92648

ORBIS Flying “Eye” DC-10 Hospitals Give the Gift of Sight–North American Goodwill Tour

11/11/2011 08:38:00 PM  ,  

This is very cool and operates world wide and yes they do a lot of work right here in the US.  The goodwill tour in Los Angeles was kicked off in October of 2011 which is dedicated to helping those in the US.  There’s a big focus on children of course who need surgery.  FedEx just donated a new DC-10 for the next flying hospital.  The flying eye hospital has been around for quite a while.  If you go to the website, you can see the entire layout of the jet. 

ORBIS

(WMC-TV) - Doctors and nurses from the Mid-South are helping people around the world with eye problems.
ORBIS International and their eye care professionals and aviation staff are able to save the eyesight of millions of people around the world. They said none of this would be possible without the flying eye hospital.
The world's only aircraft with a fully functional eye hospital on board landed in Memphis Wednesday as part of the North American Goodwill Tour.

image
Sponsored by FedEx, ORBIS International is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that works to save eyesight around the world .
"We train nurses, doctors and optometrists all in this area," said ORBIS Associate Director of Nursing Heather Machin.  "We are also doing live surgery for the patients that have been selected."

image

In addition to a $5.3 million cash donation, FedEx announced they will donate an MD-10 cargo aircraft to ORBIS to be converted into a new flying eye hospital.
Director of Aircraft Operations Bruce Johnson said the Goodwill Tour is about showing sponsors that their donations are indispensable.

http://www.wmctv.com/story/16002778/flying-hospital-helps

Read More

NHS Debt Ridden Hospital Taken Over By A Private Firm–First Hospital in the System To Be Run By Circle Healthcare Founded by A Former Goldman Sachs Banker

11/11/2011 08:00:00 PM  , ,  

The hospital was facing closure due to debt, and that sounds a lot like many hospitals in the US for that matter.  It sounds like it was either outsource the imagemanagement or close it down from reading this article.  This is the first NHS hospital to be run by a private company.  Circle, the company taking over though will be responsible for clearing up the 39M (UK) debt and increase the income.  This more than likely will command changes and job cuts if it’s anything like what happens in the US.

There are 20 more Trusts that also are not considered financially stable.  Hinchingbrooke Hospital will continue with the same NHS services and care will still be free. Circle already has a stake in the UK with surgery units.  All are not convinced that this was the only way to keep the hospital open and some thought a new management team could have been found in a different way.  The contract runs for 10 years so time will tell if this works or doesn’t work. 

A failing NHS hospital has been handed to a private company for the first time in history. Ministers yesterday insisted that debt-ridden Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire was facing closure without the management takeover by Circle Healthcare, in a ground-breaking deal that could become a model for saving other cash-strapped NHS hospitals.

From February, Circle Healthcare, which is run by a former Goldman Sachs banker and partly listed on the stock market, will have full control of hiring and firing staff under a ten-year contract.image

Circle will not get any extra funding but will have to clear the hospital's £39million debt. Its profits will come from cutting costs and increasing the hospital's income from the NHS by treating more patients.

The move sparked furious accusations from Labour and the unions that the deal was privatising the NHS and putting jobs and health services in jeopardy. Under the new deal, if it continues to lose money Circle is responsible for the first £5million and its contract can be terminated.

NHS employees will have a 49.9 per cent stake in Circle, in a John Lewis-style partnership profit-sharing scheme, and will also be able to win free shares in the company according to performance and seniority.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2059674/Failing-Hinchingbrooke-hospital-taken-private-firm-time-history.html

Read More

Hemacord Approved by FDA First Umbilical Cord Product For Treating Cancer and Immune Disorders

11/10/2011 05:19:00 PM  ,  

The cells are absorbed into the bone marrow and reproduce and then move into the imageblood stream, about the same process as a bone marrow transplant and actually is an alternative treatment.  The entire concept is to rebuild the body’s immune system to fight of cancer and other disorders.  This is kind of nice that a non profit center independent blood center received approval of their product.  The organization relies on many volunteers and has been around since 1964.  BD 

The FDA has approved an umbilical cord blood product -- its first -- for use in stem cell transplants.

The product, known as Hemacord, "is indicated for use in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation procedures in patients with disorders affecting the hematopoietic (blood-forming) system," the agency said in a statement.

That includes certain blood cancers as well as some inherited metabolic and immune system disorders.

Hemacord contains hematopoietic progenitor cells from human cord blood. A study published last year found that cord blood was comparable to bone marrow or peripheral blood progenitor cells in treating acute leukemia in adults, with similar effects on leukemia-free survival.

