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Check Medicare Eligibility Online
New service via the web that charges a quarter for each individual check, need to sign up and establish an account before using. Almost the same price as a phone call...BD Check the eligibility and deductible status of Medicare patients in seconds! This service can save you time and money! Here's …
TabletKiosk Now Shipping Sahara Slate i440D with Vista and Aero Glass support
First Slate Tablet PC with Dual Pen and Touch Screen Input Now Widely Available TabletKiosk™, a leader in mobile computing solutions, today announced that the Sahara Slate PC® i440D featuring both pen and touch screen input, is now widely available with either Microsoft® Windows® XP Tablet PC E…
FDA Panel OKs Osteoporosis Drug To Cut Breast Cancer Risk
Despite concerns over cardiovascular side effects, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel last Tuesday recommended the osteoporosis drug Evista (raloxifene) for use in preventing breast cancer in certain high-risk groups of older women.In a vote of 8 to 6, the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Co…
Blood Donors Can Answer Their Health History Questions Online
Also operates well on a touch screen tablet pc ...see below...BD Blood donation just got easier with advent of the Internet Quality Donor System(TM) (iQDS) by Talisman Ltd., of Vienna, Virginia. The US Food & Drug Administration recently issued 510(k) clearance to market the system. As Talisman Pre…
Sorry, folks, but it’s true: You are for sale
This is why they send out privacy notices in very small print that nobody has a tendency to read so they are within their legal boundaries when selling medical data base information. BD Other databases, such as Medical Marketing Service (MMS) sell specialized lists that include cross-referenced in…
What Does a chief medical information officer do?
Although use of electronic medical-record systems in ambulatory care remains low, in acute care, where most CMIOs work, their institutions have passed the tipping point for IT system adoption, particularly for patient record systems and imaging archival systems, Shaffer said. In that light, Shaf…
As more patients turn to the Web every day, are doctors prepared for the influx?
A good web presence for MDs is a good thing....BD It's surprising to me how many physicians do not yet have any presence on the Web, especially those who can set up such a presence at little or no cost. For example, many of our professional specialty organizations offer free Web space to their memb…
Healthcare for profit bad : Opinion, Nurses for Social Responsibility
One person's story about utilization management....BD I am a registered nurse. Although I have spent most of my 25-year career caring for people, I made one enormous mistake. For a brief time, I chose to work for a medical insurance company. They gave me the title, "utilization review nurse," which…
Glaxo Gets Grilled - Avandia
This morning, GlaxoSmithKline defended its controversial diabetes drug, Avandia, in front of a panel of federal advisers convened to decide whether the pill causes heart attacks. The panel will help the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decide whether steps should be taken to limit sales of Avand…
Humana 2Q Profit More Than Doubles
Humana Inc. reported Monday that its second-quarter profit more than doubled from a year ago on the strength of improved cost controls and sharply higher income from its government business. For the three months ended June 30, posted net income of $216.8 million, or $1.28 a share, up from $89.5 m…
Votes may be harmful to parties' health
Republicans are calling the Democrats' action a step toward socialized medicine, and the Bush administration has vowed to veto both bills. The outcome will influence the course of the presidential election debate over how to cover about 45 million uninsured people in the U.S.; about 9 million of …
CPU-controlled artificial leg offers new freedom of natural movement for amputees
July 27, 2007 Prosthetics is a fascinating field – science’s ability to mimic the complicated natural function of lost limbs can make a truly life-altering difference for amputees. Nowhere is this difference more strongly felt than in the field of artificial legs that get amputees out of wheelchai…
Does my doctor want to kill me? - California
Will be interesting to see if the bill makes it through the legislature. BD Hospital patients undergoing treatment in California might eventually need to speculate about whether their doctor harbors homicidal intentions. A proposed law, Assembly Bill 374, the California Compassionate Choices Act, …
N.J. fines Aetna over 9 million, saying it didn't cover services
By comparison, Kaiser got off lightly as this was over 3 times the amount of the fine...and ordered 12% interest on the unpaid claims...BD NEWARK — New Jersey insurance regulators have fined Aetna Health Inc. nearly $9.5 million, charging that it failed to properly cover some services by out-of-net…
Suit accuses United Healthcare of fraud
Additional story details on the post made last week with the announcement of the class action lawsuit. BD ST. PETERSBURG - Like many older people, Charleen Edge finds today's smorgasbord of Medicare plans confusing. Last year, she says, she found herself in a private health maintenance organizatio…
System failure - 3 contributing sectors
One person's thoughts and a bit of history on healthcare change through insurers, employers and hospitals...all who can be considered bad guys at times...due to current practices, etc. and his thoughts on reform...BD Why the shift? There are a lot of reasons. But a big one, surely, is the growing …
Cutting Hospitals Out Of Surgery
Outpatient surgery helps some MDs with additional income and avoids the administrative hospital costs...BD When someone has minor outpatient surgery in a hospital, payment includes the cost to cover the procedure, plus an extra few thousand dollars in so-called facility fees. If Rock Rockett has hi…
New York warns of lawsuit over physician rankings by United ...
