Most Surveyed Patients Are Comfortable With Virtual Doctor Meetings

This Week's Healthcare News
iHealthbeat
Most Surveyed Patients Are Comfortable With Virtual Doctor Meetings
Mar,06,2013
by:+Staff
About 70% of surveyed patients say they are comfortable communicating with doctors via computers or mobile devices instead of in person, according to a new report from Cisco, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports (Clinical Innovation & Technology, 3/5).

Report Details

The results of the Cisco Global Customer Experience Report were announced during the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference (Cisco release, 3/4).

For the report, Cisco surveyed 1,547 consumers and health care decision-makers in 10 countries.
Read Report

MobiHealthNews
Congress asks FDA if “actual use” is factor in medical app regulation
Mar,06,2013
by:+Brian Dolan
Last week six members of the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg MD to ask her when the agency expects to publish its final guidelines for how and when it regulates mobile medical apps as medical devices.
The FDA draft guidance document on mobile medical apps was published for public comment in July 2011. The letter also asks whether the FDA will consider the “actual use” of a mobile medical app in addition to the “intended use” when making its determination about whether an app needs to go through the 510(K) process. Finally, the letter closes with a series of questions related to the final guidance document and the committee wants answers by March 15th.
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Modern Healthcare.com
Providers fret over Medicaid pay as they plan for surge in beneficiaries
Mar,08, 2013
by:+Rich Daly
When a state senator recently congratulated the CEO of a small, rural northern California hospital on the influx of insured patients expected next year because of the coming Medicaid expansion, he may not have anticipated the response.

“It's not going to bring me any extra money, it's going to cost me more money in the long run,” Matt Rees of 22-bed Mayers Memorial Hospital District in Fall River Mills, Calif., says when recounting the conversation.

The losses are expected from newly insured Medicaid patients seeking outpatient services, not emergency room services, which federal law already requires them to provide for free to uninsured residents. The financial hit stems from the Medicaid program reimbursing only 20% of the cost of such outpatient services, Rees says in an interview.

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Featured Report: CMS to focus on healthcare interoperability in 2013, stay new regs
Search Health IT
Mar,07, 2013
by:+ Ed Burns
NEW ORLEANS -- In an address at HIMSS 2013, Acting Administrator of CMS Marilyn Tavenner said regulators will not issue any new health IT-related regulations or proposals this year. But this does not mean the federal government is backing off plans to encourage implementation of EHRs and other technology throughout the industry.

In her first appearance at a HIMSS event, Tavenner unveiled a new 2013 CMS agenda, including what she called "aggressive" goals for provider adoption. The plan seeks to get 50% of physician offices using EHRs and 80% of hospitals receiving incentive payments by the end of the year.

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Hello Businesses Owner,

I am writing to you because our changing health care system will have a profound effect on all of us. Now that the election is over and the Supreme Court has ruled, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not going away. It will not be repealed and it is up to us to make sure it will work for small businesses and individuals as it was intended to do.

That’s why I joined the Campaign for Better Health Care’s newly created Small Business Health Care Consortium (SBHCC). This consortium views the needs of small businesses and their employees as a top priority.

And, as a member of the Steering Committee of the SBHCC I am personally inviting you to join our network of small businesses who know that only through our collective voices that will assure that the Affordable Care Act live up to its goal of making healthcare affordable for all.

Discussions around health reform have been confusing and, sometimes, even misleading. It is the goal of the SBHCC to provide factual information about the changes that are already happening and those coming in the near future. The SBHCC discusses the benefits and opportunities of the ACA and what Illinois small businesses need to do to make sure this law will benefit them.

Many key components of the ACA are national in nature. For instance, small businesses currently providing health insurance to their employees could be eligible for a 35% tax credit. And, while employers with fewer than 50 full time employees are not required to provide health insurance, their employees can take advantage of the ACA’s benefits.

Other components will be implemented at the State level and these decisions will either enhance small businesses or provide another hurdle. One important component is that all states must implement a health insurance exchange (marketplace). These exchanges will include a rate review process with defined, easy to understand plans to consider and review side-by-side.

As small business owners we share many of the same, serious business challenges. It is my hope that you and your small business peers do want to learn more about the ACA. Let’s take this opportunity to act collectively to get control of health insurance costs and improve access to coverage. The opportunity to create positive change is now. It is about fairness and choices for small businesses. To that end I like for you to hear my own personal story about how the new healthcare law will effect me.

Please go to this link at Healthcare.gov to see my story Watch My Story

Then Join the SBHCC do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or thoughts. I may be reached at wireheadtec@gmail.com or Wirehead Technology

Sincerely,
Howard Lee
CIO
Wirehead Technology
Tel-312-286-8416