Hemacord is manufactured by the New York Blood Center, based in New York City.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/fda-okays-cord-blood-product/story?id=14928137#.TrxwRGVSFjA

Read More

Atlanta Occupy Location Tests Positive for Tuberculosis and May Have to Relocate Again

11/10/2011 04:58:00 PM  ,  

In the last 3 months 2 people at the homeless shelter have been positive for TB imagewhen tested and since it is spread via the air, a move to a new location might be in order soon.  The 2 testing positive are being treated and the strain is one that is antibiotic resistant.  This would be the second move for the Occupy Atlanta group after they were no longer allowed to use a Park for overnight camping. 

The article also said the homeless shelter might be evicted by the city as well.  BD 

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) – The home base for Occupy Atlanta has tested positive for tuberculosis.

The Fulton County Health Department confirmed Wednesday that residents at the homeless shelter where protesters have been occupying have contracted the drug-resistant disease. WGCL reports that a health department spokeswoman said there is a possibility that both Occupy Atlanta protesters and the homeless people in the shelter may still be at risk since tuberculosis is contracted through air contact.

“Over the last three months were have been two persons who have resided in this facility who have been diagnosed with confirmed or suspected infectious tuberculosis (TB),” said Fulton County Services Director Matthew McKenna in a written statement to CBS Atlanta. “One of these persons was confirmed to have a strain of TB that is resistant to a single, standard medication used to treat this condition. All person(s) identified as positive have begun treatment and are being monitored to ensure that medication is taken as directed.”

http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2011/11/10/tuberculosis-breaks-out-at-occupy-atlantas-base/

Read More

Your Hard Earned Taxpayer Dollars At Work–Digital Illiterate Members in the House In Session Sit Around and Play Solitaire and Check Facebook & Sports Scores

11/09/2011 08:18:00 PM  ,  

I keep saying these folks are digitally illiterate in Congress and this proves it!  When it comes to anything more complicated than Solitaire and Facebook they are lost and go back to talking abortions….this is why the Occupy movement lives…this was emailed to me today.  BD

“Attack of the Killer Algorithms” Part 3–Vatican Doesn’t Like It Either–Occupy Wall Street Belongs in New York As They Don’t Do Code or Algorithms in Washington–Only Find time To Talk Abortions

image

Digital Illiteracy Still Plagues Law Makers–Severe Focus on Abortion Rights Proves It–Is This Where Our Lawmaking Knowledge Leaves Off or Even Begins? Scary…
Occupying Wall Street–It’s All About the “Attack of the Killer Algorithms”–The Unfair and Marketing Exploit of Ethics Using Math–This Could be a Subject for Michael Moore to Explore and Document In a Movie

“House Minority Leader pictured standing, far right, speaks while colleagues play "solitaire" Monday night as the House convened to vote on a new budget. (AP)
The guy sitting in the row in front of these two....he's on "Facebook", and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the "baseball scores". 
These are the folks that couldn't get the budget out by Oct. 1, and are about to control your health care, cap and trade, and the list goes on and on….”

Read More

Hadoop In Healthcare Moving In Soon? It’s the Next Big Data Base Tool Since SQL Was Introduced-Cleveland Clinic Founded a Company Using the Platform

11/09/2011 08:03:00 PM  ,  

You may have heard some of the recent news about “big data” and Hadoop is the big player here.  Oracle was talking about their new data bases that was “SQL-less” and Apache Hadoop is making it’s way around.  Dr. Halamka recently gave it a nice thumbs up too when talking about mining big data.  image

When you start to think about all the data we are warehousing and searching today, something has to give and Hadoop has been around for a while and you can read more about the technology here.  It’s all that nice Java framework that we all pretty much like to work with.   The framework is used by IBM and is especially a favorite with search engines.  The best part is that it is open source over at Apache.  Microsoft recently announced their SQL Hadoop integration that is forthcoming.  The Cleveland Clinic help found a company in 2009 Explorys that uses the Hadoop framework, so it’s not long before Hadoop will move in with big force.  The Hadoop World Conference just ended and you can view some of the videos from the companies who will be working to sell to the enterprise clients.  image

You have to love the names here as we continue on with Apache “Pig” which is the platform for analyzing large data sets, so now you have to develop or code “Pig”.  For developers, Apache Pig9.1 has been released and yes the name according to the site was named after “Pig Latin” so we have a new meaning for the word now.  If you read below you can see where JPMorgan has gone to the pigs…well maybe in more ways than one, so pigs are going to become pretty popular on Wall Street with the Java Algorithms needed.  Maybe we will have IT staffs we can now call High Frequency Pig Experts:)  Don’t laugh as that’s a real thing coming and we can honestly say that banking software/hardware is all about the Pigs. 

There’s also the HBase platform for reading/writing to Big Data sets.  I’m sitting here looking at the comparison of adding a data table to a relational data base and that can take a ton of time…and with Hadoop, it’s like nothing by comparison.  This should also tell you how much cheaper support time will be and the data is split among clusters and it finds redundancies or duplicate copies of data, and that I like a lot. 

