Insurance Industry Agrees With The HealthCare Fix Kids Coverage Gap

WASHINGTON (AP) — The insurance industry says it won't fight President Barack Obama over fixing a coverage gap for kids in the new health care law.
In a letter Monday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the industry's top lobbyist says insurers will accept new regulations to dispel uncertainty over a much publicized guarantee that children with pre-existing medical problems can get coverage starting this year.
The president of America's Health Insurance Plans said the industry will "fully comply" with the regulations, expected within weeks.
The law was signed last week, but the fine print was not clear on whether kids with health problems were guaranteed coverage starting this year, or if they might have to wait until 2014.

Mirth MUx Selected By HealthBridge For Next Generation Healthcare Infrastructure.

Irvine, CA and Cincinnati, OH, November 10, 2009 – Mirth Corporation, the leader in commercial open source healthcare information technology, and HealthBridge, one of the nation’s largest and most advanced community health information exchanges today announced the selection of the Mirth Meaningful Use Exchange (Mirth MUx) as the core of HealthBridge’s next generation interoperability infrastructure. By implementing Mirth MUx HealthBridge becomes one of the nation’s first health information exchanges to enable physician access to critical patient information via the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). The NHIN has been developed under the guidance of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to serve as a nationwide, interoperable health information infrastructure. Mirth MUx helps organizations fast-track NHIN connectivity.
Built on the foundation of Mirth’s widely used open source healthcare interface engine, Mirth MUx speeds NHIN connectivity by fully incorporating the open source CONNECT software developed by the Federal Health Architecture program under ONC. CONNECT incorporates all of the standards and requirements outlined for the NHIN, helping organizations more quickly get connected into NHIN-enabled health information exchanges.
“For the past year Mirth has been a key technology partner to HealthBridge in enabling us to make critical patient information available to physicians where and when they need it across our community,” said Robert Steffel, chief executive officer for HealthBridge. “Now, with the addition of the NHIN-enabled Mirth MUx, as a central component of our infrastructure, we can extend our reach to enable information exchange with participating organizations nationally,” added Steffel.
HealthBridge provides connectivity for 28 hospitals, more than 5200 physician users, 700 physician practices, and 17 local health departments, as well as nursing homes, independent labs, radiology centers and others across the Greater Cincinnati healthcare community. It delivers nearly 3 million clinical messages and results to more than 5,200 physicians monthly.
Mirth MUx can help healthcare delivery organizations of all sizes achieve proposed meaningful use criteria for clinical information exchange. Physicians meeting these criteria have the potential to earn up to $44,000 over five years, and hospitals stand to earn millions in federal incentive dollars over a similar period for implementation and use of electronic health record systems. The ability to exchange clinical information is among the central components of these meaningful use criteria.
“HealthBridge has been widely recognized for their leadership in advancing health information exchange across communities and, more importantly, they have demonstrated a model for success both operationally and financially,” observed Jon Teichrow, president of Mirth Corporation. “Mirth Corporation is honored to be working with such a high caliber organization and delighted to play a part in the important work they do to create a safer more coordinated system of care delivery – one that works better for physicians and patients,” added Teichrow.
Mirth MUx enables healthcare organizations to securely exchange clinical information such as patient clinical summaries, lab results, medication histories and other records directly or via the NHIN. Designed to support standards such as HL7 and the Continuity of Care Document (CCD), Mirth MUx enables organizations to go live in weeks, and at a far lower cost than traditional vendor solutions. The Mirth MUx document portal gives authorized healthcare providers secure access to critical patient information via any Internet-connected computer.
Mirth MUx deployments are available on the Mirth E1000 Enterprise Appliance and the Mirth V1000 Virtual Appliance platforms. These enterprise-grade appliance platforms help reduce the time, effort and risk associated with implementation, and offer faster performance for organizations with high transaction volumes. Mirth MUx is also available as a hosted solution.
Since its launch as the Mirth Project in 2006, Mirth Connect – a core component of Mirth MUx – has become the most widely downloaded open source software for healthcare data integration, with over 70,000 worldwide downloads and a user community numbering over 7,000 professionals. Mirth Connect supports all major healthcare data interchange standards, including HL7, X12, DICOM, NCPDP, and XML.
Mirth

Elsevier's Article 2.0 Contest Winners Announced.

Elsevier, a leading global healthcare and scientific publisher, has announced the winners in the Elsevier Article 2.0 Contest ( http://www.article20.elsevier.com), a competition challenging individuals to develop creative and useful solutions for rendering journal articles on the web. The contest attracted interest from contestants across the globe with submissions including web, mobile and desktop applications. The panel of seven distinguished judges, drawn from academia, publishing, policymaking and media, considered how each application improved on the existing online presentation of research articles. Special attention was paid to contestants' ability to 'think outside of the box' as well as ease of use and the overall quality of the application.

