The HIT Transition Weblogtag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1808322009-02-20T09:44:45-06:00Analysis and perspective on standards development, policy, implementation and funding in health IT from Healthcare IT Transition Group.TypePadHealth IT in the Stimulus, Part 1: A Look at the Money tag:typepad.com,2003:post-631125952009-02-20T09:44:45-06:002009-02-20T09:44:45-06:00What will physicians get from the stimulus package? Hospitals? RHIOs? Vendors? We will go into many of the details of the approximately $31 billion healthcare information technology-related spending that was signed into law this week by President Obama in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), but let's get started with an overview of the money.
Martin Jensenhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/02/health-it-in-the-stimulus-part-1-a-look-at-the-money-.htmlPlans Have Every Reason to Worry: Healthcare Reform Still on Menutag:typepad.com,2003:post-630741152009-02-19T14:46:14-06:002009-02-19T15:22:15-06:00On the federal budget playground, nobody really wants to pick healthcare for its team. That is, except for the usual suspects in the Senate: Max Baucus of Montana's Finance Committee, and that mighty dragon of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. We're all hoping that Max and Ted decide to merge their teams. All of us except for insurance execs, who are praying that turf wars and warring bills will slow down the march toward a public health insurance option. Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/02/plans-have-every-reason-to-worry-healthcare-reform-still-on-menu.htmlComing Up: Details on Health IT Recovery Plantag:typepad.com,2003:post-630658992009-02-19T11:36:19-06:002009-02-19T11:36:19-06:00Well, the winners in our poll on how much HIT would get into the stimulus package (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) were those who hit around $30 billion. Yes, the net amount is estimated at $19 b, but that's after $12 b in cost savings through CMS. Stay tuned for a thoroughgoing analysis of this new HIT money. I'm working as fast as I prudently can through these 200+ pages of Congressese, and countless more being unloaded right now from the thinktankers...Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/02/coming-up-details-on-health-it-recovery-plan.htmlStimulus Plan: Money to States for HIT Grantstag:typepad.com,2003:post-620631362009-01-28T17:53:20-06:002009-01-28T17:53:20-06:00Government Technology reports that state health IT concerns and the House version of the economic stimulus package are essentially in alignment. According to the NCSL vice president: "Should it pass as currently written, states would receive funds to offer low-interest loans to finance implementation of health IT as well as money to distribute grants to regional health information exchanges that will enable better coordination of care." ~Sen. Richard T. Moore, Vice President, National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) The House version of the stimulus package cites four priorities for HIT: $20 billion for HIT infrastructure, including Medicaid and Medicare incentives...Martin Jensenhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/01/stimulus-plan-money-to-states-for-hit-grants.htmlHealth Benefit Costs: As Bad as All That?tag:typepad.com,2003:post-620607182009-01-28T16:43:25-06:002009-01-28T16:43:25-06:00David Katz of CFO drew my attention yesterday to some recent numbers from the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) showing that employee health benefit costs have almost caught up with retirement benefit costs. In 2007, while US employer-paid retirement income benefits ($693.9 billion) accounted for 47.7% of total spending for benefits, health benefits ($623.1 billion) had risen to 42.8% of total benefit spending, according to EBRI. Sounds scary, especially when you look at health benefits as a percentage of total compensation (first chart). A paper from EBRI states: "The private sector’s shift away from “traditional” company-financed pension plans toward individual...Martin Jensenhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/01/health-benefit-costs-as-bad-as-all-that.htmlConference on Free Open Source HITtag:typepad.com,2003:post-619278042009-01-26T11:58:26-06:002009-01-26T11:58:26-06:00Fred Trotter told us about a summer weekend conference exclusively on healthcare FOSS (Free Open Source Software). Dates are Friday, July 31, 2009 through Sunday, August 2, 2009. This will be the first US-based conference focused solely on healthcare FOSS since OSCHA in 2002. Of course, you may have attended OSCHA '07 in Kuala Lumpur, lucky you, but this one is in Houston, just a skip down the road from us here in Tulsa, and it's cheap ($60 early bird), designed for us frequently-unsponsored types, so I'm hoping I might just be able to get away. With the recent announcements...Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/01/conference-on-free-open-source-hit.htmlHIT List 2009tag:typepad.com,2003:post-618289882009-01-23T15:41:41-06:002009-01-23T15:41:41-06:00We do it every year, and this year we're making our predictions into something more like promises. Because these are the things that NEED to happen in the healthcare information technology space over the coming months and years. Drum roll, please...Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/01/hit-list-2009.htmlConsumers Protected, Gorilla Has Watchtag:typepad.com,2003:post-617212982009-01-21T15:34:53-06:002009-01-21T15:34:53-06:00Just days before leaving office, President Bush's HHS (the Office of the National Coodinator for HIT, actually) released a report on medical identity theft. Hang on, what's Medical Identity Theft? We're not talking about your employer sneaking a peak at your medical records -- that's another shade of cyberphobia. Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/01/consumers-protected-gorrilla-has-watch.htmlForty-four and Counting: Presidential Commitment to HITtag:typepad.com,2003:post-617127782009-01-21T12:31:20-06:002009-01-21T12:31:20-06:00President Obama's administration speaks of $50 billion for healthcare information technology. How much of that is real, and when will we see it?Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/01/fortyfour-and-counting-presidential-commitment-to-hit.htmlBCBS of Massachusetts Foundation: $1.2 Million in Grantstag:typepad.com,2003:post-617080282009-01-21T10:51:17-06:002009-01-21T10:51:17-06:00We're constantly on the lookout for evidence of private funding for health IT, and this is an example of how these dollars often happen. There's the standard method of asking for money for a technology project, but it is rarely as successful as the time-tested method of asking for money for "widders n' orphans" -- or the uninsured. No snark, just fact. Here's HIT that's part of a broader strategy that involved building a provider's capacity to serve the underserved by lowering delivery costs. Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2009/01/bcbs-of-massachusetts-foundation-12-million-in-grants.htmlGrant Roundup for December 2008tag:typepad.com,2003:post-602649982008-12-20T17:26:31-06:002008-12-20T17:26:31-06:00Health IT grant highlights for December 2008, sponsored by the Health IT Grant Resource Directory .Michael Christopherhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2008/12/grant-roundup-for-december-2008.htmlLosing Money for a Living in HITtag:typepad.com,2003:post-601059162008-12-16T18:16:16-06:002008-12-16T18:16:16-06:00We appreciate that you come to our blog to see what we have to say, but sometimes we forget to mention it when we get coverage in other venues.
