* = highly recommended
Descriptive Summaries and Documents
*Dissecting the Meaningful Use Proposed Rule PowerPoint
eHealth Initiative Policy Webinar; January 8, 2010
*What You Need to Know About the Meaningful Use Proposed Rule, Standards and Implementation Specification, and Interim Final Rule Certification Criteria PowerPoint
HIMSS Webinar; January 6, 2010
*Meaningful Use, Certification Criteria and Standards, and HHS Certification Process
HIMSS, frequently updated [...]
e-CareManagement blog
Chronic Disease Management • Technology • Strategy • Issues and Trends
Atul Gawande’s most recent New Yorker article “Testing, Testing” addresses the critics who lament that there is no master plan to curb delivery system costs in pending health reform legislation.
Gawande retorts: “Is that a bad thing?”
…and he answers his own question by describing the value of pilot programs contained in both the Senate and House [...]
Medicare announced today that it is extending its Personal Health Record (PHR) pilot project for residents of Utah and Arizona.
This is a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. Those of you who read my blog know that I’m a big fan of PHRs, but you have to know when you’re backing the wrong approach.
What’s wrong with [...]
Last week I asked whether Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years is on the horizon. That post described and discussed implications of Medicare’s new direction for the medical home — the shelving of Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD) and the refocusing on the recently announced Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Initiative (MAPCI).
In that post I touched briefly on the [...]
Do you remember the scene in the movie Animal House where Bluto Blutarski laments “…seven years of college education down the drain?”
Why aren’t primary care physicians expressing similar laments about the shelving of the MMHD (Medicare Medical Home Demonstration) in favor of the MAPCI (Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Initiative).
My colleague Jaan Sidorov, MD and I pick [...]
Earlier this week CMS issued a typically cryptic Announcement indicating that they were shelving the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD) and instead would focus on the recently announced Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Initiative (MAPCI). My blog post from Tuesday provides details and asks the question “What does all this mean?”
Today’s blog post will tackle:
Medicare’s biggest change [...]
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 [...]
In my post from Monday on LifeMasters seeking Chapter 11, I dropped a BTW comment.
The part that’s puzzling to me is the statement that LifeMasters owes $125 M to CMS. That’s hard to figure…the company only participated in MHS for a few months, and to my knowledge MHS is the only Medicare demo that required guaranteed savings [...]
Updated 6:10 pm, September 14, 2009
One bad deal can ruin your day.
Today, LifeMasters filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. According to its press release:
“The Chapter 11 filing is the most efficient path for the company to restructure liabilities that are a result of Demonstration Projects previously performed under contracts with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid [...]


Recent Comments