By Carrie Winans

The Disruptive Women in Health Care blog continually aims to encourage discussion and debate among readers about emerging issues and topics in the health care world. Historically, one of the ways that we have done that is through our weekly round-ups – that is, posts containing summaries and links to some of the big stories in health care news for the given week, with some original commentary and content sprinkled in as well. The way we see it, there is just too much happening in this burgeoning industry; it’s hard to keep up, especially when you’re busy disrupting and making headlines in the health care world yourselves. We know the weekly round-ups have been on hiatus for a while, but are happy to report that they’re finally making a comeback. Each week, we’ll be gathering some of the biggest health care news you can use from at home and abroad for posting on Wednesdays. Feel free to comment on what’s included and send us some links to articles to be considered for next week!

Has your week been too disruptive for you to keep up with the news?  Disruptive Women are on the case!  Here is this week’s round up of some of the most pressing issues here in America and around the world.

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By Hope Ditto. Whether your weapon of choice was words or rubber bullets this past week, the theme across the globe seemed to be standing up and fighting for what you believe in. From the protestors in Egypt to the lawmakers on the Hill, everyone seems to putting it all on the table, with little regard for the consequences their actions might breed. Whether you’re an Egyptian citizen protesting, a District Court judge making a ruling or an advocate fighting to increase awareness of a deadly disease, this was not the week to be bashful or couch your words. In fact, there was so much speaking up all over the board that this roundup is quite long (my apologies). If there is one thing we can say to summarize the week, it’s that the headlines speak for themselves, so let’s dive in to all the health care news you can use!

Newly minted Obama Chief of Staff William Daley was certainly speaking his mind when he talked health care on the Sunday shows this weekend. He wanted his message made loud and clear – that the Administration has no intention of “reopening last year’s vitriolic health overhaul debate.” Full details here.

I’m glad that Daley is so steadfast in his conviction not to reopen the health care debate, but take one look at this morning’s headlines and it is clear this is not likely to happen. From Florida to New York, court battles to legislative infighting, debates over various aspects of the Affordable Care Act are dominating the news (and the roundup).

Before Daley’s assertion, though, President Obama told attendees at the Health Action 2011 conference exactly how he felt while defending his health care reform efforts last week. Full text of his remarks available here and analysis here and here.

And if that’s not enough Obama-care news for you, a special Health on the Hill this week, analyzing his State of the Union health care remarks, and what they mean for the Administration, Congress and, of course, for 2012.

Speaking of the State of the Union, I hope one of your drinking game words  wasn’t “innovation” because I think everyone can agree it came up a lot Tuesday night. But the Administration’s newfound love of all things innovate-able won’t be limited only to job creation and the technology sector. According to the National Journal Health Blog, 2011 will see the emergence of a “core part” of the health care law – focusing on innovation. [If you recall, this very blog did an entire series on innovation and health care – before Obama made innovation the “it” topic of 2011. Read our series here.]

So we all know how most stakeholders (be they politicians, insurance executives, doctors or anyone else in between affected professionally by health care reform) feel about the Affordable Care Act, but what do the majority of American citizens think these days? Check out the latest polling via Kaiser Health News here.

Keep an eye on Pensacola, Florida today – where U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson is “expected to rule on the health care lawsuit brought by governors and attorneys general from 26 U.S. states, almost all of whom are Republicans” (per Reuters). Not only does this have the potential to be the second unfavorable ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, but considering that the plantiffs in this particular case represent more than half the U.S. states, it has more prominence and significance than the some two dozen lawsuits filed in federal courts since the legislation’s passing in March 2010. Another point of note — “Since a full legislative repeal seems like a non-starter in the current Congress, legal experts all agree the real battle over reform is destined for the Supreme Court.” We expect Vinson to take his stand before COB today. (more…)

By Hope Ditto. Well hello again and my apologies for the recent hibernation! Between our Innovation series, the holidays and everything else that has been going on, the weekly roundups took a not-quite-so-brief hiatus. Though I was sorry to leave you without your one-stop dose of all the health care news you can use, I do hope you had the opportunity to check out what ran in its place, especially our December series on Innovation (if you missed it, you can check out the series here).

