Featured Report: Nearly half of EPs have received EHR payments

This Week's Healthcare News
iHealthBeat
Consumer Coalitions Comment on Federal Data Exchange Efforts
May,03,2013
by:+Staff
The Campaign for Better Care and the Consumer Partnership for eHealth have submitted joint comments responding to a request for information on how the federal government could advance interoperability and health data exchange efforts, Health Data Management reports.
Together, the two coalitions represent more than 150 consumer and patient advocacy groups (Goedert, Health Data Management, 5/2).
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HealthDataManagement
Report: How to Save $74B in Medicaid Drug Costs
May,02,2013
by:+Joseph Goedert
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association sponsored the study, which consulting firm The Menges Group conducted. Savings in the report would total $43 billion to the federal government and $31.4 billion to states.
The savings would include $23.5 billion by increasing use of generic drugs, $12.5 billion by negotiating market-based pharmacy dispensing fees, $33.4 billion by using limited pharmacy networks, $2.7 billion by encouraging use of more affordable preferred brands, and $2.3 billion from reducing drug diversion, polypharmacy (patients prescribed too many medications with too little coordination), fraud and waste.
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TimesNewsNet
The new house call: Tech changes way doctors, patients communicate
May,02, 2013
by:+Leigh Ann Laube
Dr. Steven Adkins was in Target on a Saturday night when his cell phone rang. One of his patients had finally broken out in the rash that Adkins was expecting. The patient sent a photo of the rash to Adkins, he diagnosed her with shingles and called in a prescription for her.
For Adkins, a family medicine provider at Holston Medical Group’s Weber City, Va., office, electronic communication like this can be an appropriate way to deal with established patients.
Adkins doesn’t routinely give his cell phone number and e-mail address to his patients, but a second patient did use a cell phone to forward a photo of a foot wound.
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Featured Report: Nearly half of EPs have received EHR payments
ModernHealthcare
May,01, 2013
by:+Joseph Conn
More than a quarter million physicians and other professionals eligible for the federally funded electronic health-record incentive payment programs have received payments, according to the latest government data.
In its monthly update about the programs (PDF), the CMS reports that through March, a total of 255,772 so-called “eligible professionals,” or EPs, have been paid—160,890, or 63% of them so far, through the federally administered Medicare EHR incentive payment program, 83,765, or 33%, through state-run Medicaid programs; and 11,117, or 4%, through the federal Medicare Advantage program.
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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