The $4,000 first prize was awarded to Inigo Surguy whose idea demonstrated how Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0/Semantic Web approaches can be combined to add value to article content. His application enhances content navigation, facilitating commentary on specific paragraphs, and assertions about the article and its contents.

The $2,000 second prize was awarded to Jacek R. Ambroziak. His mobile application enables reading Elsevier articles on an Android Smartphone. Stuart Chalk, the $1000 third prize winner, submitted an idea operating on the premise that research articles are inherently non-linear and that researchers view articles in a random fashion, depending on their interests.

"It is exciting to see the article beginning to emerge as a real digital artefact, using XML to create more than just an enhancement of the print version, and addressing the problems of different digital distribution channels like mobile for the first time," remarked David R. Worlock, Chief Research Fellow, Outsell Inc., and one of the seven Article 2.0 Contest Judges, " But these are just the first steps in what will ultimately be a complete redesign of scholarly communication in the networks."

The panel of Article 2.0 judges also included: Alan Darnell, Manager of the Scholars Portal Project; Dave Kellogg, Chief Executive Officer of MarkLogic; Dr. Donald Lindberg, Director of the National Library of Medicine; Jill O'Neil, Director, Planning and Communication, National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services; Andrew Perry, Postdoctoral Researcher of the University of Melbourne; and Rafael Sidi, Vice President of Product Management, ScienceDirect, Elsevier.

"The Article 2.0 Contest has been another opportunity for Elsevier to collaborate with researchers and developers by providing the building blocks to achieve innovative outcomes", said Darin McBeath, Director of Disruptive Technologies, based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This initiative reflects Elsevier's goal of getting closer to customers and delivering innovative online tools to increase productivity. Another key innovation contest, The Elsevier Grand Challenge: Knowledge Enhancement in the Life Sciences (http://www.elseviergrandchallenge.com) will be announcing its Grand prize winners from among four finalists at the Experimental Biology Meeting (http://www.eb2009.org) on April 21st. These winners promise new ways of enhancing deep value in scientific content. Over the course of the past year, the Grand Challenge has invited members of the scientific community to describe and prototype tools to improve the interpretation and identification of meaning in online journals and text databases relating to the life sciences.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), MD Consult ( http://www.mdconsult.com/), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com/), bibliographic databases, and online reference works.

Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Google Health Getting Smarter To Make You Healthy

Since Google health was launched, there have been many a discussions, arguments both for and against the movement.
I have worked with healthcare field, yep, in the EMR, medical records field. I still work in the field but now with insurance related information.
I have seen healthcare records getting to healthcare professionals blocked or delayed by bureaucratic red tapes. At the same time, I have seen how easy it is to obtain health records by say lawyers for evidence etc. I even saw a TV show saying "Oh it is so bad any one with your social security number can get your health information" yes, anyone with with ones SSN can do much more.
But EMR, electronic medical records or health records, can save lives and that precede everything else in my mind. If you are dead, I think it is little value keeping your records to yourself.
EMR does not mean you are sharing your records with everyone in the planet. You can select whom you share your information. Media will always look for something to make headlines and they like to play games in margins.
So I think educating yourself on EMR might help you to make that decision and the link below and learn how the sharing your health records could help you and your loved ones.

Official Google Blog: Google Health: helping you better coordinate your care

Tags: healthcare, EMR, google health, electronic medical records, health records

What Is Health Level Seven, HL7

Self Proclaimed to be "Level Seven" of Healthcare service, HL7 provides valuable service to our community. "Level Seven" refers to the highest level of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) communications model for OSI's (Open Systems Interconnection) Application Level. The application level addresses definition of the data to be exchanged, the timing of the interchange, and the communication of certain errors to the application. The seventh level supports such functions as security checks, participant identification, availability checks, exchange mechanism negotiations and, most importantly, data exchange structuring.

Health Level Seven is one of several American National Standards Institute (ANSI) -accredited Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) operating in the healthcare arena. Most SDOs produce standards (sometimes called specifications or protocols) for a particular healthcare domain such as pharmacy, medical devices, imaging or insurance (claims processing) transactions. Health Level Seven’s domain is clinical and administrative data.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI, Health Level Seven is like most of the other SDOs in that it is a not-for-profit volunteer organization. Its members-- providers, vendors, payers, consultants, government groups and others who have an interest in the development and advancement of clinical and administrative standards for healthcare—develop the standards. Like all ANSI-accredited SDOs, Health Level Seven adheres to a strict and well-defined set of operating procedures that ensures consensus, openness and balance of interest. A frequent misconception about Health Level Seven (and presumably about the other SDOs) is that it develops software. In reality, Health Level Seven develops specifications, the most widely used being a messaging standard that enables disparate healthcare applications to exchange keys sets of clinical and administrative data.