United Healthcare is going ahead with plans to release its physician rankings for the New York area, despite a threat of legal action from the state's attorney general, a United spokesman said. However, the company is delaying implementation of the rankings system for a few months so physicians c…
Physicians offered incentives to practice in New Orleans ...
The corps offers each physician: Up to $110,000 in loan repayment or income guarantees. As much as $40,000 for a sign-on bonus or medical liability insurance premium payments. A maximum of $20,000 for relocation expenses. Up to $10,000 for continuing medical education on health information te…
Medicaid measures performance: The push to improve care and save money ..
Private health plans' push for pay-for-performance and Medicare's first steps in that direction have garnered much attention. But the trend isn't confined to these two sectors. State Medicaid agencies have quietly entered the game in an effort to try to improve enrollees' care. As of mid-2006, at…
Health coaches nag employees to better care - UPS offers service to employees
Can this accomplish 2 things at once, cost and better health care? What about privacy issues...more data mining to be used elsewhere? Thus far only 30% have agreed to enroll. BD NEW YORK - For Myrtha Suralie, keeping things rolling at UPS' New York sales office is no sweat, but keeping her diabet…
U.S. patients choosing Mexican hospitals - Medical tourism - Texas
2 Hospital organizations working with "medical tourism" in Texas...both have searches for locating hospitals in both the US and Mexico. BD Two North Texas-based hospital chains, Christus Health of Irving and International Hospital Corp. of Dallas, are tapping into a need and an opportunity by prov…
Kaiser Best Provider in Colorado Springs
Last week in California, not as well...BD Kaiser Permanente is a nonprofit insurance agency that celebrates its 10th anniversary in Colorado Springs this year. The agency has 45,000 members in the Springs and 460,000 throughout the state. It only offers commercial products, focusing on a network mo…
PepsiCo to launch water-based health beverages
PepsiCo has announced that it’s getting ready to launch two water-based health beverages and to re-launch of its SoBe LifeWater. The move comes in response to slowing sales of its Gatorade brand, which is the the No. 2 moneymaker for the company behind Pepsi-Cola.The company is said to be focusin…
Caterpillar Sues Union Over Health Care
Contract negotiated, employees and union don't appear to be satisfied as a law suit is filed. BD Caterpillar Inc. filed lawsuits Wednesday to make the United Auto Workers pay if courts rule that the heavy equipment maker reneged on a promise to provide free health care for life to retirees and sur…
First job: Pay in to health care
Good tips in this article on various types of benefits offered by employers...it is getting a bit more complicated these days with so many choices available. BD If you think starting your first job is challenging, just wait until you have to sign up for the benefits your employer offers.In olden d…
Safety net for Medi-Cal has run out of cash - California
SACRAMENTO – A $2 billion fund created to keep money flowing to Medi-Cal providers when a legislative deadlock delays a new state budget has hit empty, reducing payments yesterday to HMOs and threatening payments to hospitals and nursing homes due Thursday. “The check-write today was supposed to …
Media Members Who Covered 9/11 Now Experiencing Health Woes, asking members to come forward
NEW YORK The New York Press Photographers Association is asking members of the media to come forward if they are suffering from long-term health effects of covering the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.David Handschuh, the NYPPA intergovernmental affairs chair and a photographer for t…
