Managed Care news from FierceHealthIT
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Kaiser finishes major phase of costly EMR project
Kaiser has put the finishing touches on a major phase of its costly, high-profile EMR project, giving all of its 8.7 million enrollees and 13,000 physicians access to its outpatient system. To date,... Read more...
New Kaiser IT head charts change of course
After months of being in a holding pattern, Kaiser Permanente has hired a new, permanent top technology leader to stabilize its troubled IT organization.
Philip Fasano, former CEO of Capital Sourcing Group, is now vice president and chief information officer. He takes over from Bruce Turkstra, who served as interim IT chief after Cliff Dodd resigned in November. Dodd left practically overnight after a …
... Read more...Providers not moving fast enough on NPIs
When CMS agreed to give providers a bit of a breather on transitioning to the new National Provider Identifier, it might have given them a false sense of security, according to a consultant who coaches execs on this topic. True, CMS agreed to suspend penalties for providers who aren't NPI compliant yet, but are making reasonable and diligent efforts to get there. The problem is that …
... Read more...The chicken and the egg
So, it seems that health plans aren't as stoked about physician IT adoption as you might think (see article, below), ranking it low in importance when setting up pay-for-performance measurements. While I'm sure …
... Read more...Health IT not playing key role in P4P
In theory, payers include smart use of technology in their standards for handing out pay-for-performance bonuses. In reality, however, they aren't paying that much attention to IT adoption, according to a new study by analyst firm Health Industry Insights. The study, which surveyed 57 U.S. health plans with P4P programs planned or underway, found that when provided with a list of seven factors needed for P4P success, payers ranked physician IT adoption near the bottom, at …
... Read more...BCBS plans offer data for 11 million insureds
A group of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans spanning four states have come together to funnel data on 11 million people into a broadly-accessible EMR. The EMR, which uses MeDecision's Patient Clinical Summary Software, pulls together patient data from various sources, including eligibility, medication, lab visit, hospitalization and physician office visit databases into a single integrated system. The system then uses data analytics to offer physician reminders, including preventive care …
... Read more...FL health plans lead e-prescribing effort
Florida has become another front in the battle to foster e-prescribing adoption, with a group of health plans banding together to get the job done. The group, ePrescribe Florida, is led by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, UnitedHealthcare, Humana and AvMed. Other participants include CIGNA, Aetna, the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Florida Pharmacy Association, Florida Medical Association, Florida Hospital Association and vendors RxHub and SureScripts. The group's goal is to …
... Read more...WellPoint loses patient care data
It was a near miss this past week for a unit of WellPoint, one of the largest insurers in the United States. Early last week, WellPoint's Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield announced that it had lost medical and personal data on 75,000 members. The data had been lost when an unencrypted CD was sent to mental health benefits manager Magellan Behavioral Services by Health Data Management Solutions, and lost in transit somehow. As part of its public mea culpa, Empire had announced …
... Read more...Blue Cross of California launches PHR
One of the nation's largest health insurers, Blue Cross of California, has joined the PHR craze. The Blue has launched an integrated wellness, care management and physician communication program--360 Degree Health--with its personal health record model as a central component. The program is intended to better reach the 20 percent of the health plan's members at greatest risk. Like other new PHRs, it's also an exercise in seeing how much useful information patients can actually be tempted …
... Read more...Blue plans, health industry group plan PHR
It's dueling data stores, everyone. This week, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and health industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans have announced that they're creating their own personal health record (PHR) model. This new PHR would be transferable from one insurance company to another. The effort, which should go live in 2008, will presumably compete with the giant personal health record effort being launched by a handful of mega-employers like Wal-Mart Stores and …
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