Members of Health Level Seven are known collectively as the Working Group, which is organized into technical committees and special interest groups. The technical committees are directly responsible for the content of the Standards. Special interest groups serve as a test bed for exploring new areas that may need coverage in HL7’s published standards. A list of the technical committees and special interest groups as well as their missions, scopes and current leadership is available on this web site.

HL7's Vision

To create the best and most widely used standards in healthcare.

HL7's Mission

HL7 provides standards for interoperability that improve care delivery, optimize workflow, reduce ambiguity and enhance knowledge transfer among all of our stakeholders, including healthcare providers, government agencies, the vendor community, fellow SDOs and patients. In all of our processes we exhibit timeliness, scientific rigor and technical expertise without compromising transparency, accountability, practicality, or our willingness to put the needs of our stakeholders first.

tag: HL7, healthcare, ISO, OSI, SDO, Level Seven,

UK National Health Service (NHS) Might OutSource Patients To India!

Looks like India is becoming a haven for western patients seeking affordable healthcare!. National Helthcare have been a problem to USA but looks like UK too is facing Healthcare Issues. The health services from India and China has been increasingly being used by western patients. So far it has been private citizens that went on their own. But this is a new development. NHS is a state funded entity. Here is a news article from Times of India.

LONDON: Britain may soon permit patients at its state-funded National Health Service to travel to India for speedy and cheaper medical treatment. The issue was discussed between Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and British authorities here and the "response" was positive.
"We had discussions about how to use the Indian medical facilities by the NHS," Ramadoss said, addressing a national conference on the 60th Anniversary celebration of India's Independence and the setting up of the NHS at the Royal College of Physicians here on Saturday.
"At present, NHS patients can have treatment at places within three hours flying and we have request that the flying limit may be lifted and in the present day globalised world there is not much of a difference between three hours and seven and a half hours flying."
"The response was positive and in the next few months, NHS may open out," the minister said, adding "we believe these issue could be solved through dialogue."
During the discussions, Ramadoss also pressed for mutual recognition of medical degrees and unilateral recognition of post-graduate degrees in five countries --India, Australia, the UK, New Zealand and the USA Ramesh Mehta, President of British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), the organizer of the conference, expressed his gratitude to the minister for "initiating a political dialogue" with British authorities.
Ajit Lalvani, Chair of Infectious Diseases and Head, Tuberculosis Immunology Group, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Imperial College, London, said premier British medical institutions were currently looking at India to develop research in partnership.
Times of India

tag: healthcare, health care, National Health Service, NHS, BAPIO, India, Indian Healthcare

Congress Passes Child HealthCare Bill, Again

WASHINGTON (AP) — A defiant Democratic-controlled Congress voted Thursday to provide health insurance to an additional 4 million lower-income children, and President Bush vowed swiftly to cast his second straight veto on the issue.

The legislation cleared the Senate on a vote of 64-30. It passed the House last week, but supporters were shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override Bush's threatened veto.

"We're convinced that the president has undermined an effort to protect children," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said shortly before the vote.

"Congress has known for weeks that the President would veto this bill," White House press secretary Dana Perino countered in a statement shortly after the vote. "Now Congress should get back to work on legislation that covers poor children and stop using valuable floor time to make partisan statements."

In a situation of unusual political complexity, Republicans dictated the decision to pass the legislation speedily. It appeared their goal was to short-circuit attempts by supporters of the bill to reach a compromise that could attract enough votes in the House to override Bush's veto.

Attempts by Reid to delay final passage of the bill until next week or longer drew objections from the GOP.

"I believe a deal is within reach," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, a participant in meetings with two senior Senate Republicans, Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Orrin Hatch of Utah, and several members of the House GOP.

Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., who supported Bush's first veto and is involved in the discussions, said "we are pretty close" to an agreement but that several issues remain. For example, she said, the two sides had narrowed their differences on the issue of insuring maximum coverage of poor children before those in slightly higher-income families can be brought into the program.

Baucus said the negotiations would resume next week.

The veto-threatened measure would add an estimated 4 million beneficiaries to an existing program that provides coverage for children from families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance. The program currently provides benefits to roughly 6 million children.