It can be as big or small as you want it from one single server to hundreds or even thousands of servers, so you have to stop and think…medical records…is this the next plateau?  One thing for sure it’s affordable but you will need the support and folks are now just gearing up for those jobs.  BD 

Those were the first words from Larry Feinsmith, managing director, office of the CIO, at JPMorgan Chase, in his Tuesday keynote address at Hadoop World in New York. Who JPMorgan Chase is hiring, specifically, are people with Hadoop skills, so Feinsmith was in the right place. More than 1,400 people were in the audience, and attendee polls indicated that at least three quarters of their organizations are already using Hadoop, the open source big data platform.

The "and we're paying 10% more" bit was actually Feinsmith's ad-libbed follow-on to the previous keynoter, Hugh Williams, VP of search, experience, and platforms at eBay. After explaining eBay's Hadoop-based Cassini search engine project, Williams said his company is hiring Hadoop experts to help build out and run the tool.

Feinsmith's core message was that Hadoop is hugely promising, maturing quickly, and might overlap the functionality of relational databases over the next three years. In fact, Hadoop World 2011 was a coming-out party of sorts, as it's now clear that Hadoop will matter to more than just Web 2.0 companies like eBay, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Twitter. A straight-laced financial giant with more than 245,000 employees, 24 million checking accounts, 5,500 branches, and 145 million credit cards in use, JPMorgan Chase lends huge credibility to that vision.

Five of JP Morgan Chase's seven lines of business now use a Hadoop shared service. They use it for extract, transform, and load (ETL) processing; high-scale Basel III regulatory liquidity analyses and reporting; data mining; transaction analysis; fraud investigation; and social media sentiment analysis. It's also a low-cost storage option for all types of data, including structured financial records, semi-structured clickstreams and Web logs, and unstructured text and social comment feeds.

The platform is headed for broad adoption, so it's a sound career path, much like SQL was 30 years ago. Want a more substantial endorsement? Consider that IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle--multibillion-dollar vendors with substantial data management software revenue at stake--have all embraced Hadoop this year.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/info_management/231902645?pgno=1

Read More

Naïve Psychiatrist in Florida Sells His Practice And Medical Records Were Thrown In The Deal-Buyer Was a Criminal Who Immediately Filed Fraudulent Claims With Medicare

11/09/2011 06:48:00 PM  , ,  

A psychiatrist records are probably some of the worst cases for personal imageinformation getting out as there’s a lot about you in such files.  This doctor was just dumb and what did he get for his practice, $7500.00, not much.  There’s not a big market these days for small practices so he probably just took the first cash offer.  He is not in violation of the law but the buyer is and is now in jail.

There were around 1000 patients in the files and one patient said she had no idea he was selling and had an appointment scheduled for December.  Right now they can’t find the sister of the criminal who has the laptop with the medical records.  The buyer was already a convicted thief in the area of identity theft. 

Identity Theft in Florida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgJDA0Sb958

Read More

Hospital Janitor Removes Hospital Medical Records From Locked Shredding Bins and Sells them to a Milwaukee Street Gang-Patient Sues and Has to Pay the Hospital Legal Fees?

11/09/2011 06:36:00 PM  , ,  

Just a few days ago there was a survey with patients thinking paper records were more secure, well think again, especially in this case where you have a janitor employee of the hospital making the rounds and grabbing up paper charts!image

This actually happened 4 years ago when there were no requirements to report the breach so some patients are now just finding out about the theft!  The janitor even had some disciplinary problems on his record as well.  Now this takes a weird turn here with a judge ordering the family suing for damages to pay the hospital $30,000 for the cost of the lawsuit, huh?  Now how does that happen?  30 patients all together were affected and the theft went on for 8 months.  This one is very strange indeed.  You can watch the video here to see the whole story. A man is in having surgery and his identity was being sold to street gangs at the same time.  BD 

MILWAUKEE -- Medical records may be thought of as highly private, secure data. But four years after 12 News shed light on a breach at a Milwaukee area hospital, court documents show just how unsecure those records truly were.

Four years ago, Geno Sellers' father went to St. Mary's Ozaukee hospital for a heart procedure his family hoped would save his live.

A few months after his father's passed away, Sellers discovered the identity of his dad had been stolen by a Milwaukee street gang.

"A couple of months after his passing ... to be notified that not only did your dad suffer -- he passed away -- now when he was alive his identity was stolen?" Sellers said.

Investigators said a janitor fed patient records to gang members. The lead investigator said a sworn statement that a janitor had access to a master key that opened most every room in the building, even though he had been a discipline problem.

While the sting turned up 30 patient records, the lead investigator on the case told 12 News it's not clear exactly how many patient records were stolen during the eight months they believe the scheme went on.

