database until fall 2009, according to the inspector general report.

The report also noted that a division of CMS that tracks and reports action against Medicare-certified health care providers did not report any disciplinary actions to the database between 2001 and 2008.

According to the report, CMS did not report the actions because it mistakenly believed that it should report only fraud and abuse cases to the database ("ProPublica Blog," 9/22).

Recommendations

The inspector general report recommends that CMS quickly begin reporting all disciplinary actions to HIPDB.

It also calls for CMS to "educate staff and contractors about the types of adverse actions to be reported and the time frames for reporting" (HealthLeaders Media, 9/23).

CMS Response

In a response to the inspector general's office, CMS acknowledged its reporting gaps.

The agency said it will take steps to scale back manual reporting and strengthen the necessary infrastructure for meeting reporting requirements ("ProPublica Blog," 9/22).

LiveJournal Tags: CMS,HHS,MEDICARE,NPDB,Health Leaders,Propublica

Change

Resident Work Hours- More Reform

OSHA (The Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has now entered the fray concerning physician resident work hours

Public Citizen, AMSA, and the  committee of residents and interns have sent a petition to the Secretary of  OSHA. Who signed the petition?

LiveJournal Tags: OSHA,AMSA,Resident Physicians,Work Hours,Health Reform,Healthtrain express,quality of care,ACGME

According to Katherine Matos writing on the health care blog,

The petition requests that OSHA exercise the authority granted under §3(8) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to implement the following federal work-hour standard:

Previous attempts to do this were via the regulatory powers of numerous graduate medical education programs and their ‘guidelines’ from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education Programs, whose threat was the de-certification of a specialty program or an overall withdrawal of the institutions graduate medical education credentials.

This new and innovative approach reveals the growing influence of student doctors and young doctors at a national level.

Arguments have gone on for decades regarding the near ‘servitude’ in post graduate medical education programs.

Program directors and trained doctors have often used the argument that shortening resident work hours would greatly impact on their ability to follow disease states, and impair patient care by frequent transfer of their care to other residents.

Residents have argued that the long work hours impact on the quality of care, and studies have shown the error rate increased substantially with long work hours and lack of adequate sleep periods.

There have been numerous studies demonstrating the adverse effects of sleep deprivation in resident physicians.

JAMA,   NEJM, A Study performed at the Johns Hopkins University,

Mental Health

• One study described “house officer stress syndrome.” Caused in large part by sleep-deprivation and excessive work load, physicians-in-training may suffer from (1) episodic cognitive impairment, (2) chronic low-grade anger with outbursts, (3) pervasive cynicism, (4) family discord, (5) depression, (6) suicidal ideation and suicide, and (7) substance abuse.
• Four studies demonstrated that residents are unhappy, face high levels of stress, and suffer “major problems” in their personal relationships with others.
• Three studies demonstrated that on-call residents reported greater mood disturbance and increased negative mood than those who were rested.
• One study found that as many as 30% of residents experience depression during their residencies.
• A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 21% of residents reported depressed scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale and that depressed responses increased with longer work weeks. Two other studies also found increased rates of depression among residents that correlated with high work hours.

Pregnancy

• A NEJM study reported that premature labor and preeclampsia or eclampsia was twice as common among pregnant residents as the wives of male residents and that residents working more than 100 hours per week in the third trimester were twice as much at risk for preterm delivery than those that worked fewer than 100 hours.
• The pre-term labor and preeclampsia risk was validated by a study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
• One study found that infants born during residency significantly more likely to be born with intrauterine growth restriction.

Percutaneous Injuries (such as needlestick injuries)

• A JAMA study of self-reported percutaneous injuries in residents found that substantially increased risk during day shifts after overnight call as compared with day shifts not preceded by overnight call.
• “An Annals of Surgery study from 2005 found that 20 to 38% of all procedures in one urban academic teaching hospital involved exposure to HIV, HBV or HCV.”
• A NEJM study found that 99% of all residents had suffered a needlestick injury by their final year of study. Fatigue was the second most common reason given for the injury.

The Response from OSHA thus far:

‘A clear shot over the bow of current resident work hours.

A large part of this article is quoted from The Health Care Blog

New venue

I was busy the past several days working on relocating health train express onto a new ‘track’.  I had some difficulties transporting images from my present location, so health train express will remain on this track while I resolve some ‘geek’ issues.

President Obama is beginning another round of promoting ‘Obama care”.  Public opinion is overwhelming against the overall scope of reform..  Today’s Wall Street Journal Blog focuses on this,

“Health Care on the Agenda: Following mid-term elections, the Obama administration this week will once again focus on pushing the overhaul of the health care system, with the president giving a health-care speech on Wednesday, reports the WSJ. Public support has continued to wane, particularly in light of unpopular moves like some insurers saying they must raise premiums well beyond the anticipated 1% to 2%. Some provisions of the law take effect this week, including the one allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26.”

No doubt he has heard the rumblings from the outcome of primaries this past week.  

What is interesting in the above commentary is that the insurers were at the table of reform machinations, and now have backtracked on their estimates of the increased cost to them caused by health reform.

Stay tuned…………..

LiveJournal Tags: obamacare,health train express,wsj,reform,primary elections

Pew Internet Project

 

The Pew Internet Project's Susannah Fox discusses the research group's latest healthcare findings at Health 2.0. Europe. The Pew Internet project is a non-profit research organization based in Washington DC that studies the social impact of the internet.

 

 

She elaborates on several patterns of usage for patients with chronic diseases, diabetes, cancer, lung diseases, hypertension and those with acute illness.  Patients with chronic diseases are more likely to see or ask a health professional.  Only 62% of patients with chronic illness seek advice from the internet, while 82% of healthy individuals seek advice from the internet. 93% of those with chronic illness seek their health from health professionals rather than the internet.

Patients seek knowledge from each other, via blogs and sites such as  ‘People Like Me”, listservs, rather than health education websites.

The internet is a supplement to health care and has been over-rated as to it’s importance.  Further development is necessary.

Watch the video .

LiveJournal Tags: health 2.0,health train express,Pew Internet Project,Susannah Fox

Reviewing the Past

Yesterday I was privileged to witness the growth of our Inland Empire Health Information Organization. After one false start five years ago it now will happen.   Bottom line,  you just follow the money and the open pocketbook of the U.S. Congress (your taxpayer dollars)

I had been away for almost five years after planting a seed for the development of this important initiative.

Five years ago when David Brailer MD was head of ONCHIT few knew what was being planned nor what would come to fruition.

For those who want to look at some of those days click here…..

I don’t really remember writing some of these blogs , but this one was particularly funny (at least to me)

After a long hard search I found my original blog post announcing the formation of the Riverside Regional Health Information Technology Group  WHAT WAS I THINKING??? circa February 2005 (over five years ago)!!!