CMS Fiddling Around Now With eRX Program To Audit and See If Claims Submitted Failed, They Want To Get Some Money Back As “Their CMS” Programs Have Data Integrity Issues…

<p>Most who have been using an electronic medical records system don’t have to worry about a lot of this as far as the audit.  eRX incentives came out before Meaningful Use and was separate <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="226" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-TlN7eO4vpqs/UyY8FxneyoI/AAAAAAABJoY/bSJEiSnWaNY/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="300" />and yes there’s some confusion and overlapping.  Most EMR programs do have an e-prescribing module but there are some that do not and e-prescribing can be handled separately.  Most of that was in the “early” EMF days with getting started.  As the link below states this is the year the 2% penalty kicks in for those who have NOT e-prescribed yet.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/erx-cms-penalty-reimbursement-on.html">eRX CMS Penalty Reimbursement On Medicare Part B Grows to 2% This Year For Those Who Have Not e-Prescribed Yet- Mostly Applies to Doctors Who Are Not Using An Integrated Electronic Medical Records System Yet </a></h5> <p>Most software used today actually reminds and bugs you about claims that have not been paid or have issues and clearinghouse services scrub and sent them back to providers as well if there’s something not working on the claim information.  </p> <p>So what else do you expect from CMS these days?  The same folks that brought your Healthcare.Gov on October 1st.  In 2013 those who did not successfully e-prescribe already faced their 1.5 decrease so maybe that’s their issue with not being able to see if they actually did decrease those payments to providers?  I have just never seen anything like this relative to all the complexities we have today to see an agency keep going down the same path in adding more complexities instead of making things less complicated.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/cms-issues-hardship-exception.html">CMS Issues Hardship Exception Information - Who’s Going to Administrate All Of This and Keep Track? Just Get Your Vendor To Vouch for You? Extension Would Have Been Much Simpler In View of All the Other Algorithmic Complexities Happening With Obamacare At Present… </a></h5> <p>Maybe they are going to put that Cray Appliance to some additional use for the queries as they are doing with looking for fraud?  CMS is  already looking for abusive prescribers and want all doctors to be registered with Medicare.  If they can identify abusive prescribers they should be able to run claims through to find missing data on e-prescribing but even that takes some work and time to prepare the data first….it’s the world we live in today.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/01/medicare-looks-to-use-analytics-to.html">Medicare Looks To Use Analytics to Identify Abusive Prescribers And Require Doctors To Be Registered With Medicare To Write a Prescription-Sounds Like The CMS Cray Computer YarcData Appliance Might Be Getting A Little Busier</a></h5> <p> <hr />“This four-year project will evaluate incentive payment information for accuracy and identify improper payments, with the goal of recovering these payments,” CMS explains in the notice. “Additionally, based on the project’s results, recommendations will be made so that we can avoid future integrity issues.” CMS does not use the word “audit” in the notice.</p> <p>CMS will analyze data submission, processing and reporting procedures “for potential errors, inconsistencies and gaps that are related to data handling, program requirements and clinical quality measure specification of PQRS and eRx programs,” according to the notice.</p> <p><a href="http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/cms-wants-money-back-from-PQRS-eRx-programs-47454-1.html" title="http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/cms-wants-money-back-from-PQRS-eRx-programs-47454-1.html">http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/cms-wants-money-back-from-PQRS-eRx-programs-47454-1.html</a></p>

CMS Fiddling Around Now With eRX Program To Audit and See If Claims Submitted Failed, They Want To Get Some Money Back As “Their CMS” Programs Have Data Integrity Issues…

Most who have been using an electronic medical records system don’t have to worry about a lot of this as far as the audit.  eRX incentives c...