Enough of the housekeeping, now to get down to business. Not even the deepest hibernation in the most remote cave – or even the most recent bout of ice and snow — could keep me from hearing the news – the GOP is going to try and repeal health care reform (or what they refer to as Obamacare). And with health care the number one issue in the news right now I thought, what could be better than a special Health Care News Roundup: Repeal Edition?

In fact, all week I, along with our esteemed Disruptive Women, will be posting news, information and especially reactions and analysis to what’s going on on the Hill – though no one knows quite yet just what that will turn out to be. Whatever this week brings with the Repeal Act and subsequently proposed bills, rest assured that we will have all the health care news you can use (and then some!).

The day has finally arrived, just a week or so later than expected. Delayed by, of course, the tragedy in Tuscon, but also by sleet and snow and ice, bureaucracy and decorum and all those other factors that prevent much if anything from ever getting done in Washington, the day we have all been waiting for is finally upon us. Only the start of the day was delayed until 2 pm (thanks DC ice storm). What day, you ask? Why, the day that the House will begin hearings on “Repealing The Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” (and if you, like me, are thinking that that is the dumbest name for a bill ever in the history of our republic, you will probably also, like me, get a kick out of this article ).

Hearings have been underway for a little while now, though the final vote is not expected until sometime late tomorrow, per CSPAN. And if you just can’t get enough of the repeal hearings, you can watch them and/or read a liveblog here.

Certainly if you have enough time to watch CSPAN, you have enough time for a little extra reading, and if that’s the case I would strongly recommend this piece from Kaiser Health News, explaining one of the most common health care mystery terms, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).

Now, this repeal business may seem at face value to be bad (read: very, very, very) bad news for the Democrats, but not everyone on the Left is looking at the glass as half empty. Per Politico, some Dems – HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius chief among them – see the beginning of the repeal hearings as a good thing (no, you didn’t read that wrong, I did type a good, g-o-o-d good thing). As Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) explained, “‘We welcome, in a certain sense, their attempt to repeal it because it gives us a second chance to make a first impression.’” Whether this is true, we shall see… (more…)

By Hope Ditto. It is especially appropriate that fall is finally upon us this week, seeing as how it appears the health insurance industry is “fall-ing” apart before our very eyes. Another week of politically charged health care debate, with rhetoric abounding multi-colored leaves. Put down that rake, take off your coat and settle down for a minute – we have all the health care news you can use.

You’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again. Y2K, 2012, the alleged Zombie Apocalypse that keeps popping up on my Facebook newsfeed. The end of life and the world as we know it is here – at least it is if you work in the insurance industry. As Politico reported yesterday, “State insurance commissioners approved rules shaping how insurance companies will have to account for their medical spending beginning next year.” This final step comes as a means of paving the way for one of the biggest components of health care reform to be implemented – the provision that requires insurance companies to “spend 80 to 85 cents of every dollar they collect in premiums on medical care or items that improve quality.” Everyone agrees that the passing of these rules marked a bad day for the insurance industry. The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog  called it a loss for insurance brokers nationwide.

We saw two weeks ago the first midsize insurance provider (Principal Financial – for full story, see here) discontinue its health care coverage in anticipation of this law’s implementation. Two weeks ago, when the story broke, many said it was only the beginning of the descent, a foreshadowing of what was to come. Whether this is true remains to be seen. But no one will deny that the passing of the rules was a significant step towards it.

There is still one ray of hope – the final recommendations must go before and be approved by HHS. As WSJ reported, “Terry Headley, president of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, said in a statement his group is hopeful regulators and HHS ‘will side with consumers by recognizing that agents need to be compensated for the vital assistance they provide consumers in managing day-to-day health-care issues.’”

Also this week, some Democrats, running for office, hoping and expecting to get reelected by their constituents, have been… wait for it… voicing their SUPPORT for health care reform?! It’s true! A select group of Democrats found a new way to talk about health care, according to this week’s Health on the Hill roundtable – watch the video here.

