Featured Report: HIE Queries: Protecting Patient Privacy

This Week's Healthcare News
Modern Physician.com
Primary-care docs generating more hospital revenue: survey
May,08,2013
by:+Andis Robeznieks
While physicians in general generated less net revenue for their affiliated hospitals last year, primary-care doctors generated more, on average, than other specialists, according to a survey of hospital chief financial officers conducted by Merritt Hawkins (PDF), an Irving, Texas-based physician recruitment firm.
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HealthDataManagement
Health Care Cost Slowdown Seen Saving Up to $770 Billion by 2021
May,08,2013
by:+Staff
People with health insurance saw increases in their medical costs slow from 2009 to 2011, signaling potential structural changes in the industry that could cut health-care inflation and save the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two studies.
The changes include greater use of generic drugs, higher out-of-pocket costs and more efficient care, a trend encouraged by the 2010 health-care overhaul, said David Cutler, a Harvard University health economist. If they permanently slow growth, the U.S. may reap $770 billion in unexpected savings from projected expenditures by 2021, wiping out a fifth of the budget deficit, one of the studies found. Read More

iHealthBeat
Inefficient Communication Tools Cost Hospitals $8.3B Annually
May,07, 2013
by:+ Staff
Inefficient communications technology costs U.S. hospitals a total of $8.3 billion annually in lost productivity and delayed patient discharges, according to a new report from the Ponemon Institute, the Wall Street Journal's "CIO Journal" reports (Boulton, "CIO Journal," Wall Street Journal, 5/7).
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Featured Report: HIE Queries: Protecting Patient Privacy
Healthcare Info Security
May,08, 2013
by:+Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
Federal advisers are going back to the drawing board to refine recommendations for how patient privacy can be protected when records are queried by clinicians through health information exchanges.
The HIT Policy Committee is concerned that, without certain restrictions, non-targeted queries by healthcare providers could result in inappropriate disclosures of sensitive patient health information. That could include disclosures that a patient was treated at a substance abuse or mental health facility.
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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