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CMS Wants ICD10 End to End Testers To Sign Up Soon, Batches Limited to 3 At a Time and Maximum of 50 Claims Each, I Think A Second Test Date For Larger Batches Could Be A Good Idea Too

<p>Ok this is a “baby step” initial end to end and let’s hope there’s a phase 2 for bigger batches as not too many out there are batching 3 claims or less at a time.  This is important with the testing.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="83" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8Tk5HnK13k0/UyYxgojOqUI/AAAAAAABJoI/FpIsZdnBZ_U/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="352" />I can understand the initial small amount requested as the first process is checking a limited number of claims with various types of providers, claims, etc. and small batches are easier to pinpoint any obvious bugs or issues.  You do need a stage two though and hopefully they will do that with larger batches.  </p> <p>April 14th is the day slated to notify those who have been accepted for the trial runs.  In one week each participant can submit up to 50 claims.  The number of testers also has some impact here as well so the more the merrier.  Also no more than 5 NPIs and 10 HICNs per submitter.  For gosh sakes if chosen, do not cross the 50 claims limit or those may not get paid. </p> <p>There’s an out for those who will not be ready with Medicare Contractors providing, guess what “free software” to bill with ICD10 codes but most vendors have probably covered this pretty well for the most part with their clients and the software is only for fee for service billing going to Medicare.  BD  </p> <p><a href="http://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNMattersArticles/Downloads/MM8602.pdf"> <hr />CMS in a March 14 notice</a> said it will test with more than 500 organizations. Medicare contractors have posted a volunteer form on their Web sites where organizations can submit their applications. Contractors will notify volunteers by April 14 that they have been selected to test and will provide relevant information. Testing will take place July 21-25.  “End-to-end testing includes the submission of test claims to CMS with ICD-10 codes and the provider’s receipt of a Remittance Advice that explains the adjudication of the claims,” the agency explains.</p> <p>The goal of testing is to demonstrate that providers and other submitters can successfully submit ICD-10 codes to Medicare’s FFS claims systems, and the CMS software will appropriately adjudicate claims and produce accurate remittances. CMS will select participants that represent a broad cross-section of provider types, claims types and submitter types.</p> <p><a href="http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/cms-urgently-looking-for-ICD-10-end-to-end-testers-47457-1.html" title="http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/cms-urgently-looking-for-ICD-10-end-to-end-testers-47457-1.html">http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/cms-urgently-looking-for-ICD-10-end-to-end-testers-47457-1.html</a></p>

CMS Wants ICD10 End to End Testers To Sign Up Soon, Batches Limited to 3 At a Time and Maximum of 50 Claims Each, I Think A Second Test Date For Larger Batches Could Be A Good Idea Too

Ok this is a “baby step” initial end to end and let’s hope there’s a phase 2 for bigger batches as not too many out there are batching 3 cla...

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Privatization of American Science Taking Over In the US, Tax Havens Certainly a Question Here Too, Government Doesn’t Decide Anymore What Is Funded, Huge Stashes of Cash For Billionaire Philanthropists To Spend How And Where They Decide…

