Healthcare IT News - February 2009 - (Page 23) www.HealthcareITNews.com payERS February 2009 ■ Healthcare IT News 23 woman said. The agency recently overhauled the Medicare payment system for inpatient stay to ensure payment accuracy, she said. “Streamlining is a matter of efficiency, and certainly we don’t want to be inefficient,” she said. However, streamlining at the expense of accuracy is not one of CMS’ goals. “Our goal is to pay accurately and remove any incentive other than the incentive to provide high-quality care.” ■ More at BIPoLar Continued from page 22 sofTwarE Continued from page 22 ouTsourCE Continued from page 22 analysis, all of which benefit from advances in technology.” “This is a promising and interesting concept,” Ken Duckworth, MD, medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said of WellPoint’s program. Medication non-adherence is a fundamental probMichael Brase, lem in the mental health MD field, Duckworth said. “We need better strategies and approaches to address this,” he said. In Duckworth’s view, working models should be published in medical literature so the industry can learn about what is and isn’t working. “If this (WellPoint’s program) is a better way to do it, it will be widely adopted,” he said. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: biPolar 0209 studies, subrogation results in billiondollar recovery for big insurance carriers, said Michael Carr, executive director of the National Association of Subrogation Professionals. Carr pointed out that subrogation investment costs one-third less than premium investments. “A small percentage of the claims you pay out are subrogatable if you are good at identifying it,” he said. ■ HealthcareITNews.com e ●Connect: Software 0209 More at “Medicare pricing is an art,” said Janice Young, program director for Health Industry Insights. “Outsourcing makes some sense because it is relatively standardized and used across all Medicare plans.” Congress sets out the statutory framework for Medicare reimbursement, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, implements the system within the statute, a CMS spokes- HealthcareITNews.com e ● Connect: outSource 0209 ● PorTaBLE Continued from page 22 Insights, said. Many PHRs are simply data repositories, said Nita Stella, senior vice president of product development for ActiveHealth Management. Members can transfer their health information to a consumer version of ActivePHR or to Microsoft HealthVault. “We’re enabling technology to move data around,” she said of ActiveHealth Management’s efforts. While it’s critical to update data, the data is not useful unless it has intelligence behind it, she said. “You have to have an intelligent engine that provides actual inference and supports evidence to enable healthcare decisions,” she said. Consumer comfort with using PHRs is key to adoption and will increase demand for more functionality not unlike consumer adop- Nita Stella tion of online banking, she said. “Alerts, such as reminders of overdue screening exams or the potential for an adverse drug event to occur, will encourage consumers to take action to manage their own health,” she said. “The PHR becomes an actionable tool, not simply a static collection of health information.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently launched PHR pilots for its Medicare members in Arizona and Utah. “With the pilots we have under way now, our focus has been on the consumer and empowering them to take control of the management of their health and healthcare,” said spokesman Donald McLeod. “We are looking into working more with physicians in the future,” he added. “We hope that EHRs and PHRs will be interconnected someday, but we don’t really know when that will happen.” Stella said ActiveHealth Management is trying to set the bar higher for PHRs. “The next-generation PHR is a more patient-oriented tool that can be accessed wherever the user is,” she said. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: Portable 0209 june 3-5, 2009 San diego Convention Center San diego, California Changing economy, Changing Health Care, Changing Lives institute 2009 From the economy to technology to the media, the American way of life is changing. But, what about health care? We know it needs to change, but how should it evolve? Institute 2009, June 3-5 in San Diego, will look at this nexus of change on both a global and day-to-day operational level, including what it means for you, the leaders and their vision, and how you can be an integral part of the future health care system. When you devote just a few days, you’ll get big results. Institute 2009 is filled with keynote, workshop, concurrent, and breakfast sessions; plenty of networking; and an exhibit hall with nearly 200 companies. RegisteR Now For more information or to register for Institute 2009, visit the www.ahip.org/conferences/Institute2009 www.ahip.org/conferences/institute2009 or call 877.291.2247. 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