No criminal charges were filed against the suspects, which is what prompted Sellers to come forward to warn other families.

"I'm disappointed that the ones who are the policy makers within the hospital administration won't step forward and take responsibility and say 'hey we got it wrong,'" he said.

http://www.wisn.com/12newsinvestigates/29718591/detail.html

Read More

Shasta Regional Hospital In California Suing Blue Cross/Blue Shield for Unpaid Medical Bills

11/09/2011 04:44:00 PM  , ,  

Some of the suits have been going around for a while since Prime Healthcare purchased the hospital.  Prime normally does not sign contracts with insurers although I have heard that this could have changed in a few instances.  At any rate this is a mess once again.  Without a contract, a Prime Hospital can charge their imagenormal and customary rates and the insurers with emergency care are supposed to pay.  Prime in the past sued Blue Cross for supposedly telling patients to go elsewhere for care.  Walmart and Blue Cross/Blue Shield are also named in one of the lawsuits for failure to pay the patient’s claims.

The WalMart suit stated the hospital is owed just short of $3 million and it received only $477,000.  Question I ask at this point is this what other hospitals get paid since so many are having financial difficulties.  So far Shasta has not entered into an agreement with Blue Cross/Blue Shield and that seems to be the sticking point here with wanting to pay less.  BD 

Shasta Regional Medical Center has filed at least 18 new lawsuits alleging out-of-state Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Anthem health insurance providers owe the hospital millions in unpaid medical bills.

The suits are the latest legal salvo in a contentious and long-running battle the hospital and its parent company, Prime Health Care Services, have had with the private insurance companies.

Hospital CEO Randall Hempling said patients who use the hospital's emergency room will continue to be seen by a doctor, and they shouldn't worry about being sued.

"For emergency care, the plans can't deny them access," Hempling said.

The insurers counter the hospital continues to overbill patients.

Blue Cross considers Prime to be out-of-network, and because there's no payment structure set up between the groups, patients who have out-of-state Blue Cross or Blue Shield plans get their reimbursements from the insurer in a check directly written to them

The insurer has countered patients are put in the situation because the hospital refuses to enter into an agreement with the insurer that would make Blue Cross an in-network provider and negate the need for the insurer to issue checks directly to patients.

http://www.redding.com/news/2011/nov/08/shasta-medical-center-fights-insurers/

Read More

Diagnosis By the Device and the Algorithms–Scanadu Tri-Coder Project

11/08/2011 02:23:00 PM  , ,  

Pocket Doc might be one way to describe this project.  You can watch the video imageand see what you think and granted there are some technologies that can come together here for some diagnostic purposes.  I can also see the telehealth connection here to make it easy as well, but again it all depends on the links and the data included for that portion to work. 

The company just received another $2 million in funding to continue on and we can see where this goes.  Having a device connect to a smart phone is convenient but again my thoughts also go back to privacy and will they be selling information to keep the product and software affordable. 

Scanadu

If you have not heard yet, there is an X-Prize out there for a Tri-Coder device who’s purpose is to offer a $10 million incentive prize to the team that can develop the first diagnostic device that actually works like the ubiquitous medical tricorder of Star Trek fame.  The rules have been a challenge to put together as like everything else today, it’s complicated.  BD 

Is An X Prize Competition Methodology A Solution to Inspire Innovation in Healthcare Today? One More On the Way for A Tricorder

Meet Scanadu, an innovative health tech startup I daresay you’ll be hearing a lot more from in the future. It’s not the easiest of tasks explaining what the company is building at this point, but let’s call it a personal, mobile, auto-diagnostics product – they refer to it as a Medical Tricorder.

Founded in January 2011 by a team of entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds, the roots of Scanadu actually go way back. One of the company’s founders, and its chief executive officer, is Walter De Brouwer – something of a legend here in Belgian entrepreneurial circles, and beyond.

He says he had the basic idea for a personal health monitoring service back in 1999 when he was working at the renowned Starlab research institute, which he jump-started alongside MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte. And from watching Star Trek

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/08/scanadu-raises-2m-check-your-body-as-often-as-your-email/

Read More

The Vatican and Publicly Traded Biotech Firm Neostem Hold Their First Meeting Where CEOs and Cardinals Come Together

11/08/2011 02:04:00 PM  ,  

Back in March of this year the Vatican invested a million in the company and you can also read about Neostem acquiring Progenitor earlier this year as well.  NeoStem acquired 51% of Suzhou Erye Pharmaceuticals in China, which produces a series of antibiotics, including penicillin and cephlasporins.

The Vatican Invests $1 Million in Stem Cell Biotech Firm NeoStem

The conference is being held at the Vatican and that in itself shows a change or reverse in what has been prohibited before, so ideas and being explored and talked about and with the Vatican having an investment now you can bet they will be following through.  The realization of saving lives through stem cells has arrived in Rome.  BD 

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican has entered into an unusual partnership with a small U.S. biotech company to promote using adult stem cells for treating disease, rather than focusing research on embryonic stem cells.

