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Continua

CMS Shelves Medicare Medical Home Demonstration

I just received an email from CMS announcing the latest official word on the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD):

10/26/2009 – In Washington, the efforts to reform health care and health insurance include proposed legislative language that would have an impact on the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration as described in section 204 of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 and amended by section 133 of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. Specifically, section 1302 of […]

“EHR 2.0″ Complimentary Webcast Presentation — BrightTALK e-Health Summit

BrightTALK is sponsoring a complimentary series of e-Health Summit webcasts this Wednesday, July 8.

Here’s a full listing of the six eHealth Summit topics (Eastern Time).  Click on the links to attend any or all of the webcasts.  The series will be recorded for future on-demand access. 

EHR 2.0: Federal HITECH Act Creates Opportunities Beyond EMRs
 

8 Jul 2009 11:00 am

Presenting Vince Kuraitis, Principal Better Health Technologies

 

Data Convergence in Life Sciences and Healthcare

 

8 Jul 2009 12:00 pm

Presenting Greg Nelson, President […]

Obama Budget: Hospitals Should Warrantee Admissions for 30 Days

Warrantee

War`ran*tee", noun. A written assurance that some product or service will be provided or will meet certain specifications.

Today when we buy practically any consumer item we expect a warrantee.

What’s the “warrantee” after you are discharged from a hospital?

Last September I wrote a post posing the question “What’s the Best Way to Get Hospitals Involved in Care Coordination? ” The short answer was:  Pay them to do it, take money away when they don’t — make hospitals accountable for their […]

Perspectives on the Upcoming 5th Annual Healthcare Unbound Conference

 The Healthcare Unbound Conference is a highlight of my year and I always look forward to it!

What’s so special about this conference?

First, the caliber of the people attending.  It’s a stimulating mix of high-level clinical, technical and business types.  The energy is flowing and many people have told me how much they like to go just for the networking.

Second, the caliber of the conference organizer.  I’ve worked with many conference planners, and Satish Kavirajan is not your ordinary conference organizer.

Satish […]

Data Incompatibility Remains A Barrier to Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Devices Reaching the Mainstream

The Continua Health Alliance is doing a good job in getting remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices to become plug-n-play — where devices and peripherals from different manufacturers complying with Continua Guidelines will be able to talk to one another.

Continua’s work-to-date is a necessary, but not yet sufficient effort to make RPM devices mainstream.

Knocking down the barrier of device-incompatibilty exposes the bigger barrier of lack of data interoperability among RPM technologies and between RPM devices and health care IT systems.  Jonathan Edwards, […]

The Medicare Health Support Saga: Opacity in Government Going Strong

 Vince Kuraitis and Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH

“If you aren’t confused you don’t know what’s going on.”
Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric

         

Thanks to the continuing opacity of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Serices (CMS), we remain confused about the future of Medicare Health Support (MHS).

It’s been over a month since we last commented on MHS. What’s MHS?  It’s JUST the Federal Government’s most significant and visible effort to deal with one of the American health system’s biggest challenges — managing care for patients with […]

Medicare Health Support: “Do not go gentle into that good night”

Vince Kuraitis and Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH

“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
Dylan Thomas

    

Despite CMS’ recent cocktail hour pronouncement that Medicare Health Support (MHS) is on its last legs, many are fighting to prolong its life.

Recent Developments

DMAA is working with Sen. John Kerry to introduce legislation mandating the continuation of Medicare Health Support (MHS).  Dr. Jaan Sidorov’s Disease Management Care Blog reprints the full announcement from the February 12 issue of […]

Ruminations on the 2007 Healthcare Unbound Conference

Although a bit late, I’d like to share perspectives from the latest Healthcare Unbound conference. The conference took place in San Francisco on July 16 and 17 and attracted 400 attendees with a rich blend of business, information technology, and clinical backgrounds.

PowerPoint from Opening Keynote

Here’s a copy of the PowerPoint for my opening keynote presentation. My colleague and fellow blogger Tim Gee did a great job summarizing key points on his blog.  THANKS, Tim.

In a nutshell, my main theme is that the adoption of Healthcare Unbound […]

Disease Management Going Mobile & Retail: QUALCOMM’s Health Care MVNO

An article in Wireless Week announces the creation of a new species: a health care MVNO named LifeComm. LifeComm promises to move disease management, wellness, and fitness into new territories.

What is a MVNO?

More acronyms!  What is a MVNO? A Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is a mobile operator that does not own its own spectrum and usually does not have its own network infrastructure. Instead, MVNOs have business arrangements with traditional mobile operators to buy minutes of use (MOU) for sale to their […]