Posts filed under 'Healthcare Reform'
By Erica
This morning, the WSJ reported on various Silicon Valley companies striving to reduce healthcare costs and inefficiencies using high-tech methods. Examples include:
• A miniature digestible chip that can be attached to conventional medication, sending a signal that confirms whether patients are taking their prescribed pills.
• A wearable device for wirelessly measuring vital signs in hospital rooms.
• A Band-Aid-like sensor that monitors patients on the move by measuring respiration, fluid status and physical movements.
Can these technologies help improve our ailing healthcare system?
Eric Topol, a cardiologist and genomics professor at Scripps Research Institute, believes they can. “Wireless applications have the potential to change every one of these areas,” he said at an industry event in San Diego last week.
I must say I’m surprised some of these ideas are only now being developed. Wirelessly measuring vital signs seems like a no-brainer, as it eliminates the need for “spot checks” and allows for continuous monitoring of various signs such as blood pressure.
The digestible chip, though intended for good use, seems a bit “Big Brother” to me. I take my prescribed pills in the proper dosage, so I don’t know that I will get behind this chip.
What do you think about Silicon Valley’s effort to improve healthcare?
August 4th, 2009
By Cheri
In an interesting article by Kaiser Health News (via MSNBC) health experts raise issue with the widely held belief that by stressing prevention they will lower healthcare costs. Furthermore, these experts also warn that prevention may not help to save lives either.
One area highlighted was cancer screening for breast and cervical cancers. He notes that these tests do not save money in the long run but do help to save lives. Read more at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32275652/ns/health-health_care/
What are your thoughts on preventative care?
August 4th, 2009
Coming out of last week’s NJ scandle was the arrest of Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, who has been accused of brokering illegal deals to organs. Newsweek published an interesting article about this market and highlighted costs associated with these organs on the black market. Who knew that Kidney’s could go for updwards of $30,000?!
Read more on Newsweek.
July 27th, 2009
By Jackie
In today’s economic climate, we’re all trying to stretch a buck. Cooking in instead of eating out, staycations in lieu of European trips, haggling with your doctor on medical costs…wait, hold the anesthesia. What? According to Forbes.com, consumers are becoming increasingly more savvy as it relates to their healthcare costs and savings, and why not – on average, families spend more than $3k each year on copays, coinsurance, premiums and deductibles, a whopping 2x as much as a decade ago. As Forbes reports, the rising healthcare costs, coupled with increased share paid by the patient, is giving patients the incentive, and courage, needed to bargain their healthcare prices.
Some tips for bargaining? Try to work out a reasonable deal in advance. Remember, your MD is by no means a car salesman and thus, will not respond well to lowballing. Work with your physician in advance of your surgery or procedure so you both feel comfortable with the level of care, and corresponding cost, for the treatment. Then, post-service, ask for a complete, itemized bill – and be sure to look out for mistakes. Often hospitals will double-charge you on certain items and interestingly enough, patients can obtain a significant discount just by challenging specific items on the bill.
Rest assured, if negotiation isn’t your forte, companies like Medical Cost Advocate will do the dirty work for you. According to Forbes, the company can save you, on average, anywhere from 10% to 40% on total costs.
If you’re anything like me, there’s a certain part of this trend that seems, well, rather unnatural and uncomfortable. I grew up with the mindset that healthcare costs were healthcare costs, no questions asked. I wouldn’t want the reduced cost of my procedure to, even unintentionally, determine the level of quality I receive. Whether or not you agree, one thing is for sure – the way we think about medical care is drastically changing, right before our very eyes.
July 23rd, 2009
By Cheri
During Dr. Don Wright’s update on the HHS Action Plan to reduce the rates of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in the country at APIC 2009, he noted that before the problem can be fixed there were vast gaps in HAI knowledge. Some of the problems he brought up were:
- Patient Tracking: Many patients leave the hospital to reside in long term care or proceed with out patient treatments. If an infection develops as a result of a procedure/medical device that is implanted for these on going therapies, it is never tracked back to the hospital to be included in their HAI rates.
- Measurement: Hospitals report on infections in different ways. Catheter related blood stream infections, for example, can be reported on by the number of infections that occur over the number of days (infections/catheter days) or by the number of infections per catheters inserted (infections/catheters inserted). This makes it difficult to compare rates across hospitals.
- Infrastructure: The way the infrastructure is currently set up, information reported or plugged into one government system, cannot be easily formatted/extrapolated for another report.
There are certainly steps that need to be taken to help reduce rates of HAIs but it sounds like HHS has developed a comprehensive plan, taking into account the current system’s short comings, to find a solution.
June 10th, 2009
By Lynda
The Indy Star posted a great article yesterday summarizing John Lechleiter’s luncheon speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington this week.
The CEO of Eli Lilly advises that any changes the government makes this year should not make it harder for drug makers to develop new medicines, in fear that Obama’s health care reform will limit biotech and pharma companies’ ability to develop life-saving medicines.