It’s even more surprising that the Dems are coming home to the party on health care reform considering these poll numbers, courtesy of Politico, showing another dip for support of health reform. (more…)

By Hope Ditto. You didn’t think we’d go a Friday without a Roundup, did you?! It’s a little late today, but of course we still have all the health care news you can use!

We start with sick children again this week, but on a good note, for a change. HHS announced this week that about $100 million of the Affordable Care Act will be allocated towards building or renovating school-based health centers. As the Modern Healthcare article  explains, “the centers enable children with chronic illnesses to attend school, and they also help improve overall health and wellness for all children through health screenings, health promotion and disease-prevention activities.”

We’re taking a hiatus from the political hubbub this week (well… mostly taking a break), but if you want your fix of health care and the Midterms, take a look at this week’s Health on the Hill roundtable as they discuss how Democrats are approaching “the health care issue” on the campaign trail, reactions of employers to new laws and more. You can also take a look at Kaiser Health’s roundup of how health reform is impacting selected state races here.

The Fiscal Times tackled the issue of health care on the campaign trail this week (last election story, I promise). To read their analysis, click here.

How do you communicate with your doctor? Chances are, not by email, according to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change. As Modern Healthcare  reports, “Despite indications that e-mail access to physicians increases patient satisfaction, only 6.7% of office-based physicians routinely use e-mail to communicate with their patients.” What’s more – only about a third of respondents indicated that their doctors’ offices were equipped to handle electronic communication! Though privacy issues are cited as a major factor in this statistic, doctors also indicated a concern about the potential for an increase in their workload should they begin communicating with patients via email. As virtually all other aspects of our lives go “2.0”, it will certainly be interesting to see how the medical field reacts.

Good news for Obama on the health reform front. Per the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, “A federal judge yesterday refused to grant a request for a preliminary injunction against the health-care overhaul law, saying Congress’s imposition of the individual mandate isn’t unconstitutional.” In his amicus brief, Judge George Steeh explained that, he “found that the individual mandate, the provision that requires everyone to have health coverage, was essential to the act’s larger goal of regulating ‘the interstate business of health insurance.’”

Last week, we discussed recently announced state-level Medicare cuts – the combined result of more people needing Medicare (thanks recession/skyrocketing unemployment) and the increase in people eligible/the amount that they are eligible to receive (by 2014, per health care reform laws) – which have now stripped many states of their tax revenue. As Politico explains this week, all of this, combined with the political turmoil of election season and the preparations to begin the first expansion steps in November (as health reform legislation requires) has the potential to cause a lot of turnover in state houses across the country.

And if you are more of a visual learner, here  is a graph of Medicare cuts, courtesy of Washington Post’s Ezra Klein.

Who ever thought morning sickness could be a good thing? According to Reuters, women who experience morning sickness tend to have healthier pregnancies and are less likely to miscarry. As for a medical explanation why this may be the case, Dr. Ronna Chan, one of the study’s authors, explains, “‘Some postulate nausea and vomiting during pregnancy is a mechanism to help improve the quality of a pregnant woman’s diet or a way to reduce or eliminate potentially harmful substances from the mother in order to protect the fetus.’” As for a medical explanation for pickles-and-ice-cream cravings, the jury is still out…   

Finally, just like Columbus discovered America 518 years ago, I too made a discovery of an equal or possibly greater caliber – the Kaiser Health News Political Cartoon Archives! Here are two of my recent favorites to start your three-day weekend: 1 and 2.

 Until next week, enjoy your pleasant health care news, unseasonably warm weather and three day weekend (hopefully you have one)!

By Hope Ditto. It’s been a pretty dreary week all around — gray skies, ominous clouds, rain and a week’s worth of health care policy woes.

Sick children are the subject of this week’s most prominent Administration v. Insurance Industry fight. As Politico reported earlier this week, several agencies have announced their intention to stop selling “child-only” policies, because “the overhaul requires them to accept all applicants, even if they apply for coverage at the last minute before treatment. Insurers say the provision, which went into effect Sept. 23, allows patients to game the system.”

