January 2011 - The Health Care Blog

The Bookmarked Final Rules

By JOHN HALAMKA, MD Robin Raiford of Allscripts has completed the bookmarking of all the healthcare IT final rules: CMS final rule – EHR incentive program (14 Megabytes) ONC final rule – Standards Stage One (500K) ONC final rule –... Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 17 2011 8:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

So, Are EHRs a Waste of Time and Money?

By ROGER COLLIER The 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) authorized incentive payments, potentially totaling some $27 billion over ten years, to clinicians and hospitals when they implement electronic health...

Published Mon, Jan 17 2011 6:07 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Remarkable Rise of the Hyphenated-Hospitalist

By ROBERT WACHTER, MD I recall with fondness many meetings in 1996-98, when the hospitalist field was still in its infancy. We had invented a new medical specialty, and our gatherings were vibrant and purposeful. We were determined to remake... Read More...

Published Sun, Jan 16 2011 5:01 PM by The Health Care Blog

Seeding the Cloud

By ALEX ESPTEIN The newest new future of computing is floating your way. Lie back on the grass and enjoy. It is The Cloud. Not the corporate Cloud that is the trademarked provider of Wi-Fi services in Europe. But the... Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 31 2011 10:12 PM by The Health Care Blog

Critical Review of Medical Literature

By MAYRA ZILBERBERG Today I am launching a series of posts on how to read medical literature critically. The series should provide a solid foundation for this task and dove-tail nicely with some of the more dense themes that occur... Read More...

Published Sat, Jan 08 2011 11:48 AM by The Health Care Blog

Crowdsourcing the Future: Health 2.0 and HIPAA

By DEVEN McGRAW The Health 2.0 movement has seen incredible growth recently, with new tools and services continuously being released. Of course, Health 2.0 developers face a number of challenges when it comes to getting providers and patients to adopt...

Published Thu, Jan 27 2011 6:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

Physician Executives Should Not Ignore How Smartphones Will Transform Healthcare

By KENT BOTTLES Physician executives who ignore smartphones and their healthcare applications will miss the most important disruptive technology trend in the next five years. Physician executives who understand how smartphones will transform the industry...

Published Mon, Jan 31 2011 10:11 PM by The Health Care Blog

Eighth Annual Healthcare Conference at Harvard Business School

Please join us for the 8th Annual Healthcare Conference at Harvard Business School on Saturday, January 29th from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Hosted by the HBS Healthcare Club, the student-run Conference – titled “The State of Healthcare Reform: Challenges.....

Published Wed, Jan 05 2011 2:02 PM by The Health Care Blog

Comment on the PCAST Report

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE This comment is not in response to the specific questions posed by ONC, which seem to presume a certain validity of the PCAST report. This comment is respectfully raising several basic questions, which in my opinion, the... Read More...

Published Fri, Jan 21 2011 4:02 AM by The Health Care Blog

Cyber Insurance

By MICHAEL OVERLY, ESQ Insurance exists to cover a wide range of potential business risks. Cyber insurance is worth considering as companies increase their presence, business practices and data storage online. In fact, Cyber insurance is not just for...

Published Wed, Jan 12 2011 6:39 AM by The Health Care Blog

HPHC Goes Its Way, Thoughtfully

By PAUL LEVY Lots of people are thinking about the form of payments between insurance companies and providers for health care services, but it is also important to think about how each such approach would be marketed as an insurance... Read More...

Published Tue, Jan 18 2011 6:33 AM by The Health Care Blog

Doctors in Congress

By RICHARD REECE When new members of Congress are sworn in this January, there will be a total of 19 doctors in Congress – 3 Senators and 16 Congresspersons. That will be a 27% increase over 2009,from 15 to 19,... Read More...

Published Thu, Jan 13 2011 6:18 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health Problem Quantified

By JOHN GOODMAN, PhD We now know how many people have the problem most often cited as the reason for last years’ health overhaul legislation. Answer: 8,000 No, that’s not a misprint. Out of 310 million Americans, only 8,000 people... Read More...

Published Fri, Jan 07 2011 8:38 AM by The Health Care Blog

Does Medicare Have it Right in 2011?

By ED PULLEN, MD Starting in 2011 with the regulations required by the PPACA Medicare will mandate copay and deductible free preventative services for our older Americans. This is great news for primary care physicians. I’m a family physician, and......

Published Mon, Jan 03 2011 4:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

2010 Unplugged

By BOB WACHTER, MD For people like me, who, perversely enough, get a certain thrill from studying healthcare policy, there's never been a more exciting, if also dizzying, year than 2010. Passage of the reform bill last March was only... Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 03 2011 7:23 AM by The Health Care Blog