Health IT Politics

Certification Clarification

Joseph Ingemi — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:13:46 +0000

Software Advice published a very informative article about ONC certifications. It really drives home the point that not all certifications are created equal. Click here to read.

Health IT Update

Joseph Ingemi — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:06:43 +0000

To receive these updates. simply register as a user.

Mergers and Acquisitions All Around

As Pay-for-Performance begins to take hold as well as the rest of Healthcare Reform, mergers and acquisitions will become more commonplace. Healthcare Systems will take-over practices and larger healthcare systems will take-over the smaller ones. This makes economic sense. If prevention, emergency care avoidance and shorter hospital stays become the metrics for performance, healthcare systems will benefit since they actually lose money on extended, multiple visits to their facilities. However, specialists benefit from multiple visits and therefore, lose money in a pay-for-performance environment. Additionally, healthcare systems can offer specialty services and simply benefit from economies of scale.

What this means for Health IT is probably greater adoption since healthcare systems are probably more likely to utilize Health IT than smaller practices. However, larger Health IT players are likely to provide the services to Healthcare Systems. So even the Health IT market will witness mergers and acquisitions.

Mixed Messages from DC

Joseph Ingemi — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:36:29 +0000

At the State of the Union, the President backed an innovation agenda which most likely would include Health IT. But while Health IT got the support of President Obama, the GOP is looking to overturn a key component of the Healthcare Reform, the Independent Payment Advisory Board of Medicare. The potential repeal of the IPAB will do away with independent decisions on payments.

While this board does not directly affect Health IT. Any movement on pricing indirectly incentivizes or de-incentives the use of Health IT. Click here to read the article from The Hill newspaper.

State of EHR Vendors

Joseph Ingemi — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:06:34 +0000

The CEO of Software Advice, Don Fornes, wrote a great piece on the viability of vendors. It actually implicitly and explicitly reinforces many things that I have mentioned earlier.

Mr. Fornes outright says providers are still hesitant. I also think you can take away from this article that pre-existing vendors rather than start-ups are favored.

I also found his comments on pricing to be insightful.

Click here to read the article.

Update on HITECH Act

Joseph Ingemi — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:56:58 +0000

Great article from Politico about the state of Health IT. Click here

to read.

Telemedicine

Joseph Ingemi — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:25:11 +0000

Interesting article about the potential of telemedicine as seen in this telepharmacy pilot. Click here to read.

Health IT Update

Joseph Ingemi — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:45:09 +0000

To receive this update in your email, simply register as user.

______________________________________________________

Rise of the Health Information Exchange

Despite the best efforts of the HITECH Act, movement to EHR and Health IT is not coming from physicians. We are starting to see the formation of more and more Health Information Exchanges (HIE). These HIE are being formed by healthcare systems such as Christus Health Partners. Additionally, even the President’s Office of Science and Technology recommended the creation of standards for HIE.

Non-Traditional Players

When we think of Health IT, we think of technology companies such as GE, IBM and the many EHR providers as well as healthcare providers. However, there seems to be other organizations that are entering into the fray. Health Insurance companies are making a play in Health IT. Aetna has purchased Medicity, an HIE provider and will provider e-prescribing management in NJ. Meanwhile, AT&T is developing caps for prescribtion drug containers that can report on usage. Not suprisingly, smart phones and the IPAD are finding uses in Health IT.

GOP Takes the Stage

The Republicans have taken control of the House of Representatives with an eye toward repealing healthcare reform. As readers know, the healthcare reform bill encouraged the use of Health IT and facilitated pilot programs in which Health IT would prove pivotal. But the real question is not the fate of healthcare reform but if the HITECH Act/stimulus bill will be collateral damage. We are already seeing efforts for Congressional control of net neutrality. The HITECH Act was very controversial in terms of cost and as Representative Barton of TX, originally a supporter of HITECH, complained he has yet to see jobs created. So Congress’s actions need to be carefully monitored in terms of Health IT.

Meaningful Use Stage 2

Joseph Ingemi — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:37:26 +0000

The Office of the National Coordinator is asking for comments on the proposed Meaningful Use Stage 2 regulations. Click here to read and comment.

Health IT Security

Joseph Ingemi — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:24:56 +0000

As Health IT becomes more prevalent, the need for security standards increases. The HITRUST Alliance is an industry collaboration that has created the Common Security Framework (CSF). This framework harmonizes IT standards such as COBIT with Healthcare standards such as HIPAA. Click here to read more.

__________________________________________________________________________

More on Net Neutrality

Joseph Ingemi — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:15:11 +0000

The Hill reported last week that Rep. Blackburn (R-TN) is sponsoring a bill (HR 96) to allow Congress to regulate Net Neutrality rather than the FCC. Click here to read the article. According to the House Website (Click here), the bill has 62 co-sponsors and has been referred to the House Energy an Commerce Committee.

What could this mean? On a micro-level, the bill increases uncertainty and prevents stakeholders such as the Health IT community from planning for internet regulations. On a macro-level, this may be the beginning. The House may begin to limit regulating bodies and thus, inject politics and uncertainty into other areas as well.

_________________________