At a cost of $35 billion, the bill would be paid for through an increase in tobacco taxes, including a 61-cent rise on a package of cigarettes.

Bush vetoed an earlier children's health bill this fall, and Republican critics said it failed to give a high enough priority to covering poor children, marked a Democratic attempt to expand government-run health care, and did not take sufficient steps to prevent the children of illegal immigrants from receiving benefits.

Democrats failed to override his veto on a vote of 273-156, 13 short of the two-thirds majority they needed.

In response, Democrats launched a replacement measure, incorporating changes they said were designed to meet Republican objections to their first offering.

But Bush dismissed those efforts this week, telling a business audience, "If Congress sends this bill back to me, I'm going to veto it again." He predicted his second veto would be upheld.

A day earlier, the president told House Republicans in a private meeting that he would veto any measure that raised tobacco or any other taxes, a significant hardening of the administration's public position on the issue.

Political polls show the children's health issue enjoys widespread support, and Democrats and their allies have moved quickly to exploit it for their advantage with television and radio commercials attacking Republicans who opposed the legislation.

The result has been a growing nervousness among House Republicans looking ahead to the 2008 elections. The party's top leaders, Reps. John Boehner of Ohio and Roy Blunt of Missouri, joined the compromise negotiations in recent days.

It is unlikely either of them would support a bill that raises taxes. Rather, officials said their intention was to coax as many concessions as possible from the Democrats so that the next measure would be one that other Republicans among the rank-and-file could comfortably support.

As an example of the unusual political maneuvering on the legislation, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced shortly after the vote that Democrats would not immediately send the measure to the White House.

And Reid said that out of deference to rank-and-file House Republicans who are involved in the talks, he would ask Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to call for an immediate attempt to override a veto.

Whether it succeeded or not, such a vote would only add to the political discomfort of GOP lawmakers who have supported the president so far on the issue, but may eventually part company with him.

As part of the negotiations, House Republicans presented a proposal several days ago that requires a 90-percent signup rate for the poorest eligible children before a state can expand coverage.

According to a description of the proposal made available to The Associated Press, no adults could be covered beginning Oct. 1, 2008, except for pregnant women, although any adults currently receiving benefits could be transferred to Medicaid.

All applicants would be required to stipulate that family assets did not exceed $1 million. Anyone seeking coverage would have to provide a birth certificate as proof of citizenship, a provision designed to bar illegal immigrants from receiving benefits.

The proposal from House Republicans made no mention of the tobacco tax increase.

The legislation that passed the Senate drew the support of 45 Democrats, 17 Republicans and two independents. All 30 votes in opposition were cast by Republicans.

Associated Press writer Charles Babington contributed to this story.

Tags: healthcare, child healthcare, child healthcare bill

Ongoing Safety Review on Aprotinin Injection (marketed as Trasylol)

On October 19, 2007, FDA was notified of the Data Safety Monitoring Board’s (DSMB) recommendation to stop patient enrollment in the aprotinin (marketed as Trasylol by Bayer, Inc.) treatment group arm of the: Blood conservation using antifibrinolytics: A randomized trial in a cardiac surgery population (BART) study. The preliminary findings suggest that, compared to the antifibrinolytic drugs, epsilon-aminocaproic acid and tranexamic acid, aprotinin increases the risk of death.

The BART study was designed to test the hypothesis that aprotinin was superior to epsilon-aminocaproic acid and tranexamic acid in decreasing the occurrence of massive bleeding associated with cardiac surgery. The study had planned to enroll approximately 3,000 adult Canadian patients who were to undergo various types of cardiac surgery that placed them at high risk for bleeding.

Information from the interim analyses performed by the DSMB is limited, but FDA has been informed that:

• the 30- day mortality in the aprotinin group nearly had reached conventional statistical significance at the interim analysis, when compared to either epsilon-aminocaproic acid or tranexamic acid;

• a trend toward increased mortality in the aprotinin group had been observed throughout the study;

• the use of aprotinin was associated with less serious bleeding than either of the comparator drugs; however, more deaths due to hemorrhage had been observed among patients receiving aprotinin;

• the DSMB concluded that continued enrollment of patients into the aprotinin group was unlikely to significantly change the study findings.

Additional data collection and analyses must be performed to more thoroughly assess the findings from the BART study. However, these preliminary data support the findings from observational studies that also suggested increased risks for mortality when aprotinin was compared to other antifibrinolytic drugs. These observational studies were discussed at a September 12, 2007, joint meeting of the Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs and Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committees.