For instance, yesterday Michael got a pat on the back over at the HIStalk blog for the cool new NPIdentify desktop lookup tool he created. Mr. HIStalk and Inga, besides having the most readable, er second most-readable blog in the HIT space, usually get things right. But calling us a dot-Mom operation?
Pu-leeze.
We are strictly business. We may give things away for free, but we make up for it in volume.
Also, last week I got to do a "real" editorial piece over at The Medical Banking project. It started when MBP chief John Casillas asked me to read a copy of a Gartner report published about a year ago, that said that banks might be threatening to enter the health insurance business. My "tell us how you really feel" response is posted under the title, Do Banks Threaten Health Insurers?
No, I said, because not even health insurers want to do health insurance anymore. In fact, as the impact of Consumer Directed Health Care is felt across the entire industry, insurance companies (or whatever we decide to call them in the future) might want to get into the banking business, managing Health Savings Account assets and tallying transaction fees.Martin Jensenhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2008/12/losing-money-for-a-living-in-hit.htmlNachimson Reports Progress on HIPAA2 Regstag:typepad.com,2003:post-600905522008-12-16T12:14:30-06:002008-12-16T12:14:30-06:00Last month we reported that the Bush Administration might try to get the regulations for HIPAA Transactions and Code Sets Revisions (TCS2) and the adoption of the ICD-10 Code Sets (ICD-10) published before leaving office (Will Bush2 Do HIPAA2). We then reported that, indeed, items had been listed on the Department's quarterly regulatory agenda with a very tight timeline. the final drafts had cleared the Department of Health and Human Services (CMS Anticipates HIPAA TCS2 and ICD-10 Rules This Month).
Today, consultant Stanley Nachimson (pronounced "NOCK-im-s'n") reports that the rules went to the Office and Management and Budget for final review on December 12. This is the final clearance process -- if OMB does not have a major challenge, the new regs should appear within 90 days, according to the traditional publication timeline. However, this set of regs has been on a fast track. The initial Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) drafts cleared OMB in about 30 days back in July/August.
Martin Jensenhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2008/12/nachimson-reports-progress-on-hipaa2-regs.htmlLooking Back at Looking Forwardtag:typepad.com,2003:post-599410162008-12-12T16:13:20-06:002008-12-12T16:13:20-06:00Jeez. So I just published this snarky little post about how we are three years ahead of PWC (and there's a link to another one where with pick a minor fite with Gartner) and I figure I better add a link for our annual HIT List, now that we're about to publish our fourth edition. (Didja know we meticulously categorize our posts, so you can click on the headings over there on the right to see what else we've said about each topic? I didn't think so. Webstats don't lie. Still, we are analysts, so we categorize.)
And one of the places we had mentioned our HIT Lists was in our Black Swans of Health IT promo last November. The Black Swans allusion was a reference to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book of the same name, where he warned of the big impacts of unexpected events. I suggested a third taxonomy -- a Gray Goose, which was an event which was not yet predicted, but might still be predictable. I was feeling particularly Dylanesque that day, and I said.
Martin Jensenhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2008/12/looking-back-at-looking-forward.htmlPWC Catches Up with HITTG - Almosttag:typepad.com,2003:post-599377442008-12-12T15:26:58-06:002008-12-12T15:26:58-06:00PriceWaterhouseCoopers just released their "Top Nine Health Industry Issues in 2009". Right after the economic downturn, "Underinsured surpassing uninsured as providers’ headache" tops their list.
PWC says that higher deductibles and economic stress are moving a lot of providers' anticipated revenues to the patient-pay category and then directly into the bad debt column. Providers, they say, need to do eligibility and credit checks, consider financial counseling and maybe even try to estimate the cost of services at the point of care.
Readers of our blog might recognize the issue, since we first started alerting you to it back in February of 2007 -- almost two full years ago. Wait. Check that. We actually warned you about it at the beginning of the year before, with our 2006 HIT List. We also cited the increasing influence of banks into the HIT space, which PWC thinks might play a role in addressing the problem....Martin Jensenhttp://blog.hittransition.com/2008/12/pwc-catches-up-with-hittg-almost.html