<p>This was a very good article and video produced by the New York Times and one that makes you stop and think as this has been progressive with government funding getting lower all the time.   You read it every week with the NIH looking for more money to fund research.  Sure private funding is always welcome along the line but when you look at where the efforts are coming from, these are the exact same companies with tax havens to avoid paying US taxes, and of course with taxes, some of that money goes to science research.  Tax Havens are not <img height="141" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-EzxqeygeC8o/UFySu4WNxyI/AAAAAAAA-AA/LIYu3E7jWK8/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="153" />illegal but they are certainly not ethical unless you are the corporation not paying taxes in the US and then more than likely the lobbyists there will defend it to the end as it’s money and profits.  If you have not seen how this works, the video at the link below does a good job and sure the big players are all there, Google, Apple, Wal-Mart, United Healthcare, 3M, banks and lots more.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-tax-free-tour-documentary-on-how.html">“The tax free tour” Documentary on How the Tax Havens Work, Who Runs and Owns Them, How Accountants Are Taking Over the Regulators And Not Held Accountable…</a></h5> <p>Kind of a strange situation is that big corporations can break with ethics and make bigger profits by avoiding US taxes and then return as heroes being philanthropists, after all it would really look bad if they didn’t give “anything” back, right?  Everything they fund too is not a waste by any means but rather now instead of the government being in the driver’s seat, it’s corporate USA, doing what “they” want instead of working “with” the government as a partner and rather leading into dictatorship in some areas, we see this in healthcare and it exists everywhere.</p> <p>With science it is ok to fail and failures do happen but when there’s money at stake with profits being so much in the forefront today, the pressure for scientists increases as well and you end up with a lot of “fake” work and studies and just flat out lies in the name of either pressure or their own self greed too at times.  That’s sad and scary in healthcare too as others build on the science and you can have wasted years and time all over the place and sometimes the scientists never get caught.  We have a lot of “self policing” going on there with replication of studies and that’s a good thing too as I think in science there’s enough of a competitive spirit there along with “doing the right thing” that there will be challenges all the time and we need that to separate the fake from the real or the non-significant from the real.  </p> <p>When you watch the video, you see Frances Collins, head of the NIH saying 2013 was the worst year ever on funding, and things that used to be considered a “hands down” yes in the past, get zero funding.  There are still companies and organizations that of course work with the NIH and back in 2012 there was a Milken “Celebration of Science Day” to generate more private funding contributions to the NIH and to promote “working together” and not so much as we see today which seems to resemble competition at times.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/09/nih-and-milken-institute-announce.html">NIH And Milken Institute Announce “Celebration of Science Day” Saturday September 8, 2012 Recognizing Research and Development & Making a Difference - NFL Donates $30 Million to the NIH For Brain Injury Research</a></h5> <p>On the other side of this coin too you can’t say that a lot of technology<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="172" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-hwcJntHy4dg/UyYJnldR2vI/AAAAAAABJn4/4Ulxz9f39CM/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="301" /> companies haven’t tried with Congress for example.  For years Bill Gates makes an annual trek to testify and he’s always well received and usually gets a “thank you very much” and as soon as he leaves, nothing changes.  I mention the digital illiteracy and lack of technology understanding all the time here on my blog and why we are so stuck, as those folks are “so stuck” and have some very strange perceptions on a lot of topics, and they see things as they only seem to affect them, rather than the big picture.  I keep talking about restoring the Office of Technology Assessment for all of these so we could hear less Dr. Seuss from the likes of Ted Cruz for one, and he’s the poster boy for that effort right now.  I sit here and wonder about things like the Sebelius Syndrome myself and talk about it and can’t help but think the billionaires are doing the same thing except they have money and power to control it.  The technology companies live in an entirely different world than goes the perceptions of many of those serving in Congress.  Myself during the fake Cruz filibuster I got on the Twitter feed that day and picked up about 4 more members of Congress following me on Twitter with “intelligent” tweets that got attention, not talking about abortions or that crap again but rather tweets relating to technology answers and questions.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/jon-stewart-discusses-little-paper.html">Jon Stewart Discusses “Little Paper Senator Cruz”–Yet More Startling Proof For the Need to Restore the Tool Congress Needs–The Office of Technology Assessment</a></h5> <p>Look no further than here with the Life Sciences Breakthrough Awards if you will.  There’s not partnership here with the NIH or government and you can’t blame scientists here as they were just doing what their passion is and then got a lot of money for it.  I’m not condemning this but there’s no partnership but rather it’s like competition if you will with the government and this certainly had no impact on Congress as I doubt if they even thought of what perceptions were outside of their own little worlds.    Being Mark Zuckerberg is the head of the group, well there’s some immaturity in thinking there as well and we have seen that this week with him calling the President on “privacy” concerns, which is kind of like the kettle calling the pot black if you will.  You can read about <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/barclays-brokers-caught-selling.html">Zuckerberg partnering with a bank, Barclays to fund writing code in the UK</a>, but again not much with the government on a partnership level if you will.