Cardinal Health To Pay $35 Million In SEC Settlement
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH), a drug distribution company, will pay $35 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges that it engaged in a three-and-a-half year scheme to overstate its operating revenue and growth in order to meet analyst expectations, r…
Diabetics: We want privacy
One word in this story bothers me...."somewhat"...being somewhat concerned with privacy issues to me is just not good enough. BD STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Diabetes isn't infectious like tuberculosis, hepatitis or gonorrhea, so why is the city Health Department tracking people with the disease? That'…
Doing Battle With the Insurance Company in a Fight to Stay Alive
Having a long battle to pay the bills...one more story, but the surgery did save his life. BD His doctors thought he was among the lucky few with pancreatic cancer found early enough to be cured by surgery. But they warned him not to have the surgery in his home city, Albuquerque. They said the op…
Residents can weigh in on health care debate - 12 cities to be part of the national conversation
(July 28, 2007) — Rochester has been selected as one of 12 cities to be part of By the People, a national conversation about health care cost, access and quality, and local residents may be getting a phone call about this soon.Beginning August 4 MacNeil/Lehrer Productions will be telephoning peop…
U.S. health info technology lags
Interesting story and it amazes me as well when I still see a 2 inch thick file with either staff or the the physician taking an enormous amount of time to dig through for past history and sometimes I see paper articles fall out of the charts accidentally. Even in a small office, there are enough a…
Las Vegas Now - Public Hearing Held on Major Health Insurance Merger
Looking at what has occurred as a result in other states fuels the fire and concern. BD potential merger between two major health insurance companies that would affect hundreds of thousands of Nevadans has critics worried about potential abuse. That merger would be between UnitedHealth Group and S…
Poster child for rotten health care system
We have seen this done in the movie "Sicko" but others are doing the same or similar with newspaper press coverage in areas where medical care is not taking care of the problems. Once press coverage is attained, it appears more and more of these issues get resolved immediately. There are the appea…
Doctors - Managed Care and Health Insurance - Medicine and Health - Wages and Salaries
Good insight here on how physicians are paid...and how they are under the magnifying glass with every procedure they recommend from both an HMO and now Medicare. BD “I don’t have a view on whether doctors take home too much money or not enough money,” Dr. Bach said. “The problem is the way they ea…
Intel's Barrett pushes to update health care
Good insight here on medical records and their benefits. The horses on the ranch have health records too, although they are not in the same position of having the "privacy" concerns we face with data base use and/or misuse and I doubt the horses are reading emails, following up for appointments or…
Patients take doctors' visits online
Today consumers are increasingly comfortable with their home computers. National surveys show that patients embrace the idea of e-mailing doctors and electronically scheduling appointments and refilling prescriptions. Following society's growing need for instant results, more health care provider…
Notes of outrage, caution - Get involved and ask questions regarding prescription coverage ahead of time..