In light of the preliminary BART study findings, FDA anticipates re-evaluation of the overall risks and benefits of Trasylol. This re-evaluation may result in the need to revise the labeling or other regulatory actions. Until this process has been completed, healthcare providers who are considering use of Trasylol should be aware of the risks and benefits described in the labeling for Trasylol and the accumulating data suggesting Trasylol administration increases the risk for death compared to other antifibrinolytic drugs.

Trasylol is currently approved for prophylactic use to reduce perioperative blood loss and the need for blood transfusion in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass in the course of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery who are at an increased risk for blood loss and blood transfusion.

This early communication is in keeping with FDA’s commitment to inform the public about its ongoing safety reviews of drugs. FDA will work with the sponsor of the BART study and the manufacturer of Trasylol to fully evaluate the risks and benefits associated with the use of Trasylol. As soon as this process is complete, FDA will communicate the conclusions and recommendations to the public.

The FDA urges healthcare professionals to promptly report serious and unexpected adverse reactions associated with Trasylol to Bayer or to the FDA MedWatch reporting program, as described below.

• online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm
• by returning the postage-paid FDA form 3500 (available in PDF format at www.fda.gov/medwatch/getforms.htm) to 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852-9787
• faxing the form to 1-800-FDA-0178
• by phone at 1-800-332-1088

Tags: aprotinin, Trasylol, antifibrinolytics, antifibrinolytic drugs, epsilon-aminocaproic acid, tranexamic acid, DSMB, BART study findings, FDA, healthcare

Children's HealthCare heats up Capitol Hill

Democrats are not predicting victory in the main event in Congress this week - their push to override President Bush’s veto of a children’s health care bill. But they believe they’re winning nonetheless.

Even though Republicans expect to narrowly sustain President Bush’s veto in a vote set for Thursday, Democrats say they have managed to put Republicans back on their heels, scrambling to explain their opposition to a popular health program.

“This is a defining moment for the Republican Party, in my opinion,” Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “They’re going to say whether they are, in fact, a compassionate community, or whether they’re going to unthinkingly follow the dictates of their party and their president against the program that the overwhelming majority of their constituents are for.”

Read more at the Newyork Times

Tags: HealthCare, Children's HealthCare, children’s health care bill

Blue Shield California Foundation Launches Clinic Leadership Institute

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF) today announced plans to spend up to $10 million over 5 years to support its first signature project, the Clinic Leadership Institute, an innovative program that aims to identify and train the next generation of California’s community clinic leaders.

The Clinic Leadership Institute is being launched with an initial grant of $1.39 million, which was part of this year’s third quarter grant making. The funding will be used to recruit, select and train the inaugural class of 25 emerging clinic leaders. Those selected will learn leadership, decision making, financial management and strategic planning skills during the course of the 18 month Institute. The goal is to provide these emerging leaders with the skills to become effective change agents in today’s rapidly evolving health care environment.

“Community-based clinics today face a major leadership transition,” said BSCF President and CEO Crystal Hayling. “Those who pioneered the community-based clinic movement had the vision to establish our healthcare safety net. As 70 percent of today’s community clinic leaders prepare to retire, the Clinic Leadership Institute will prepare a new generation to take the helm.”

Community clinics are a vital part of California’s healthcare safety net. Today, more than 800 clinics throughout California provide healthcare services to nearly 3 million people, including 12 percent of California’s children and 37 percent of those living below the poverty level.

The Clinic Leadership Institute grows out of BSCF’s deep and longstanding commitment to supporting California’s healthcare safety net. Since 2003, BSCF has provided $29 million in core support funding to community clinics statewide.

“As a result of this program, we hope the next generation of healthcare leaders will be better prepared to serve the millions of Californians who rely on community clinics for the care they need to keep themselves and their families well,” Hayling said. “We hope to build a learning network of clinic leaders.”

BSCF selected the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California – San Francisco (UCSF) to develop and administer the Clinic Leadership Institute. Developed with input from California community clinic representatives, as well as regional and national experts in the field of leadership development, the Institute offers a comprehensive curriculum and hands-on training that addresses core competencies in:

• Organization Values and Behaviors
• Leadership and Decision Making
• Strategic Thinking and Acumen
• Business Acumen and Financial/Grant Management
• Relationship Management
• Diversity
• Organization Improvement
• Data Driven Decision Making

The Clinic Leadership Institute is now accepting applications for its inaugural class, with a deadline of October 31, 2007. Applicants will be recruited from every region of the state and will be representative of its full economic, social and cultural diversity. Those interested in more information should visit www.clinicleadershipinstitute.org.

Tags: Blue Shield, BSCF, Clinic Leadership Institute, health care, healthcare, University of California, UCSF