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius fired back quickly, claiming that the insurers were acting in bad faith. She offered the temporary solution of allowing agencies to raise premiums based on health condition – that is, until this practice becomes illegal in 2014. There has also been discussion of returning to the limited “open enrollment period” model, assuming that participating agencies promise to offer child-only policies. And so the battle wages on…

Some insurance agencies aren’t stopping at nixing child-only policies, though; they’re getting out of the health insurance industry altogether! As Reed Abelson of the New York Times reported yesterday, Principal Financial Group, which currently provides health insurance to almost a million people, plans to stop selling health policies, period. As the article explains, Principal Financial – whose primary venture is asset management – did not feel justified in making the investment to remain a competitive provider.

Though UnitedHealth group did agree to renew all Principal policies as they expire, per the Wall Street Journal, Principal’s announcement has broader implications beyond those for its customers.

As several health care writers speculated, per Kaiser Health News, we can expect to see this trend continue through the fall. According to industry insider Robert Laszewski (per this NYT article), one of the stipulation that came into effect last week requires agencies to spend 80 cents of every dollar collected in premiums on customer welfare, and “smaller players like Principal will not be able to compete because they do not have the resources and economies of scale.” He is worried that “the ensuing concentration is likely to lead to higher prices because large players will no longer face the competition from the smaller plans” leading him to quip: “It’s just the UnitedHealthcare full employment act.”

And when it rains, it pours; this week, states had to make significant cuts to Medicaid in the wake of surging enrollment. As Kaiser Health News reports, enrollment in the state-federal program rose by 8.5 percent and state spending on Medicaid jumped an average of 8.8 percent. This has effectively stripped states of tax revenue and left them with little choice but to cut corners. See a list of state-by-state cuts here.

Rain, rain go away! No luck with that for the White House (and not just because of Tropical Storm Nicole). See this Health on the Hill clip analyzing the latest health care-related polling data (hint: NOT good news for Mr. President). A Kaiser Health News analysis of their six month tracking poll showed similar findings. With the midterms only a month away, it doesn’t seem like the rain is clearing anytime soon over Pennsylvania Ave.

In other news, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced the appointment of 15 new members to its newly formed National Health Care Workforce Commission.

HHS also announced a new appointment this week, Dr. Richard Gilfillan will step in as the acting director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Gilfillan comes to HHS following a stint as CEO of the Geisinger Health Plan, which lawmakers often point to as a “model” health system. Officials hope he will draw on this experience to help Medicare and Medicaid become “model” programs as well.  

One ray of sunshine to end this cloudy week – per Washington Post Health : “For the first time in more than a decade, the federal government is funding sex education programs that aren’t based solely on abstinence.”

That’s all for today! I see the sun is coming up as I post this, so here’s hoping for a sunny weekend – in weather and health care reform news! Until next week, stay dry!

By Hope Ditto. A big Friday in health care news – we have pledges, reforms and analysis – oh my! (This week’s Roundup was also posted here.)

First, some major provisions of the health care bill go into effect today – though exactly how many seems to be up for debate (I credit the crystal clear, completely straightforward, not even remotely ambiguous language of the bill for that.) Democratic House Caucus chairman John Larson outlines the 10 new reforms and how they will impact health care policy here. Meanwhile, Kaiser’s Health on the Hill blog explains the eight new laws (and their subsequent seven caveats) here. Interpret away.

And for answers to all your questions about health care reform – including the latest 10 provisions, check out this Q&A with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Also worth a read, National Journal’s Meghan McCarthy offers a more thoughtful look at health care reform – six months later.

The Republicans unveiled their Pledge to America (full text) yesterday, a 21 page document outlining their revised vision for the country and especially for health care reform. All the details of their intentions and vision here and Jonathan Allen’s analysis of it here.

We know things haven’t been going so well for Obama, especially on the health care front, but how bad are they really? Well, if this Politico headline is any indication, pretty darn bad. One of the headlines in their health care section: Barack Obama seeks divine intervention on health care reform. Read the story here.