Making a different point, Fred Horowitz, of Rockville Centre, a retired computer systems analyst, directs his criticism at Express Scripts, the mail-order pharmacy benefit manager used by his HMO, HIP-VIP. When he submitted his doctor's prescription for a 90-day supply of a drug, he should have c…
Itch Gene Found - Could Lead To New Treatment
If you are one of the millions of people on this planet who suffers from itching you may be pleased to read that scientists at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, have identified the first itch sensation gene. This discovery, say the researchers, may well lead to new treatments w…
Siemens Unveils World's First High Definition PET-CT
Just as the clarity of high definition television has transformed the entertainment world, Siemens Medical Solutions is redefining the quality of molecular imaging with the introduction of high definition positron emission tomography. Siemens has unveiled HD PET, the world's first and only high de…
Insurer Agrees To Pay 200,000 Dollars In Restitution; Pay Claims After Terminating Coverage After Employers Failed To Pay Premiums
Scary thought here...employers fail to pay health insurance premiums and employees had no idea they had been cut off and thought their group health insurance was still in place. BD Attorney General Martha Coakley filed an assurance of discontinuance in Suffolk Superior Court in connection with Con…
Tips for the small business owner buying employee health insurance
One of the biggest expenses to the bottom line for an employer is employee benefits. And employees consistently rank health insurance coverage as the most important benefit of all. Businesses spend billions of dollars every year on group health insurance. Tips for the small business owner buying e…
Communication now part of the cure
This has always been part of the case, but now finally getting some recognition, as who wants to go to a physician who will not listen to you. In addition, the tone of how a person addresses another is also old hat, but sometimes forgotten. We all pretty much know when we get the "blast of cold ai…
Help, I’m in H.M.O. hell!
Yikes....no wonder it is difficult for physicians to ensure and encourage patients to be sure to fill their prescriptions and take their medications, one person's ordeal ...BD I went to my pharmacy to get another prescription filled, an act that’s become so routine for most of us, we go through the …
Touch N' Talk - tool for patients suffering form Stroke, ALS, MD, Autism, Cancer, Trauma and other speech communication disabilities
Nice with the USB portable version as this would allow a handicapped individual to be mobile as well and take the software with them for use on any pc so they can communicate anywhere a PC is available. One other last thought too, is the ability to carry this around on a UMPC small tablet too, so t…
Hospitals cashing in on grants for telemedicine and putting the funds to good use
More mobility in action...great stories on those capitalizing on mobility...as we all know in today's mobile world, things do not always begin and end with a desktop PC...mobile technology and those who embrace the technology may save your life someday. BD By mid-August, the family members of at l…
Utah surgeon among medical pioneers using new heart procedure
Affleck says that the procedure he is teaching to other surgeons is more effective. It involves making two small incisions under each armpit, then using a surgical micro-camera The Daily Herald reports that after a mini-maze surgery, patients are usually home in about two days. Salt Lake Trib…
Doctors Rated but Can't Get a Second Opinion
If you don't take your medications or follow your doctor's advice, they are at risk of being rated in a negative fashion, in other words when it comes to the publicly listed physician ratings, you will perhaps see a drop in their ratings. I agree this is far cry from being accurate and it can hurt …
FDA Panel Recommends Approval Of Eli Lilly's Osteoporosis Drug Evista To Prevent Breast Cancer
An FDA advisory panel on Tuesday voted in favor of recommending that Eli Lilly's bone-strengthening drug raloxifene, sold under the brand-name Evista, be approved to reduce the risk of breast cancer in some women, the Wall Street Journal reports (Corbett Dooren, Wall Street Journal, 7/25). FDA in…
Dramatic Increase In Antibiotic-resistant Infections In Hospitalized Patients, USA
Hospital stays for a type of antibiotic-resistant infection have more than tripled since 2000, and since 1995 have increased nearly 10-fold, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ found that the number of hospital stays for patients infe…
CIGNA Covers CHARITE® Artificial Disc, USA
DePuy Spine, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, announced that CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurers, will now cover artificial disc replacement for single-level degenerative disc disease. DePuy Spine is the world leader in spine arthroplasty and the manufacturer of the CHARITE® Arti…
Writing notes on your computer....