The Vatican's culture office and NeoStem Inc., on Tuesday provided details for this week's conference at the Vatican on adult stem cells, which will draw scientists, patients, biotech CEOs and cardinals together.

Church teaching holds that life begins at conception. As a result, the Vatican opposes embryonic stem cell research because embryos are destroyed in the process.

The conference and partnership with New York-based NeoStem is part of the Vatican's recent $1 million, five-year initiative to promote adult stem cell therapies and research, and in the process shift popular attention away from embryonic research.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Vatican-biotech-firm-host-apf-3891458317.html?x=0&.v=1&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Read More

Teva Laying Off Over 1000 Employees in the US and UK After Cephalon Acquisition

11/08/2011 01:26:00 PM  ,  

Back in May of this year the Teva won the bid to take over Cephalon.  I guess they can’t lay off many in Irvine, CA as they are in the process of re-opening the facility imageto manufacture generic drugs where some are in very short supply.

Teva Pharmaceuticals Wins Bid for Cephalon for $6.8 Billion

According to the article, Teva, which is one of the largest generic drug companies in the world, the layoff are in areas of where they have redundancy with the products from Cephalon.  In other Teva news today they announced pricing of a lot of senior notes for a debt offering.  BD 

Market sources report that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) is firing 1,000 employees, less than a month after it completed the acquisition of Cephalon. Teva expects at least $500 million in synergies from the acquisition - and they will come from layoffs.

The firings account for 27% of Cephalon's workforce before its acquisition - a very high proportion. For the sake of comparison, Teva fired fewer than 10% of Barr's employees following its acquisition in 2008. Teva is not firing employees in Israel; most of the layoffs will be in Europe and the US

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000696038

Read More

Jake Byrd The Dr. Conrad Murray Verdict-He’s Sucking Down Propofol As It Is Read Humor (Video)

11/08/2011 11:49:00 AM  ,  

This is just too funny, from the Jimmy Kimmel Show.  If you have never seen the imagecharacter he’s on the show supporting his “fake” campaigns all the time.  BD 

“Jimmy Kimmel Live! scored a bit of a coup last night with a Herman Cain interview just hours after a fourth woman came forward and accused the GOP candidate of sexual harassment. But Kimmel’s biggest accomplishment of the day may have been inadvertently duping some news outlets into believing that a character on his show, Jake Byrd (played by actor Anthony Barbieri) — who was pretending to be an over-the-top Michael Jackson fan gathered for the verdict — was an actual Jackson fan celebrating the victory in a questionable manner.”

Jake Byrd

Here’s a video back to 2009 with Jake showing his support for Michael. 

Jake Supporting Michael Jackson in 2009

Read More

Lucky Super Market in the Bay Area Adds on a Blue Shield Health Insurance Store

11/07/2011 08:10:00 PM  , ,  

We have had retail clinics and this is a tiny bit of a clinic in the fact that you can get your blood pressure taken and a few common screenings.  How does this work, do you now buy your health insurance by the pound <grin>.  Ok I was being a bit funny here as the policy would not sit well on the scales with your apples and oranges that we do pay for by the pound, although with doing body mass indexing at the store, you might be paying in the long run by the pound.

This is the first retail store in the west and other carriers have a few locations across the US and United just opened on in the Queens are of New York a few days ago along with getting a new General Counsel who was a former US Attorney for the state.  image

United Healthcare Opens Retail “Employer Benefits” Store in Queens New York And Hires Former Minnesota US Assistant Attorney General As General Counsel

I did see consults available but not sure if you can march in with a medical claim dispute or are those on aisle 6?  How many would love to walk and in discuss a denied claim in person?  I would say that would definitely get some foot traffic.  BD

At a Lucky supermarket in San Francisco, shoppers will be able to pick up some health insurance along with their fruits and vegetables.

Blue Shield of California will open a 500-square-foot brick-and-mortar store within the supermarket Monday as a way to attract new customers and serve existing members who may want to talk to an insurance representative face- to-face rather than over the phone or by e-mail.

The concept is not brand new. In recent years, similar retail outlets for health insurance have cropped up in other parts of the country. But Blue Shield is the first health insurer in California to have a retail presence.