Not everyone is quite as pessimistic though. According to Kaiser Health News writer Jenny Gold, Democrats’ best bet at selling health care reform is going back to the basics. As Democratic pollster Peter Hart told Gold, Democrats need to start saying, “’Here’s what the bill’s about. Here’s why it makes a difference. Here’s why it’s good for you and it’s good for America.’” Read more analysis here.

Post reporter/blogger Ezra Klein offered his own analysis on the situation and advice to Obama this week – his was a bit more straightforward than Hart’s. Klein’s take on the ever-complex and highly complicated situation: cut Medicare first. The second most straight-forward advice Obama has ever gotten on HCR, after “REPEAL.” Well, it’s something at least.

Going outside of the Beltway, an interesting story in the Wall Street Journal blog about how many lives mammograms actually save. Hint: not as many as you think! Great news to break on the day that a law goes into effect mandating insurance companies cover mammograms. Maybe Politico wasn’t so off on the divine intervention jibe.

Another interesting blog entry, this one from Washington Post’s The Checkup – do abortions cause depression? Not in teens says a new study, contrary to previous research on the subject.

And, shifting focus to another politically charged health debate – genetically modified salmon. Are they safe for human consumption? Will allowing them into our food source jeopardize our ecosystems? Will these genetically superior salmon be capable of actually swimming upstream? Read the Washington Post analysis here.

On another note, Disruptive Women in Health Care turns two this month; a big thank you to all our bloggers and readers for making these past two years truly disruptive!

By Hope Ditto. It’s Friday and you know what that means – a brand new roundup of health care news you can use!

The big news this week – census data is out and the percentage of people with health insurance is down for the first time in over two decades. More on the report and its findings from the Wall Street Journal Health Blog.

Ding-ding! And we’re back in the ring for another round of fight-that-doesn’t-end on the Hill. With election season officially upon us, both sides are jumping at the chance to offer their solution to the health care issue.

But first, in case you’re confused by just what health care reform is and isn’t in effect, a “Consumer’s Guide to the Health Law, Six Months In,” by Kaiser Health News.

The White House is planning a full-scale PR strike to promote both the original bill and their additional proposals that will be coming up for a vote in the next few weeks, according to Politico. Loyalist Democrats launched the Health Information Center this week, a multi-million dollar effort to promote all of this and supplement White House efforts with more down-in-the-dirt, War Room style tactics. Gritty reports from the trenches to follow, no doubt.

Meanwhile the GOP is planning a slightly simpler approach – as House Minority Leader John Boehner told an editorial board earlier this week. Knowing that a repeal of the original bill is unlikely, Boehner plans instead to just cut off all funding required to implement it. “They’ll get not one dime from us. Not a dime,” he promised. And the war wages on…

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post reports that across the board, health care reform is polling poorly as did the Wall Street Journal blog, citing one report that more Americans would vote for a candidate that supported repealing the health care reform act than wouldn’t.

With all this in mind, it doesn’t come as much surprise that Democratic congressional candidates are wary – to say the least – of jumping on the Obamacare bandwagon. In fact, according to a report out today, they’re actually spending more money on ads opposing health care reform than ads promoting it. Per Politico, “Since the beginning of Congress’s August recess, Democratic candidates have poured $930,000 into ads deriding the health overhaul but just $300,000 in pro-reform spots, according to Evan Tracey at Kantar Media,”  And, according to The Hill, one Democratic candidate has even gone so far as to sign the GOP repeal pledge.

Only one thing about health care reform and the midterm election is clear at this point – it’s going to be a long six weeks.

On a different but equally politically charged topic, a CDC report out this week indicates that almost one-third of all sex education courses for teens discuss birth control – different methods, how they are used, etc. As a Washington Post blog entry on the report explains, lessons about saying no and STDs were much more common.

Ever felt bad coughing, sneezing or otherwise exposing your doctor to your germs while in for a visit? Think again. As USA Today reported, more than half of doctors and nurses they surveyed would and do come to work when they themselves are sick. Talk about a germy situation!

