Healthcare IT News - July 2008 - (Page 3)

www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news July 2008 ■ Healthcare IT News industry news ahIP dubs ’09 year for reform Army invests in rFid system to trAck medicAl records The nation’s largest active-duty domestic armed forces facility at Fort Hood, Texas, has completed installation of a radio frequency identification system to track and manage the more than 150,000 medical files of U.S. Army personnel and their family members. Army officials say the installation will save them both time and money. The RFID system was installed by 3M and under its three-year $3.76-million contract, 3M Track and Trace Solutions will provide training and maintenance services to Fort Hood over the next year. Date: 6/27/08 Discussion of information technology peppers Institute 2008. By PaTTy enrado, Contributing Editor Hl7 lAnds rockeFeller grAnt For HeAltHcAre it Forum Health Level 7 has been awarded a $348,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant to convene a conference on interoperability in developing countries. The standards organization will work with the World Health Organization. The goal is to identify a path to sustainable, interoperable healthcare technology to support better health and health systems in the Global South – Africa, Central and Latin America and most of Asia. The conference will be held at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy this July. Date: 6/20/08 SAn frAnciSco – Healthcare reform in a presidential election year topped the agenda at AHIP Institute 2008, the America’s Health Insurance Plans’ annual conference – and some of the talk was peppered with how information technology might play a role. Keynote speakers debated which reform plan would be the most effective, what type of reform the presidential candidates support and how big the transformation will be, while on the first day demonstrators protested the insurance industry’s profits and supported a single-payer program. The philosophy of whether you believe healthcare is basically a consumer good or a social good determines where you sit on the healthcare reform debate, said former Senate Majority Leader William Frist (RTenn.). He said that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s universal coverage plan would drive healthcare William Frist costs even higher than it is today, whereas Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s changes to the tax code would bring about incremental reform. The argument over whether the government should do it all or shouldn’t do anything at all has created the current stalemate, said former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.). He believes a new Congress and bipartisan support will fuel healthcare reform. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was more optimistic about the scope of reform, emphasizing that health IT will play a critical role in making healthcare more affordable and accessible. The same message was delivJohn Breaux ered by Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. He told attendees that technology would make healthcare more efficient and more affordable and accessible to provider venues with limited healthcare resources. More than 1,000 demonstrators protested aHIP see page 4 By BernIe MonegaIn, Editor Case sets stage for It at HFMa’s conference LAS VEGAS – While the annual national confer- cAliForniA tAgs $6m For HeAltHcAre it expAnsion Twelve California organizations will receive grants totaling $6 million for healthcare information technology, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced last month. The grants are part of $50 million in charitable investments the state acquired from PacifiCare Health Systems when it merged with the UnitedHealth Group in 2005. The grants, which can also be used to promote medical education and coordinated care, target California’s underserved population. “These projects provide an important step toward fixing our broken healthcare system by giving consumers and medical providers better access to telemedicine technology and personal health records,” Schwarzenegger said. Date: 6/19/08 ence of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, stayed true to its core interest – all things financial – it also showed repeatedly how finance and information technology overlap. The official numbers were not available at press time, but conference organizers estimated more than 5,000 people attended the event. Steve case’s keynote talk Steve Case, found- focused on consumers. er, CEO and chairman of Revolution Health, took IT center stage when he delivered his keynote consumers’ expectation. He allowed that information technology might not become a significant force in healthcare for another 10 to 20 years. However, consumers are expecting the use of IT in healthcare and they are demanding it, he told his audience of financial managers and executives. Many of the educational sessions at the conference, held in Las Vegas June 23-26, had to do with technology in one form or another – most often the in the form of revenue cycle management. However, sessions on topics such as supply chain and cost management, charge capture and documentation, pricing strategies and patient communication, all carried an IT component. Steven Schaefer, vice president of finance at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Wash., pointed out in one session that CFOs should not assume that IT will solve an organization’s management and billing issues. He said CFOs need a more profound understanding of how technology would function at their workplaces if implemented. His session was called HFMa see page 6 HIMSS boosts Capitol Hill effort By dIana ManoS, Senior Editor WAShinGton – Attendance for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual advocacy day held on June 11 was up 30 percent this year, according to David Roberts, HIMSS vice president for govmore on ernment relations. nAtionAl Hit A total of 200 attend- week on pAge 21. ees from 41 states attended the advocacy event, held in conjunction with National Health IT Week. HIMSS members went to Capitol Hill in an effort to persuade lawmakers to pass a healthcare IT bill. Roberts attributed the increased attendance in part to more interest from HIMSS state chapters that have been promoting advocacy all year. The Pennsylvania Chapter HArvArd’s teAcHing HospitAl to connect pHysiciAn oFFices Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a Harvard teaching hospital based in Boston, is connecting four diverse, local physician offices to its community electronic health record and anticipates data sharing among the small offices by August. Through the program, 300 doctors in 150 practices in the New England region will have the capability to share protected health information by 2010 and within five years all clinicians will be on EHRs, said John Halamka, MD, CIO of BIDMC and of Harvard Medical Center. Date: 6/17/08 More at HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: WeBBrIeFS 0708 David Roberts, hIMSS vice president for government relations, credited state chapters for promoting It advocacy year-round. ● even rented a bus this year to transport its members to national advocacy day, he said. HIMSS held its annual summit June 910 this year to coincide with advocacy day in Washington. Susan Farrell, HIMSS vice HIMSS see page 6 nology were a great, big powerful beast – albeit a good beast – then privacy would be a fire burning in its belly. Incidents like the recent well-publicized privacy breach at Walter Reed Hospital outside of Washington, D.C. only fan the flames. According to Deborah Peel, MD, founder of Patient Privacy Rights, that fire is undeniable and should be quenched, for starters, by Congress defining what privacy means. At a June 11 debate hosted by wA sH i ngton the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Peel argued there is no way to track violations of privacy because privacy is not defined and currently there are no audit trails. “The bottom line is, this is about jobs and health insurance,” she argued. “Healthcare IT will only work if it gains the public’s trust.” Howard Burde, an attorney and partner at Blank, Rome LLP, in Philadelphia, took the opposite side in the debate. Healthcare IT is fundamentally useful in saving lives, he said. The best course of action is to punish violators, not halt progress. I talked to Deven McGraw, outside of the June 11 debate, and she took a stance somewhere in the middle. Director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and ManoS see page 4 i Privacy fire burns in belly of the beast f hEALthcArE informAtion tech- Watch http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITnews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9506

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Healthcare IT News - July 2008 Contents IT’s Financial Link eRx Power SOA Q&A Bent on Wireless Digital Switch IT Legacy Change Agent Panasonic 'Book' Taking a Shift Computer Types

Healthcare IT News - July 2008

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