Just an occasional post when I come upon a few interesting reports that are worth a download or browse. This week we have a few.
First we have:
Health System Modernization Will Reduce the Deficit
A CAP Action Report
By David M. Cutler |
Health care will be the major challenge to the federal budget in coming decades, with rising health costs accounting for nearly all of the expected increase in government spending relative to gross domestic product. Health care currently accounts for 16 percent of GDP, and that share is forecast to nearly double in the next quarter century. Spending money on health care is not bad, but wasting money is. Estimates suggest that a third or more of medical spending—perhaps $700 billion per year—is not known to be worth the cost. Wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on inefficient health care is a luxury we cannot afford.
More here (including direct report download links)
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/health_modernization.html
This report – from a progressive think tank – examines how the US budget will be helped by health reform. Useful perspective. The scale of the waste seems just unimaginable if these figures are to be believed.
Second we have:
Do Electronic Health Records Help or Hinder Medical Education?
1 Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States of America, 2 Department of Neurosurgery, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America, 3 Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
Background to the Debate
Background to the debate: Many countries worldwide are digitizing patients' medical records. In the United States, the recent economic stimulus package (“the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”), signed into law by President Obama, includes $US17 billion in incentives for health providers to switch to electronic health records (EHRs). The package also includes $US2 billion for the development of EHR standards and best-practice guidelines. What impact will the rise of EHRs have upon medical education? This debate examines both the threats and opportunities.
Citation: Peled JU, Sagher O, Morrow JB, Dobbie AE (2009) Do Electronic Health Records Help or Hinder Medical Education? PLoS Med 6(5): e1000069. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000069
Very much more here:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000069
This debate is well worth reading – lots of useful discussion and references.
Third we have:
5 May 2009
eHealth Worldwide
Africa: Power shortage expected to hamper Africa e-network project (27 April 2009 - ComputerWorldZambia)
As the Indian-government-sponsored Pan African e-network project gains ground in Africa, there are now fears that a lack of electricity to power the equipment will keep the initiative from moving forward. The project, which is a joint initiative between the Indian government and the African Union, was first launched in Ethiopia in 2007, followed by Rwanda last year. The aim of the project is to connect African countries to satellite and fiber-optic networks in order to provide e-learning, e-education and telemedicine, among other initiatives.
More here:
http://www.who.int/goe/ehir/2009/05_may_2009/en/index.html
The World Health Organisation summary of e-Health progress has been released again. Useful links and reports.
Fourth we have:
Survey: ICD-10 Can Fuel I.T. Advances
May 11, 2009
A survey of 100 health insurers shows many view the transition to the ICD-10 code sets as an opportunity to make strategic improvements in their use of information technologies.
Some payers will use the migration as an opportunity to replace legacy core administrative systems. Others with newer systems plan to take advantage of better data analytics afforded through the more detailed code sets to improve business processes. These processes include product development, customer service, and revenue, reimbursement, care, network and risk management functions.
.....
A summary of survey results, titled, "ICD-10: The Shifting Perceptions of Payer Readiness," is available at trizetto.com/ICD-10. The summary is free but registration is required.
--Joseph Goedert
More here:
All the above is true – especially the comments regarding the value of ICD-10 in providing better disease coding to improve both research and system management. Report access link in text.
Fifth we have:
Future Intenet 2020
Visions of an industry expert group, May 2009
Download the report directly
Like other regions of the world, Europe has to reflect on the increasing role of the Internet as a driver of our economy and society. Already, in a few short years, the Internet has transformed Europe in a whole variety of ways. In 2009 no business can operate effectively without a website. Many European enterprises have gone much further, using the Internet to fundamentally change the way they do business and developing new offerings that make the most of online channels. In our personal lives, Europeans, from teenagers to senior citizens, enjoy the opportunities and interaction made possible by social networking. We work online, we shop online, we learn online, we play online, and we build communities online. Many of these services are today also available while on the move using mobile devices.
At the same time new developments are on the horizon aimed at rethinking and rebuilding the Internet from the bottom up. This "Future Internet" will be much faster and smarter, more secure, embracing not just information and content but also services and real world objects ("things").
Why do we need to do this? Well, the truth is the Internet was never designed for how it is now being used and is creaking at the seams. We have connectivity today but it is not ubiquitous; we have bandwidth but it is not limitless; we have many devices but they don’t all talk to each other. We can transfer data but the transfers are far from seamless. We have access to content but it can’t be reused easily across every device. Applications and interfaces are still not intuitive, putting barriers in the way of the Internet’s benefits for many people. And, since security was an afterthought on the current Internet, we are exposed in various ways to spam, identity theft and fraud.
More here:
http://www.future-internet.eu/news/view/article/future-intenet-2020.html
A useful report on the European view of the future of the Internet. Clearly it needs to evolve!
Sixth we have:
The Impact of Federal Stimulus Efforts on the Privacy and Security of Health Information in California
Deven McGraw, J.D., Center for Democracy & Technology
May 2009
Health privacy laws govern the control and use of a patient's medical information. In California, health privacy involves a combination of federal law (primarily, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 [HIPAA]) and state law (the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act [CMIA]). HIPAA rules set the baseline, with California law expanding patient protection where it provides more stringent regulation than in HIPAA.
The recently enacted economic stimulus legislation (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [ARRA]) includes a number of improvements to federal health privacy law, in some cases providing stronger protections than those that previously existed for patients in California. It is not yet clear, however, how regulators and courts will interpret all of the new ARRA health privacy provisions. Moreover, significant gaps in patient protection will remain despite the new federal privacy protections provided by ARRA.
This issue brief analyzes the health privacy legal landscape in California before 2009 and discusses changes made by enactment of ARRA. The brief covers the following elements of health privacy law:
- Who is covered;
- Types of health information covered;
- Access, use, and disclosure of health information;
- Patient rights, including accounting of disclosures, record access, and control over use of information for marketing;
- Patient notification in the event of a breach; and
- Enforcement of the laws.
The brief also identifies a number of significant gaps in privacy protection that remain unaddressed by state and federal law and that merit further attention from policymakers.
Summary is here:
http://www.chcf.org/topics/view.cfm?itemID=133935
Report here:
The Impact of Federal Stimulus Efforts on the Privacy and Security of Health Information in California (552K)
Last we have:
Two studies assess cost of doc-office paperwork
By Andis Robeznieks / HITS staff writer
Posted: May 15, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT
While how much of a medical practice’s administrative overhead can be classified as “waste” is still open to debate, two new studies posted on the Health Affairs Web site attempt to put a price tag on these clerical tasks and on how much a medical practice must spend before it can extract a check from an insurance company.
In one study, researchers calculated that the annual cost of performing billing-related tasks comes to about $85,276 per physician. In the other, it was estimated that the total cost of the nation’s physician-health plan interactions is somewhere between $23 billion and $31 billion.
The two reports are linked above:
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090515/REG/305159992
The inefficiency seems just gobsmacking!
So much to read – so little time – have fun!
David.
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