The Apple iPod Racer will be competing in the Charleston Pack 28 Pinewood Derby. We are hoping for a win in the “best creativity” class to highlight the spirit of Creative West Virginians. Apple has nothing on us. Wish us luck!
WASHINGTON, DC — Sandy Eaton, RN, of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, addresses members of Congress and Congressional staff members assembled Wednesday to learn more about the Massachusetts model for reform and why people are still suffering and lacking healthcare under the plan.
58 members of Congress sent staff to learn more from the expert panel, and the briefing was hosted by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care. Congressman Eric Massa of New York moderated the briefing, and several other members of Congress attended as well, including Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and Rep Lynn Woolsey.
Some current health reform plans for the nation claim great victory for the Massachusetts law — Chapter 58, as the state's residents know it — but the expert panel walked the briefing attendees through the economic and social difficulties associated with the state plan that makes private health insurance companies huge profits while forcing the closure of many safety net programs and facilities. The experts agreed — extending this sort of reform to the nation would surely cause the same results — only on a larger scale.
With one important exception — single payer reform, or expanding and updating Medicare to cover everyone.
So what are those lofty goals set by the administration?
Obama has endorsed eight guiding principles for health reform, the White House officials said on the conference call. They stressed that they intend to work with lawmakers and other stakeholders on how to accomplish the goals, but the principles will lay down a marker for any congressional plan.
Drum roll, please. A healthcare plan, they told reporters, should be:
To the administration's credit, these should be the benchmarks of any real reform. And to give them further props, the administration is even projecting progressive tax reform as a financing mechanism.
The combined effect of the two revenue-raising proposals, on top of Mr. Obama’s existing plan to roll back the Bush-era income tax reductions on households with income exceeding $250,000 a year, would be a pronounced move to redistribute wealth by reimposing a larger share of the tax burden on corporations and the most affluent taxpayers.
But on the construct of the plan itself, a huge barrier stands in the way. The present private insurance-based system is an implacable impediment to every one of these goals.
The insurance giants, of course, are not care providers. They are big corporations. They exist to make money, primarily to return profits for their shareholders. Every aspect of their operations are geared to that end.
Private insurance plans:
Thus any plan which sustains, protects, or expands the role of the insurance industry in healthcare cannot, by definition, achieve any of these worthy aims.
One bill, however, does succeed in all eight areas. That is HR 676, the U.S. National Health Care Act by Rep. John Conyers, which also happens to be the one reform that has a broad, national grassroots constituency led by nurses, doctors, patients, and health care activists.
With the administration having laid our a vision, but deferred implementation to Congress, that should be a signal to all of us to put their feet to the fire and push for real reform, like HR 676.
Today I am attending the World Health Care Congress2nd Annual Leadership Summit on Consumer Connectivity in Carlsbad, CA. Good presentations and discussion with those in attendance. You can follow the conference via Twitter at #WHCC2 or get live blogging at EKIVE by Mark Schrimshire using Cover It Live.
I just finished up my afternoon presentation with Rod Piechowski with the American Hospital Association on the topic of Overcoming Legal and Policy Barriers for Health IT Adoption. With the recent passage of ARRA 2009 we thought it valuable to talk about the changing landscape of Health IT as a result of the new bill. Below are the slides from my presentation.
Medical Economics covers the developing world of physician social networking websites in Behind doctors’ social networking websites.
Interestingly the article begins with a story about a West Virginia physician, Danine Rydland, MD, using Sermo to search for information to help her treat one of her patients.
Fellow health care lawyer colleague, AHLA HIT member and friend, Jud DeLoss, provides an excellent overview of the Physician Incentives under the HITECH ACT.
The incentives focus on providing direct payment for the adoption, implementation and maintenance of electronic health records (EHRs) to “eligible professional” who establishes the “meaninful use” of an EHR.
Check out this post and others at Jud’s Minnesota Health IT Blog.
I noticed some traffic coming from the Avvo Blog and realized that they compiled a list of top legal blogs based on Alexa traffic rankings. Currently my Health Care Law Blog comes in at #98 on the list.
If you are new to legal blogs this is a great list to see the variety of law related blogs available. Thanks to Avvo for compiling and sharing the list.
This week’s settlement by CVS, the nations largest retail pharmacy chain, to pay the U.S. government a $2.25 million settlement and take corrective action highlights the need for providers and other covered entities to focus on the simple privacy protections such as appropriately disposing of patient information in a secure manner.
The first known joint investigation and settlement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with CVS was the result of CVS failing to guard patients PHI when disposing of patient information such as identifying information on pill bottle labels. .
