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HIE
Healthways Fights an Uphill Battle on Medicare Health Support Phase II
Earlier this week Healthways issued a press release describing their progress in pursuing a Phase II Medicare Health Support (MHS) project.  Read Dr. Jaan Sidorov’s blog commentary for additional background.
In brief, Healthways position is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is statutorily required to expand into Phase II of MHS if Phase I is “successful”. While I’m very sympathetic with Healthways predicament and their frustration with CMS, I’m not optimistic that their tactics are likely to work.
In making the case, Healthways […]
Is the Medical Establishment the Best Guardian of Your Medical Data?
David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA and Vince Kuraitis
Drs. Mandl and Kohane begin their recent article in NEJM with the statement that “large corporations are seeking an integral and transformative role in the management of health care information,” and then warn that this “will profoundly affect the biomedical research enterprise.”  Â
At issue for the authors is who controls the information about you and me, our health and healthcare data. Without coming right out and saying it directly, they worry that data in […]
Three New Reports On Aging and Technology
Older Americans 2008: Key Indicators of Well-Being, AgingStats.gov, Federal Agency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics
Healthy@Home, commissioned by AARP and the Blue Shield of California Foundation
State of Technology in Aging Services, Center for Aging Services Technology (CAST)
These reports are succinctly profiled with links to the full studies at Profiles of older health care consumers: living longer, longing for technology on Jane Sarasohn-Kahn’s Health Populi blog. A great read!
Feds Call on Google and Microsoft to Breathe Life into the NHIN
Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD MBA
Who is the federal government calling on to breathe life into the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN)? Google and Microsoft.
In our first article of this series describing the Personal Health Information Network (PHIN), we noted early entrants as Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault, and Dossia. We also noted that the network could grow rapidly, and that others would want to join or link to the PHIN.
With Uncle Sam announcing plans to link to the PHIN, […]
Search Engines Using Your Personal Health Information: Creepy or Cutting Edge?
When using a search engine, should results be customized based on your personal health information (PHI)? Should your search engine of choice take into account your previous history of medical searches, or even provide results tailored from data about your personal medical history?
Two companies — Aetna and Microsoft — have come up with 180 degree different answers.
In this post, I will:
Describe how Aetna’s and Microsoft’s approaches differ
Speculate on why their approaches make strategic sense for the respective companies
Explore how technology and expectations about […]
Birth Announcement: the Personal Health Information Network (PHIN)
Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD MBAÂ
The Internet and digital technologies have transformed many aspects of our lives over the past twenty years. We can get cash at ATMs all over the world; we can book our own airline reservations; we can shop and get best prices over the Internet.
Why hasn’t this happened in health care? Something is missing.
Recently, major global information and communication companies have announced their intention to bring their technologies and business models to health care. […]
Are HIEs a Dead Horse?
Do local Health Information Exchange (HIE) participants have the right economic motivations to make them work? Â
A report released this week raises strong doubts. The study — Creating Sustainable Local Health Information Exchanges: Can Barriers to Stakeholder Participation be Overcome? — was  funded by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change (CSHSC). The term HIE is often used interchangeably with RHIO (Regional Health Information Exchange).
What’s different about this study? The CSHSC report goes a step further than other recent reports […]
Guest Post: The CMS Announcement Of Medicare Health Support Program Cancellation — What It Means For Buyers
by Al Lewis, JD
Add the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to the growing list of people and organizations who cannot find financial savings through disease management. Weeks after “lowering the bar” on MHS program savings requirements to 0% from 5%, CMS cancelled the program altogether due to the unlikelihood that the much-reduced threshold for savings would be achieved in the remaining months of the three-year measurement period.
Yet even as CMS’ conclusion mirrors that of the Congressional Budget Office, and the RAND Corporation, other organizations and […]
Insufficient Evidence to End Medicare Health Support
Thomas Wilson, PhD, DrPH and Vince Kuraitis
Last Tuesday during the cocktail hour, CMS issued documents portending the end of the Medicare Health Support (MHS) project. Â
We initially used the word “bizarre” to describe the announcement from CMS’ staff. After further thought, “reckless” and/or “insubordinate” strike closer to home.
First, let’s have the head-honcho at CMS instruct us on how things should be done. In September 2007 Kerry Weems, the new CMS Administrator, declared that “cocktail hour press releases” from his agency […]
$389 M of Healthways’ Market Value Vaporizes After CMS Announcement. What Happened?
Healthways stock price declined today by $10.52 (15.9%) after CMS “announcement” about ending Medicare Health Support (MHS) Phase 1. This equates to a loss of $389 million in market capitalization…poof! Gone. Healthways is one of the remaining five participants in the MHS program.
Without pointing fingers, it’s obvious that investors were surprised by the news.  What happened?