In his opinion piece in the WSJ this week, Lechleiter included several powerful figures to support his statement including:
“Even in the last two decades of the 20th century, new medicines accounted for 40% of the increase in life expectancy in more than 50 countries, according to a recent study by Columbia University economist Frank Lichtenberg. In other words, for every year that life expectancy has increased, five months can be attributed to the availability of new medicines.”
Although Lechleiter acknowledges a government-managed healthcare system would not eliminate biomedical innovation entirely, he urges a market-driven system would provide more valuable health care including new, more effective medicines, devices and diagnostic tools.
What are your thoughts? Are there other best practices we can learn from surrounding supporting biomedical innovation in a government-managed system in other countries?
It will be in interesting to continue to follow Obama’s plans as it develops this year.
May 15th, 2009
By Palmer Reuther
More U.S. doctors are opting to become medical specialists rather than general practitioners (GPs) due primarily to the higher pay received for conducting focused medical care. The result is that there are much fewer GPs, the primary source of the nation’s health care, to meet the increasing needs of an aging population.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said, “The work force shortage is reaching crisis proportions.”
This issue, which poses a major obstacle to Obama’s health care reform, is expected to be compounded by the millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president. This would leave an even greater divide in the number of GPs and the patients they treat.
One of Obama’s proposed solutions, which aims to level the playing field would essentially pay GPs on par with medical specialists. While this plan would provide patients with more access to care, it would add greater financial strain to an industry that is already stretched and under constant scrutiny for spiraling costs.
This issue is heating up and we’ll be sure to keep an eye on any developments here.
May 7th, 2009
By Cheri
This week’s World Health Care Congress has put healthcare reform at the center stage. Today, an impressive panel of Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus and Frank Rijsberman of Google met to talk about the sustainability of healthcare. The audience was able to hear Yunus’ view of reforming the healthcare in developing countries and ways to increase access to healthcare providers. Rijsberman provided his thoughts on improving the distribution of healthcare data, a space that Google has already made moves into. Further reporting on the panel can be found on the Healthcare Congress blog.
Additionally, X PRIZE has announced its latest contest with funding from WellPoint, seeking ideas “to create an optimal health paradigm that empowers and engages individuals and communities in a way that dramatically improves health value.” Written entries will be accepted over the next 18 months and five entries will be selected for a three-year experiment. The model will have to work across a community of 10,000 people and improve health by 50% in this three- year period. The winning entry will receive $10 million.
Will you be submitting or have thoughts about how this could be executed?
April 15th, 2009
By Jackie
Today marks the start of the 6th annual World Health Care Congress, a prestigious gathering of the nation’s movers and shakers in healthcare, with convergence across all sectors of the industry. This year’s meeting boasts presentations from a number of leading healthcare executives including Angela Braly, president and CEO of Wellpoint, George Halvlorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation and Carolyn Clancy, MD, Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. With all of the recent chatter and attention around the future of this $2.4 trillion industry, we anticipate a number of hot button items on this year’s agenda including:
• Health IT reform
• Economics in healthcare
• Personalized medicine
• Comparative effectiveness
• Consumer-centric healthcare
We’re eager to see the buzz generated from this week’s forum. Check back in for updates over the next couple of days!
April 14th, 2009
By Jackie
It’ll take more than an economic downturn to slow down this nation’s group of health IT professionals. According to preliminary figures, approximately 27,500 flocked to the Windy City this week for the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) meeting. Although numbers were down by around 5% from last year’s Orlando-based meeting, show organizers anticipated a much higher drop-off in attendance, due, well, in large part to the current state of the economy.
Ironically, many said that it was the economy itself that drew the crowds, eager to learn more about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed into law by President Obama in February. Industry speculators have linked the stimulus package to more than $35 billion in federal dollars designed to spark spending on health information technology. So did the lure work? Survey says yes – attendees felt genuinely energized and excited by the administration’s marked commitment to reform and the anticipated positive effect on the industry as a whole.
But the administration wasn’t the only noisemaker at the show. A number of industry veterans, and newcomers, made some exciting announcements that clearly demonstrate the appeal of this fast-growing sector of healthcare. Some highlights:
• Dell, a company traditionally known for its customizable, personal computers, launched Ideastorm for Healthcare – a project designed to give a voice to the community in an effort to better improve healthcare equipment and processes.
• GE Healthcare and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pairing up to deliver personalized public health alerts to EMR in physician’s offices. Want to learn if you’re at risk for a new strain of influenza based on your zip code? Your MD would receive a pop-up on his computer screen during your visit that would alert him to the risk.
• Even IBM is fully engaged – the company announced a partnership with the Mayo Clinic to launch a new, collaborative Website that can provide researchers and physicians with clues to and information on disease patterns.
So what are your thoughts? Did the HIMSS organization fully capitalize on Capitol Hill’s commitment to bolstering a field known historically for its resistance to technology? We’d love to hear from you.
April 10th, 2009
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