And, just in time for fall, new tips on how to track the flu, per the WSJ Health blog.

Finally, in the age of Big Business, Big Government and Big Brother, a piece on the plight of the community hospital and its fight to remain independent.

That’s all for this week; check back every Friday for your weekly roundup of health care news you can use.

By Hope Ditto. That’s right – your weekly blog roundups have returned after a lovely summer vacation. Check in every Friday for your weekly dose of health care news you can use.

The top headline this week is President Obama jumping into the ring for round 1000 (at least) of the fight to reform health care. Bloodless so far, Obama said he was “cautiously optimistic” after meeting with Senate Democrats on Tuesday this latest bill would pass without the drama of another all-out, gloves off floor fight. As he told the Post: It’s clear that we are on the precipice of an achievement that’s eluded Congresses and presidents for generations, an achievement that will touch the lives of nearly every American. There are still some differences that have to be worked on. This was not a roll call. This was a broad-based discussion about how we move forward.

Meanwhile, Health on the Hill  sought out to debunk rumors about this latest legislative push. Watch their myth-buster roundtable here for a final answer on the legality of taxing health care benefits and much, much more!

Coming at the same time as Obama’s latest push is this report that government spending on health care will go UP, not DOWN like Obama insisted that it would back in March. Though experts forecast that the increase will be modest, the political fallout is expected to be intense. According to AP reporter Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, “for critics, the numbers show that the law didn’t solve the cost problem, although Obama repeatedly said he wanted to bend the spending curve down.” Read the full article here.

And, according to this piece from the Fiscal Times, it isn’t just the federal government feeling the cost effects of health care reform. State governments – many of which are already in dire shape thanks to that pesky recession – are collapsing under a mountain of Medicare bills, an unfortunate consequence of soaring unemployment. And some analysts say the only solution is for the federal government to shoulder a larger portion of the financial burden. (more…)

Once again I have the privilege of introducing the newest group of Disruptive Women, all of whom are acomplished in their fields.  These women are not afraid to take chances, to cross boundaries, to look beyond what exists today and think creatively.

Please help me welcome our newest Disruptive Women:

• Debbie Myers, Founder, VirtuArte
• Estee Solomon Gray, Self-described Inveterate Boundary Straddler
• Grace Bender, President, infinisity, inc.
• Julie Murchinson, Founder, Health 2.0 Accelerator & Managing Director, Manatt Health Solutions
• Mary Grealy, President, Healthcare Leadership Council
• Rozalynn Goodwin, Director, Policy Research, South Carolina Hospital Association and Founder, the Motherhood Priority

Take a moment to read the bios of these amazing women and prepare to be dazzled.

It is with much pride and great pleasure that I write today’s post–Disruptive Women held its launch event at the National Press Club in Washington DC one year ago.

I am very proud to share that our blog has been named one of the Top 100 Health Care Blogs and has been nominated by readers of the Huffington Post as one of the 100 People Who are Using New Media to Change the World.

Today, I am pleased to say that our network consists of 40 incredible, very diverse, Disruptive Women bloggers, including our 4 newest:

• Diana Long, Developer of BrandDance TM & Principle, DML Consulting
• Diane Jones, President, Camden Counsulting
• Lisa Korin, Masters of Public Health Candidate, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Stephanie Cohen, Co-Founder, Golden & Cohen

In addition, we have our own You Tube Channel, Facebook Fan Page with hundreds of fans, thousands of Twitter followers and have hosted several briefings and events and published an e-book on Comparative Effectiveness Research.

As we look ahead to the coming year, we have many interesting briefings in the works, new e-books underway, and more Men of the Month who will be contributing.

We welcome your feedback and input, suggestions and ideas as we continue to disrupt health care.

Congress has almost hit recess, and already policymakers and stakeholders are shifting their persuasive energies from Washington, DC to the general public. So, this week we’re doing a video-themed Roundup, starting with the Administration’s Office of Health Reform’s response to the video featured on Drudge of the President saying “His Health Care Plan Will ‘Eliminate’ Private Insurance.”

