| January 23, 2012 | Vol III: No.1 |
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Top of the NewsHospital chain with Valley ties sued for wrongful firing : A retired FBI investigator who worked for Naples-based Health Management Associates has filed a lawsuit against the hospital chain saying he was wrongly fired after he uncovered fraudulent Medicare billing, according to the lawsuit. Officials at the for-profit hospital chain say they fired Paul Meyer on Sept. 6 for insubordination when he refused to cooperate with an internal investigation and for disclosing confidential internal information, according to a counterclaim HMA filed. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________Medicare Advantage Plans with Fitness Benefits Snag Healthier Enrollees : Medicare Advantage plans that include fitness benefits such as gym memberships attract significantly healthier enrollees who are also less expensive to cover, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine. "It makes sense. The people who would value fitness memberships would be healthier and have fewer functional limitations," says Amal N. Trivedi, co-author of the study, Fitness Membership and Favorable Selection in Medicare Advantage Plans. "And that group of seniors that participates in fitness programs has lower health expenses." Read more... _________________________________________________________________________American Docs Question Health IT's Benefits: U.S. physicians are less likely than doctors in other countries to think that healthcare IT can improve diagnostic decisions, according to an Accenture survey of 3,700 doctors in eight countries. Additionally, only 47% of U.S. doctors report that healthcare technology has helped improve the quality of treatment decisions, compared to 61% of the other physicians interviewed. Only 45% think that technology leads to improved health outcomes for patients, against a survey average of 59%. "The survey of doctors shows that more needs to be done to bridge the disconnect in perception and impact of health IT benefits," Kaveh Safavi, Accenture's health practice lead in North America, told InformationWeek Healthcare. "However, despite the high-level skepticism of technology, U.S. physicians have made progress in implementing healthcare IT for practices relating to disease management." Read more... _________________________________________________________________________EHRs linked to errors, harm, AMA says : A new AMA report on patient safety in ambulatory care finds that safety problems are widespread but that little is known about which problems cause the most harm. Among the uncertainties cited by the AMA researchers is the contribution of electronic health records (EHRs) to patient safety. "The use of electronic health records has the potential to improve patient safety and early research shows some promise, but these systems have also been linked to errors and harm," the report says. "It is not yet clear how many providers will adopt these systems, nor the extent to which health IT will improve patient safety in ambulatory care versus generating new types of errors." Read more... |
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Industry UpdatesCIGNA, NY physician group launch accountable care initiative : CIGNA Corp. is launching a collaborative medical home initiative with the Weill Cornell Physician Organization in New York that will operate much like accountable care organizations outlined in the federal health care reform law. ACOs, introduced as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, are networks of health care providers that are held accountable for the overall care of health plan members in exchange for additional compensation to improve outcomes and reduce medical costs. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________CVS Caremark settles Medicare investigation : After more than two years of investigation, CVS Caremark Corp. agreed yesterday to pay $5 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the company had misrepresented the price of certain prescription drugs in one of its Medicare drug plans, causing many older consumers to pay significantly higher prices than advertised. The settlement comes at a time of intensive government scrutiny of pharmacy benefits managers like CVS Caremark, companies that manage prescription drug plans for employers and insurers. The FTC is currently reviewing the proposed merger of the two main competitors to CVS Caremark: Medco Health and Express Scripts. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________U.S. to force drug firms to report money paid to doctors : To head off medical conflicts of interest, the administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. Many researchers have found evidence that such payments can influence doctors’ treatment decisions and contribute to higher costs by encouraging the use of more expensive drugs and medical devices. Consumer advocates and members of Congress say patients may benefit from the new standards, being issued by the government under the new health care law. Officials said the disclosures increased the likelihood that doctors would make decisions in the best interests of patients, without regard to the doctors’ financial interests. Read more... _________________________________________________________________________20% of Healthcare Dollars Spent on 1% of Population : In 2009, 1% of the nation's civilian population required healthcare spending that was slightly greater than in 2008, an increase from 20.2% to 21.8% of $1.26 trillion in treatment dollars, according to the latest Statistical Brief from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. That indicates that more than $1 in every $5 healthcare dollars went to treat one out of every 100 people. The annual mean expenditure was $90,061 for those in that 1%. Read more... |
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Upcoming ConferencesJanuary 30-31, 2012 This two-day executive level program, will provide participants with extensive in-depth learning and knowledge share, through case-study driven presentations, high level keynote sessions, as well as round table panel discussions complemented by multiple networking opportunities. Through fostering a sense of collaboration and information share, this unique conference program will help bring clarity to Pharmaceutical Medical Communications & Publication Planning executives that wish to maximize scientific information dissemination. Details _________________________________________________________________________January 30-31 2012 This two-day, industry focused event is specific to those within Outcomes Research, Global Health Outcomes and Health Economics. It will incorporate key strategies to strengthen and promote the value of your product or process and enable sharing best practices with peer companies about creating, accessing and utilizing pharmacoeconomics data. Details _________________________________________________________________________
February 20, 2012 These all-day pre-conference events are designed as “insiders” workshops that will help small, medium, and large businesses entering the Federal Health IT market as well as those with experience selling into the Federal Health IT market. Details _________________________________________________________________________ |
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