In addition to selling insurance and answering questions about bills or coverage, the insurance store in the city's Western Addition will offer automated body mass index and body fat measurements, on-site blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol screenings, personal health assessments and consultations with a registered nurse. The screenings will be free to members and will cost nonmembers $45.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/05/BA1G1LPB22.DTL

Read More

HMS Holdings Buys Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor HealthDataInsights for $400 Million–Competition of the Payment Algorithms Versus the Reimbursement Algos Continues

11/07/2011 09:03:00 AM  , , ,  

Nobody likes fraud and all those folks and their actions need to be caught for sure but in the midst of all of this a lot of questions arise too when analytics come into imageplay.  Hospitals and doctors use services that promise them maximum reimbursements too so sometimes you get down to some fine lines when reviewing claims and other information outside of the over all realm of out and out fraud. 

Insurers also use 3rd party companies here too so we have the battle of analytics and sales go through the sky to check and balance all over the place.  You can just read down further in the text here as they state “they have the best” just like all the analytics companies seem to say today.  Here’s a case that has been recently in the news with Prime Healthcare and other hospitals.  Did anyone do this on purpose, no, it was the algorithms that connected this, not bad doctors for goodness sakes, sold by 3M in this case that did the dirty work, so see where this is going?  One set of analytics competing with another set on the other side.  They all survive due to the complexity of today’s billing in the US with healthcare. 

Prime Healthcare Responds to Billing Practices–Flawed Data and Algorithms Once Again-Who Got Sold a Bill of Goods as Kaiser, Stanford & Other Hospitals Had a Ton of Kwashiorkor Malnutrition Billingsimage

Back in July of 2010 HMS Holdings bought Allied Management, another similar company in the medical claim business.

HMS Holdings Corp agrees to buy Allied Management for $26.2M – Algorithm and Transaction Income for Medical Billing Fraud and Auditing

Nobody really monitors the algorithms used and thus so it is becoming a battle of the math, again outside of the areas that are straight out fraud.  A couple years ago I suggested some of the math used could be looked to certify what algorithms insurers are using today either their own or those from 3rd parties.  We certify medical records but the payers have a free hand to apply what ever math they come up with relative to their costing algorithms. 

Rules on EHR Certification Should Take Back Seat to Certifying Insurance Algorithms At Present – We Need This First

So did the hospital or physician commit fraud or was it the 3rd party they used to secure “maximum” reimbursement…this is a good question today I think. 

Bad Algorithms in Healthcare Payment Systems and Risk Assessments–Did the Hospital Bill Fraudulently or Were They Sold Formulas That Did Not Conform

We have a ton of marketing going on today and granted auditing software is needed but many skew the numbers to present abilities that are flatly over rated in many area and marketers get paid big money to make a case for all the software too, meanwhile you and I just can’t get the care we need without everyone getting and analyzing their data first. Have you been suckered in?  Sometimes it’s hard to tell but listen in to the professor below who explains how numbers lie and how the marketing spins we have today make it hard. 

“Numbers Don’t Lie, But People Do”–Radio Interview from Charles Siefe–Journalists Take Note, He Addresses How Marketing And Bogus Statistics Are Sources of Problems That Mislead the Public & Government

Government gets fooled all the way around it seems and the sooner we come to the reality of what’s going on here, the sooner we might recover. Again there’s a need to find the people who commit fraud and get them out of the loop but when the analytics go on steroids to have hospital accounting systems battle it out with 3rd party auditing, we have not much more than “one more battle of the algorithms” and we all pay for that in our care for sure. This is part of what is driving up what we pay for care in the US. BD

NEW YORK, Nov 07, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- HMS

Holdings Corp. HMSY +17.91% ("HMS" or the "Company") today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held HealthDataInsights, Inc. ("HDI") for approximately $400 million. The transaction is not contingent upon financing and is expected to close by December 31, 2011, subject to regulatory approvals.

HDI, a technology-enabled healthcare services company whose mission is to ensure claims integrity, identifies and recoups improper payments for health plans and government payers. Applying rules approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and commercial health plan clients to identify fraud, waste and abuse, HDI reviewed more than $300 billion in paid claims last year. HDI is the exclusive Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) in 17 states and three U.S. territories (CMS Region D), covering approximately 22% of all Medicare claims in the nation. According to CMS's FY 2010 Report to Congress on the "Implementation of Recovery Auditing at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services," HDI's efforts in Region D accounted for 47% of the total dollars corrected by all four Medicare RACs.

Lucia added, "We expect that HDI's assets will accelerate our multi-year strategy of investing in new but related products and markets, and program integrity in particular. As the Medicare RAC with the highest recoveries and highest accuracy scores, HDI has best-in-class processes and technology, purpose-built for recovery auditing. Like HMS, HDI's services are primarily offered on a contingency-fee basis. In addition to expanding our Medicare business, the acquisition of HDI will provide us with expertise we can leverage in our state Medicaid RAC business."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hms-holdings-corp-to-acquire-leading-medicare-recovery-audit-contractor-healthdatainsights-inc-for-400-million-2011-11-07

Read More

Groupon IPO Has More Money Than Entire Biotech IPOs for 2011–Our Mixed Up Priorities With The Chase for Social Algorithms, Greed and the Math That Creates the Phenomena

11/07/2011 08:21:00 AM  , ,  

Yes there is greed with social algorithms and if you read the article in it’s entirely you can see that.  Sure some jobs come along but not enough as we are back in the “intangible” mode here.  A social network is not going to cure or treat you when you are sick and the biotech companies that are exploring and developing in that area are hurting.  Kind of makes one really stop and think as to what we see as being important today.  Sure social networks allow some great communication and so forth, but when intangibles (a bunch of algorithms that run on the web) surpass the value of medical cures and treatments, do you not think something is wrong with this picture? 