Brave New Films, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and Herndon Alliance, have produced a new video, “450,000 Can’t Be Wrong About Health Care Reform,” that features family doctors voicing support for health care reform:

Meanwhile, Americans United for Change, an organization dedicated to supporting President Obama’s health care initiatives, has released a new TV ad called “GOP Rx”: (more…)

At the end of June 2009, Disruptive Women in Health Care ran a series of posts that explored the issue of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) from a variety of viewpoints and perspectives:

• Patients
• Providers
• Innovators
• Caregivers
• Policymakers
• Rare Diseases
• Minorities
• Gender

While there is tremendous potential in the power of CER, there remain a number of troubling issues and difficult questions.  The promise and the pitfalls are reflected in the new CER ebook we put together, which encapsulates each of the posts.  To download a free copy, please click here.

This week, after the Senate confirmed Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) as HHS Secretary, HHS announced the establishment of two new health IT committees in the department. Jason Miller of FederalNewsRadio reported:

HHS announced [Wednesday] in the Federal Register that the Health IT policy committee would recommend a policy framework to develop and adopt nationwide infrastructure to permit the electronic exchange of health information.
…
The Health IT standards committee would make recommendations around data and technology standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for the electronic exchange and use of health records.
…
Previously, HHS had similar committees addressing policy and standards. But the Recovery Act, which included more than $19 billion for health IT, required HHS establish these new committees with a different makeup.

(See the complete article for more details about membership of the committees.)

The HHS Department’s focus on health IT this week also included a two-day hearing on “Meaninful Use” of Health Information Technology, hosted by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. It’s no surprise, then, that Health IT and the “meaning of meaningful use” have dominated health discussions around the Web this week.

Josh Seidman on the Center for Information Therapy blog highlighted two organization’s issue statements regarding meaningful use:

The [Markle Foundation] statement appropriately highlights patient access to clinically relevant electronic information. It could further by clarifying that such information should be accessible to consumers in a way that they can understand and use it, and also that facilitates action on their part, or as [the Consumer Partnership for eHealth (CPeH)] puts it, “access their personal health information, receive prompts and reminders, and use patient decision support without sacrificing privacy.”

These patient-centered definitions of meaningful use are critically important for ensuring that ARRA HIT provisions actually change how health care is delivered in this country.

(more…)

Debate surrounding health information technology, particularly electronic health records (EHR), has become increasingly dominant among health care-related discussions around the Web. Forbes.com chatted with Geoff Brown, CIO at Inova Health System (a Virginia-based not-for-profit health care service provider system consisting of hospitals and other health care centers), about the significant role health IT could play “in improving medical care, cutting costs and speeding up treatment.”

The health-care industry is a study in contrasts. On one hand, it employs the best that medical science has to offer. On the other, it is one of the least automated sectors from an IT standpoint.

All of that is about to change, however, spurred as much by the federal government’s push for cost control and accountability in health care as the industry’s own need for modern information exchange. The task for implementing those changes will fall on CIOs at hospitals and clinics, as well as the companies that outsource records and information for doctor’s offices and outpatient facilities.

Read the interview with Geoff Brown about health IT and hospitals

Matthew Holt conducted and posted three interviews relevant to two sides of the current health IT/EHR debate about, to use Holt’s words, “whether the HITECH act should pay for and dictate a specified, certified type of EMR product use OR pay for data and outcomes and not specify how providers get there.” Holt spoke with Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, Mark Leavitt, Chair of CCHIT, and Jonathan Bush, CEO of AthenaHealth during HIMSS09. Describing his take on the two sides of the debate highlighted in these three interivews, Holt explained:

The “cats” support certification and EMR mandating (more or less). The “dogs” think that existing EMRs are often counterproductive and that a mix of other data sources, processes, and patient outreach technologies will get us where we need to in terms of improving outcomes much quicker.

Below is Holt’s interview with “cat” Mark Leavitt:

Find all three interviews on The Health Care Blog

(more…)