Good article about a business executive who got tired of lugging around paper and made the move to paperless! He makes many good points here and encompasses One Note from Microsoft as part of his routine, an excellent choice as I do the very same thing and I can't tell you the time it saves in havi…
Technology helping to save lives - Paramedics use touch screen tablets in the UK
This is great, the tablet right in the ambulance to enter information and send to the receiving hospital before arrival. This year in particular tablets are really making their mark, especially in health care....but anyone can use one. Mine goes with me to every client meeting to take notes and t…
Louisiana taking electronic medical records seriously...BD In the future, the rows and rows of manila folders tabbed by color-coded numbers in medical offices will be part of history.Technological advancements have changed the way that patients receive health care and in about 15 percent of the phy…
Hospitals Going High-tech
Great use of a Tablet PC, patients use the device to check themselves in...if you can write on a piece of paper, you can easily use a tablet...after all it is handwriting...and some of it gets changed to text too! Some tablets weigh less than a paper chart too! BD If you haven't been in a hospita…
Health Net To Transfer HMO Contract To Touchstone Health Partnership - New York
Hope this is a move for the better and does not create the scenario of having to locate a new primary MD for the seniors...BD The transfer affects around 6,500 HN New York Medicare members covered under HN New York's Medicare Advantage HMO program in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. A…
Government warns public on fake e-mails
More potential joy on it's way to your inbox...good article to read and be aware of the latest scam. BD WASHINGTON - The federal agency charged with protecting consumers from Internet scams now finds itself wrapped up in one. Identity thieves have sent thousands of bogus e-mails purporting to be …
F.D.A. Review Criticizes Diabetes Drug and Maker
Question...why was it approved if it is dangerous to diabetics? What is the future here? Hopefully more education on potential side effects, etc. BD Patients who take Avandia, a popular but controversial diabetes medicine made by GlaxoSmithKline, are far more likely to suffer and die from heart…
NYC cabbies plan September strike over GPS units
This is not really medically related, but I included this as it somewhat reminds me of some of the folks I run in to with tablet pcs and the fears associated with something new. If you read here enough, you know I am very much into privacy in all areas, but gee, knowing where the cab is? Most majo…
Employee sues Fox over allegations of scabies infection
Quite a story...and she didn't have scabies after all...big lawsuit for a potential case of scabies...BD An employee of Fox 21/27 who claims she was humiliated by false accusations that she had scabies — and who says she had to lift her shirt in front of station officials to show a rash on her stom…
Delivery for Dummies: Simulators Walk Docs Through Childbirth
What do we not simulate today? Good story....BD A new generation of complex, electronic birth simulators are allowing medical students to practice labor and birth -- especially when there are complications. "It gives us the opportunity to learn and practice but do no harm," said Dr. Kay Daniels, …
TabletKiosk Sahara i440D Slate Tablet PC First Look Review
Stay tuned for more to follow next week....benchmarks on the page are impressive...BD TabletKiosk recently introduced their newest Sahara Slate PC, the i440D and guess who got their hands on one. That is right, the i440D is in the TabletPCReview.com office and our model is running Vista. After spe…
Fewer Physicians Practicing In Upstate New York Causes Long Wait Times, Longer Commutes
The New York Times on Monday examined how "fewer young doctors want to work in many of the distressed cities and towns throughout New York state," as the "aging baby boomer population finds itself in need of more medical services." A 2006 HHS study found that the number of physicians practicing in…
Google Health vs. Microsoft e-Health
Both do a pretty good job, but who will profit the biggest? Detailed health knowledge is no longer the sole possession of the medical elite. Now, once elusive information is readily available to the average person. The wealth of medical and health related resources on the Web are sparking interes…
UC settles liver transplant suits for $7.5 million - Los Angeles
The University of California has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle 35 claims filed on behalf of patients who waited in vain for liver transplants at UCI Medical Center and who were unaware that the school's program lacked the staffing to perform the life-saving operations.The university closed…
Senators introduce healthcare IT privacy bill
Should we start with the VA? WASHINGTON – Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt. ) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass. ) introduced a bill last week to provide patients with more control over their electronic health records. The bill, introduced July 18, proposes to make changes to the current HIPAA privacy protec…
State fines Kaiser again - Peer Review Issues -southern California ordered to institute a review committee
Overall, the report found that the HMO "lacked the ability to verify consistent handling of complaints throughout its medical centers or to determine whether serious or chronic problems were being addressed." Kaiser Permanente will be assessed a record fine today for its haphazard investigations …