There were 13 IPOs this year in healthcare, and over all look at some of the other facts, many drugs being developed to extend life that are not affordable, drug shortages, and so on.  Health IT analytics are still being sold and marketed like crazy and we need such programs but it’s way over done and their potential clients, doctors and hospitals are having a difficult time affording many of the Health IT services, so what’s up with that?  Groupon had a $20 initial price, biotechs were between $4.00 at the low end to $19 for one at the high end with most averaging around $9.00 or $10.00.  This is both drugs and devices.  We read every day where big pharma is cutting back their research and development departments with layoffs so I guess they can all go look for a social network job somewhere?  Sad, when talent goes by the wayside. 

If you want to see something that I think is a bit whacked out, see where Urban Airship raises $15 million from Verizon and Salesforce.  Do we really need Urban Airship software when people are not getting their needed medications and devices?  It just points out where the imbalance is today.  Keep in mind these same companies are mulling over what type of healthcare benefits to provide employees, so as we saw the strike with Verizon over benefits, they seem to have plenty of money to throw around for airships.  Sure software has value but like this?  They are just one of many so not to pick on them in particular.  Mobile apps are on the rise and gosh we have a ton load of them in Healthcare that get little attention on the consumer side as there just are so many. 

Good Science, Investments and The Chase for Social Algorithms Has Become a Dangerous Mix-Healthcare and The Creation of Jobs Continue to Suffer

Good science has not caught up with the financial push

Also in the news today were some big corporations named that paid zero with income taxes for 3 years and Verizon was on the list, along with other such as Wells Fargo, need any more proof here?  I saw too where someone wrote an article that the IPO saved Groupon from bankruptcy and of course made many rich as it’s generating money. 

Life and Healthcare A Big Batch of Non Balanced Algorithms With Insufficient Intellectual Interpretations–Tax Breaks Maybe For Those Producing Tangibles Vs Formulas

In order to get jobs back we need as a country to produce something besides algorithms to base an economy on as we see it falling through the bottom here.  A big part of the problem too is having lawmakers who are so digitally illiterate that they can’t even begin to see this and thus so all the “Occupy” movements live and for good reason to speak out against such math and the imbalance of priorities today in the US.  They are non participants in this arena and are oblivious as to the impact with technology and the financial algorithms created that just continue to shift the money around to the 1%. It’s all about the math and those algorithms.  BD

Groupon raked in so much cash through its initial public offering last week that it could buy the entire class of life sciences companies that have gone public in 2011.

For those of you who aren’t following the Groupon melodrama, the Chicago-based online daily deals site raised $700 million last week in its IPO after overcoming serious questions about its accounting practices. Groupon shrugged that off and saw its stock (NASDAQ: GRPN) boom 31 percent on the first day of trading. TV news commentators cheered, just like when social networking site LinkedIn (NYSE: LKND) went public in May.

The biotech IPO market, by comparison, has been about as exciting as the average Seattle Mariners game was this year

http://www.xconomy.com/national/2011/11/07/groupon-the-ipo-with-more-sizzle-and-money-than-the-entire-biotech-ipo-class-of-2011/

Read More

FDA Approves J&J’s Xarelto For Treating Irregular Heart Beats-Atrial Fibrillation

11/07/2011 07:44:00 AM  ,  

Xarelto is normally prescribed as a blood thinner and now the FDA has given the stamp of approval to use for preventing strokes with patients that have irregular imageheart beats.  Warfarin has been the drug of choice for years that is hard to regulate and Xarelto also has a “black box” warning.  Bayer actually developed the drug along with J and J.  Speaking of Bayer it was on the net this week that Bayer DX was also laying off around 5% last week.  DX is a very different business model than straight pharma.  BD 

WASHINGTON — More than 2 million new U.S. patients will be eligible to receive a next-generation blood thinner drug called Xarelto, after the Food and Drug Administration approved the medication to treat a common heart problem that can lead to stroke.

Federal health officials approved the drug from Johnson & Johnson and Bayer to prevent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation, a condition that causes the heart’s upper chambers beat chaotically and ineffectively. The irregular heartbeats can cause blood clots which travel to the brain, blocking blood flow and occasionally causing a stroke.

