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Is Gawande Right? Are Pilot Programs the Key to Delivery System Cost Reductions?
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 versions of health reform legislation.
Is Gawande correct? Yes and no….
Engage With Grace II
Happy Thanksgiving All!
by Alexandra Drane and the Engage With Grace team
Last Thanksgiving weekend, many of us bloggers participated in the first documented blog rally to promote Engage With Grace — a movement aimed at having all of us understand and communicate our end-of-life wishes. It was a great success, with over 100 bloggers in the healthcare space and beyond participating and spreading the word. Plus, it was timed to coincide with a weekend when most of us are with the very […]
Medicare Extends PHR Pilot — Big Mistake!
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 this pilot project? A lot:
Feedback Rolls in on Halamka’s New Stance on Standards: Cats Pissed, Dogs Thrilled
Continuing his stunning reversal of long held perspectives, Dr. John Halamka’s blog post today suggests Guiding Principles for HIT Standards Committee:
Keep it simple; think big, but start small; recommend standards as minimal as possible to support the business goal and then build as you go
Don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good enough”; go for the 80% that everyone can agree on; get everyone to send the basics (medications, problem list, allergies, labs) before focusing on the more obscure
Keep the implementation […]
The Real Secret Sauce of Medicare’s Participation in Regional Collaboratives — Network Effects
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 potential for MAPCI to create effective networks at multiple levels — contracting networks, health IT networks, social and collaborative care networks. I’d like to expand […]
Dr. Blumenthal, I Mistakenly Received Your Email Intended for Judy Faulkner, CEO, Epic
David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. National Coordinator for Health Information Technology U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Dear Dr. Blumenthal,
I was honored to receive a personal email from you today. However, after reading it, I conclude that you must have intended to send this email to Judith Faulkner, CEO of Epic Systems.
I really liked what you said about working toward interoperability:
The HITECH Act calls for the “development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and […]
Three Years Of Medical Home Demonstration Preparation Down the Drain?
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 up on no signs of discontent. Read our essay “Three Years of Medical Home Demonstration Preparation Down the Drain?” on Dr. Sidorov’s blog.
John Halamka’s Stunning 180: “Dogs and Cats Should Live in Harmony”
The King of the Cats has just acknowledged that indeed cats and dogs should co-exist peacefully.
Dr. John Halamka — Vice Chair of the HIT Standards Committee of the ONC and one of the most vocal and influential figures in health IT — writes a blog post this morning entitled “The Genius of AND”. Halamka reasonably summarizes the essence of the debate about standards and interoperability as being between “the healthcare informatics crowd” (cats) and the “Internet crowd” (dogs):
He notes that the debate […]
Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years on the Horizon?
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 in 40 years?
The rise of MAPCI
The fall of MMHD
Implications/discussion
Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years?
Health Wonk Review at Boston Health News
Tinker Ready hosts the Halloween edition of Health Wonk Review at Boston Health News.
Read about the “the undead public option” or as Jon Stewart said, “It’s alive!”