Healthcare IT News - January 2009 - (Page 3) www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news January 2009 ■ Healthcare IT News industry By dIaNa maNos, Senior Editor news obama gives Daschle dual roles Healthcare IT News posts original news stories on its Web site daily. Here are recent top stories, as selected by the editors. ChICaGO Leavitt reLeases his doctrine on it privacy Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has released an eight-point “doctrine” for stimulating conversation about healthcare IT privacy. He said the doctrine is his own, formulated “with a lot of thought,” but for the sake of time not yet thoroughly vetted through HHS. Speaking at the Fifth Nationwide Health Information Network Forum in Washington, Dec. 15, Leavitt said he plans to launch a public discussion about privacy and expand the doctrine in his remaining 36 days as HHS secretary. Date: 12/15/08 caLifornia estabLishes teLeheaLth center The private non-partisan California HealthCare Foundation is establishing an organization to lead and coordinate telehealth services throughout California. Called the California Center for Connected Health, it will be based in Sacramento, and will be led by Sandra Shewry, former director of the California Department of Health Care Services, who was named president and CEO. The center will connect stakeholders including state agencies, provider groups and public and private organizations to set the strategy and vision for a sustainable telehealth model in California. Date: 12/15/08 – President-elect Barack Obama made it formal. Former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota is his nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Obama also named Daschle to lead a White House healthcare reform team, with Jean Lambrew as deputy director. Lambrew, a senior fellow tom Daschle at the Center for American Progress and an associate professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, coauthored a book with Daschle titled “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” In making the announcement on Dec. 11, Obama said Daschle has fresh ideas and is one of foremost healthcare experts today, woven into our overall economic bringing expertise and the abilthe news: HHS ➔ recovery plan,” he said. “It’s part ity to work across the aisle. Secretary designate to of the emergency.” “He has trust from folks on head healthcare reform. Obama said he plans to achieve every angle on this issue,” Obama what it means: a savings in healthcare over the said. “Tom is a ➔ President-elect Obama long term, even if money must no drama guy.” serious about tackling be invested in the short term. He Obama said healthcare immediately. will begin by investing in healthDaschle would care IT to cut costs. lead with decency, His healthcare reform plan calls for $10 graciousness and pragmatism. “It’s hard to overstate the billion a year in funding for healthcare IT Jean Lambrew importance of this work,” over five years. He also said he will take a hard look at Medicare Advantage as a proObama said. When asked how America can afford to gram not delivering “bang for its buck.” Various groups, including the Healthcare invest in healthcare during the current economy, Obama said, “How can we afford not Information and Management Systems to?” He said he has talked to families on the Society and the American College of campaign trail facing bankruptcy over medi- Phyisicians, have offered the administration cal expenses, and that small businesses are advice on how to proceed with reform. ■ suffering from healthcare costs. More at HealthcareITNews.com Healthcare reform “has to be intimately ●Connect: DasCHLe 0109 e It’s a new year, so ‘dream big’ By dIaNa maNos, Senior Editor i to control healthcare costs, industry leaders recommend comparing the effectiveness of various drugs. Information technology is central to making that comparison, they say. states increasingLy wired for heaLthcare it A new report released by the National Conference of State Legislatures shows state lawmakers are moving at an unprecedented rate to get healthcare wired in their states. According to NCSL, each year states have been working on increasing their efforts to pass laws that will advance healthcare IT as a way to improve quality of care and control healthcare costs. This most recent NCSL study shows that during an 18-month period between 2007 and 2008, state lawmakers introduced more than 370 bills relating to healthcare IT. Date: 12/12/08 Leaders urge it use to help decide best treatment Watch By dIaNa maNos, Senior Editor boost in the use of phrs is LikeLy, survey finds A new survey says individuals will be creating their own personal health records in order to better manage their health. The survey was conducted by Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Morpace Inc., a research and consulting organization specializing in the automotive, financial services, healthcare, retail and technology sectors. The survey found that 27 percent of American adults say they are “extremely likely or somewhat likely” to create an online PHR to help track their medical history and medications. Date: 12/10/08 More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: Webbriefs 0109 ● WASHINGTON – Comparing the effectiveness of various drugs, treatments and devices will be the key to reining in out-of-control healthcare costs, according to top healthcare leaders who spoke at the eHealth Initiative’s Fifth Annual Conference last month. Gail Wilensky, senior fellow at Project HOPE and former healthcare financing administrator, said with the way Medicare is structured today, “it is impossible to be efficient.” Wilensky is also the former chairperson of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. What America needs is comparative effectiveness of bundled treatments needed for a single condition. Medicare shouldn’t pay for one treatment or intervention at a time, she said. Wilensky called it a dynamic process where “the role of IT will very much be that of an enabler.” The idea is to reward doctors who provide high quality care at lower costs. Data on best practices will be com- pared and conveyed via healthcare IT. Wilensky’s push for comparative effectiveness was mirrored by other speakers at the eHealth conference. Mark McClellan, MD, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care at Brookings Institution and former administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said healthcare IT must be coupled with any effort for healthcare reform based on cost and effectiveness comparison. Janet Corrigan, president and CEO of the National Quality Forum, a nonprofit collective of 350 organizations, said healthcare quality is not improving at an acceptable pace and the United States “still has the same fragmented, clunky delivery system.” Corrigan predicted that over the next five years, performance measurement reporting and clinical decision support will grow at an aggressive pace. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: eHi 0109 and soonto-be President Barack Obama isn’t the only one saying, “Yes we can.” During Obama’s aggressive transition period, groundwork has already been laid for healthcare reform that will include healthcare IT advancement as a key principle. The grassroots efforts Obama used to get elected are still in play. Last month, under Obama’s direcwa shi ngton tion, volunteers across America held healthcare reform meetings in their homes. The Obama administration transition team said it would tally the results for consideration. Though no one has said it outright, it’s hard not to speculate on how this grass roots rallying might be used to sway resistant Republicans should the need arise. Stakeholders from every angle of healthcare IT are stepping forward to add to the 2009 plans for reform, including, recently, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Though the plans vary, virtually no one is saying change is impossible. At the e-Health Initiative’s annual conference in December, Joseph H. Kanter of the Joseph H. Kanter Foundation may have put it best when he said, “Dream big.” t’s the new year, More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: MaNos 0109 ● ● http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/obama-gives-daschle-dual-roles http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/industry-news-briefs-17 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/its-new-year-so-dream-big http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/leaders-urge-it-use-help-decide-best-treatment
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