The FDA also added a restrictive "black box" to the drug's label, warning people against discontinuing use of Xarelto without consulting their doctors, as stopping abruptly may increase risk of stroke.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/fda-broadens-approval-of-jandjs-xarelto-for-patients-with-dangerous-irregular-heart-beats/2011/11/04/gIQArOtbmM_story.html

Read More

More Doctors Installing Electronic Medical Record Systems, But Patients Still Want Paper and Feel They are More Secure–Survey

11/06/2011 05:52:00 PM  , ,  

Say What?  This was an interesting survey and if you read the entire context of the survey there’s a lot of good points made here about the public’s perception and of course all the recent security breaches we have in the news do not do much to gain more favor with consumers.  As the article points out, one can pick up a stack of files and charts and walk out the door with paper charts as well.  image

Practice Fusion, who offers free medical records to physicians and is growing quickly did the survey.  The survey indicated that those in an age group of 50 and over were more likely to feel that paper records were more secure and also less distracting.  They could have a point on the distraction level though.   The survey also somewhat pokes at the fact that many consumers may not also be aware of the government push for electronic medical records.  The PHR is the bridge that fills the gaps with the patient having a copy of their records but those efforts have been slow to catch on.  I even a part of this blog with over 500 posts dedicated to PHRs too and promote them actively too. We all know the electronic chart is the future of healthcare but again this was an interesting view on how consumers as a whole, other than the folks who are technically advanced, see the electronic versus paper charts.  BD 

There's a bit of a gap between patients and doctors when it comes to electronic health records (EHRs). A new survey indicates that, by a slight margin, the majority of doctors think EHRs are safer than paper records. But more than half of all patients prefer paper. A closer look at the data can help explain the difference of opinion.

The recent omnibus survey by EHR vendor Practice Fusion was conducted by GfK Roper OmniTel. More than 1,000 patients were phone surveyed between Oct. 21 and 23, as were 1,220 medical professionals who were polled online with the same questions on Oct. 28

Of the physicians surveyed, 54% said they thought EHRs were safer. Only 18% selected paper as the more secure option. The remainder didn't answer or didn't know.

As for the patients surveyed, 47% said paper records are safer, with 39% saying digital records are more secure. The rest were unsure.

So, I think consumers are likely more "pure" in their responses. The answers from patients seem to reflect: 1) they're probably not all that aware of the push for U.S. healthcare providers to give up paper; 2) they haven't given too much thought about why digital records could be better than paper; and 3) they're probably a bit spooked about the possibility of having their own digital medical records hacked, lost, or snooped.

Of that same group of patients favoring paper, 87.2% said they think paper is more private and allows more control over who sees the records. Also of that same group, 86% said they think paper is more secure because it's less likely to be hacked or lost. Finally, nearly 65% of those paper-loving patients just prefer the tradition of paper over digital records and see no reason to change systems.

Fears about digitized health records aside, I think the patients' feelings about paper medical records seem to reflect two larger themes, one about U.S. culture and the other about human nature: Americans like tradition and people don't like change.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/security-privacy/231902296

Read More

UCLA Medical Center Warns Thousands of Patients About Security Breach When Records Were Stolen During a Burglary at Physician’s Home

11/06/2011 05:31:00 PM  ,  

The disc was encrypted but there was a reported piece of paper nearby missing too that contained the password.  If the password is there to use then the imageencryption may not mean much.  This reminds me of the story last year from the UK where a flash drive, which was also encrypted was stolen and the password was taped on the drive:)  If you take time to encrypt be careful where you leave a password laying around.  Nobody expects to be burglarized in their home though. 

The hospital was working to get their Epic medical record system installed and perhaps all was not done and ready yet to have access for all information from a VPN yet.  Back in January I interviewed one of their MDs who told me they were anxious to get the entire sign on done so all records would be accessed from one area.  BD 

If You Take the Time to Encrypt Medical Information – Don’t Tape the Passwords on the Container or Flash Drive – NHS Security Breach

The UCLA Health System is warning thousands of patients that their personal information was stolen and they are at risk of possible identity theft, officials said in a statement released Friday.

Officials don’t believe the information has been accessed or misused but are referring patients to a data security company if their name and credit are affected.

Altogether, 16,288 patients’ information was taken from the home of a physician whose house was burglarized on Sept. 6, according to the UCLA Health System.

The physician works for UCLA Faculty Practice Group, whose doctors see patients at the outpatient clinics and the four inpatient hospitals: Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and Orthopedic Hospital, Mattel Children’s Hospital and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital.

The data were on the physician’s external hard drive, officials said. Though the hard drive was encrypted, a piece of paper with the password was nearby and is also missing. The physician notified UCLA the next day and officials began identifying patients affected.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/ucla-patient-identification-stolen.html

Read More