The review and settlement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule by OCR and the FTC indicated that:
The investigation started after various news media reported fiding prescription drug and other PHI had been dumped into unsecured trash containers at CVS pharmacies. As a result CVS not only violated the HIPAA Privacy Rule but also was brought under the FTC’s deceptive business practice guidelines by claiming that CVS represents to consumers that maintaining customer privacy was central to their operations.
For more read the OCR Press Release (related OCR information/summary) FTC Press ReleaseComplaint and Consent Order) and the Resolution Agreement. Also, OCR has posted new FAQs that address the HIPAA Privacy Rule requirements for disposal of PHI. (related FTC
Yesterday the Charleston Gazette ran an op-ed piece, West Virginia A Leader In Health Information, written by Kenneth Kizer and Peter Groen.
The article provides an overview of the various efforts in West Virginia to become a national leader in health information technology. The op-ed piece states:
As Congress deliberates the economic stimulus package aimed at, among other things, accelerating use and adoption of health information technology, leaders would be well served to look to West Virginia’s example as a guide for how to accomplish this objective in a cost-effective fashion.
West Virginia has quietly become a national leader in the use of health information technology, particularly in the area of “open-source” electronic health record solutions that are used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service. These high-value systems, developed with a substantial investment of federal funds over the past 30 years, have been adapted and are being used in a number of innovative ways to improve the health of West Virginians:
The state Department of Health and Human Resources has just completed rolling out Bar Code Medication Administration in all eight state hospitals. This technology, developed by the VA in the late 1990s, has been shown to reduce the overwhelming majority of medication errors among hospitalized patients.
DHHR completed implementation of OpenVista, the commercial version of the internationally known electronic health records used by the VA last fall. This means that all federal and state hospitals in West Virginia now use essentially the same system. No other state has done this.
West Virginia University Hospitals recently launched the second phase of implementing a proprietary electronic health records system.
The Community Health Network of West Virginia finished installing MedLynksTM RPMS, a cousin of OpenVista, in 30 clinic locations located across the state last year, and continues to implement MedLynk RPMS at additional sites. (RPMS is currently used by the Indian Health Service at almost 200 of its facilities.)
A recent survey conducted by the Shepherd University Research Corp. found that 76 percent of state hospitals have at least begun implementing an electronic health records system; this is among the highest rates, if not the highest, in the nation. These are important developments that will result in higher quality and safer health care, reduced costs and saved lives. The people of West Virginia should take pride in these accomplishments - and look forward to completion of additional efforts underway.
Gov. Manchin’s strategic plan for improving health care in West Virginia envisions important improvements, including installing electronic medical records in all hospitals and clinics in the state; implementing the West Virginia Health Information Network - a statewide network to improve information flow between different types of healthcare facilities; implementing a new web-based Medicaid claims management system to more efficiently process claims and better detect fraud and abuse; expanding use of personal health records; and continuing to increase e-prescribing.
Under the leadership of DHHR Secretary Martha Walker and Medicaid Commissioner Marsha Morris, the department has launched a Medicaid transformation initiative aimed at creating “medical homes” for Medicaid patients. Medical homes use “health information exchange” technology to connect different types of electronic medical records so that they are integrated to provide more complete information so that doctors can better treat chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease and more effectively work to keep people healthy.
The Medicaid program has established the West Virginia Health Improvement Institute and an Innovation Community to teach caregivers how to integrate health information technology and medical home concepts to support patient education and self-management. Pilot programs to show the effectiveness of these efforts are underway. The West Virginia Medicaid program competed for funding from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to support these efforts.
Further, the West Virginia Telehealth Alliance is one of 69 programs across the country that has been funded to enhance broadband capacity for nearly 300 participating facilities supporting telehealth and HIT applications in West Virginia.
Clearly, West Virginia has taken the initiative and is aggressively moving forward to improve health care using a blend of open source and commercial health-care IT systems. There is much the rest of the nation can learn from West Virginia’s experience.
Kizer, a doctor and public health specialist, is a former undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Health Services. Groen is with the Computer & Information Science Department at the Shepherd University Research Corp.
Next week I will be speaking at the World Health Care Congress 2nd Annual Leadership Summit on Consumer Connectivity in Carlsbad, CA on February 23-24. I will be co-presenting a session on Overcoming Legal and Policy Barriers for Health IT Adoption with Rod Piechowski, Senior Associate Director for Policy, American Hospital Association and Director, National Assocation of Health Information Technology.