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/life-sciences-breakthrough-prize.html">Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Ann Wojcicki and Others Awards Turns 11 Scientists Into Millionaires Today </a></h5> <p>So in essence the billionaires with the money are running the show, not paying taxes and <img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-M5OgCl6rVDk/USWYjmZ8cKI/AAAAAAABFbQ/RQrKXMHrOn8/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" />being the philanthropists for the most part doing it “their” way.  I see can see their frustration though to big degree with Congress as you just can’t get through those thick skulls sometimes with their perceptions and everyone laughs as they go back to abortions over and over as that’s the default topic anymore to argue about rather than getting smarter, and that is flat out scary to see that this is some of the highest level functioning we get from some of them with lawmaking.  </p> <p>Then again, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle who’s mentioned in this article talking about “artificial intelligence” is also smart enough to give the fair warning too on how some this crosses the line as well with people confused in not knowing where the virtual world leaves off and the real world values kick in and that’s another side to some of the issues out there today.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/larry-ellison-ceo-oracle-hcm.html">Larry Ellison, CEO Oracle, HCM Conference Keynote–”Be Careful About Virtual Relationships With Artificially Intelligent Pieces of Software That’s Smarter Than You“, It’s Really All About People”–Algo Duping and the Killer Algorithms Living Amongst Us…(Update) Video </a></h5> <p>Bottom line though is the need for a better partnership here and working together with government and private industry as the article mentioned the US government doesn’t even track what’s going on with private philanthropy which does not make sense at all.  So the big fear is that corporations are international, and they could move somewhere else so working at partners is the real win-win here and not being competitions.  Again you can see a “digitally ignorant” Capital Hill playing their role in letting this develop over the years too and next time abortion comes up, well think of this article what that represents by comparison, nothing really, just a bunch of old guys wanting to control something while what needs to be worked on with science just slips away.   Here was my idea a while back on how to generate more funds for the NIH and FDA and attack the “data selling epidemic” (another issue that has floated on by a digital illiterate Congress and FTC).  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/09/one-more-good-reason-to-tax-data.html">One More Good Reason to Tax the Data Sellers– Create Additional Funding for the NIH and FDA From Sources That Otherwise Are Too Greedy to Share & Contribute </a></h5> <p>So the pendulum swings both ways and if the greed and profits as is everything else today takes the main focus, well more cheating scientists might be showing up along with the good stuff that gets created, we do need some checks and balances throughout the entire process for sure.  Below are a few paragraphs where some of this relates to healthcare.  If taxes can be avoided and then the same folks return as philanthropists and the NIH starves for money, well you get the idea, there’s one big model that should be created to it all works out for the good of everyone and not just bigger profits for corporations and banks, which is what we need, for “everyone” to win.  BD  </p> <p><iframe id="nyt_video_player" title="New York Times Video - Embed Player" height="373" marginheight="0" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=100000002711803&playerType=embed" frameborder="0" width="450" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> <p> <hr /></p> <p>Last April, President Obama assembled some of the nation’s most august scientific dignitaries in the East Room of the White House. Joking that his grades in physics made him a dubious candidate for “scientist in chief,” he spoke of using technological innovation “to grow our economy” and unveiled “the next great American project”: a $100 million initiative to probe the mysteries of the human brain.</p> <p><strong>Medical institutions are even training their own scientists and doctors in the art of soliciting money from grateful — and wealthy — patients. And Nature ran a lengthy </strong><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/alternative-funding-sponsor-my-science-1.9814"><strong>article</strong></a><strong> giving tips on how to “sell science” and “woo philanthropists.” They included practicing an “elevator pitch” — a digest of research so compelling that it would seize a potential donor’s attention in the time between floors.</strong></p> <p>“It’s always been a major worry,” said Robert W. Conn, president of the Kavli Foundation, which has committed nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to science and is part of the private effort to increase financing for basic research. <strong>“Philanthropy is no substitute for government funding. You can’t say that loud enough.” </strong></p> <p>“If I’m a rich person, I’m going to give to a leading institution — to Harvard or Princeton,” Dr. Murray said in an interview. That pattern, she added, “poses big issues” for the nation. </p> <p>Melanoma, the<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/statistics/race.htm"> deadliest of skin cancers, </a>also strikes and kills whites preferentially. Debra Black, wife of the financier Leon Black, survived a bad scare. Soon after, the couple teamed up with Michael R. Milken, the former junk-bond financier, whose charity FasterCures gives advice on how to accelerate research, to found the Melanoma Research Alliance. It quickly became the world’s largest private sponsor of melanoma research, awarding more than $50 million for work at Yale, Columbia and other universities.</p> <p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/science/billionaires-with-big-ideas-are-privatizing-american-science.html?hp&_r=1" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/science/billionaires-with-big-ideas-are-privatizing-american-science.html?hp&_r=1">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/science/billionaires-with-big-ideas-are-privatizing-american-science.html?hp&_r=1</a></p>

Privatization of American Science Taking Over In the US, Tax Havens Certainly a Question Here Too, Government Doesn’t Decide Anymore What Is Funded, Huge Stashes of Cash For Billionaire Philanthropists To Spend How And Where They Decide…

This was a very good article and video produced by the New York Times and one that makes you stop and think as this has been progressive wit...

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House Passes Doctor SGR Bill With Conditions, Five Year Stall on Mandating Penalties For Individuals Not Buying Health Insurance - Why Not At Hold Off of Penalties (But Less Than Five Years) As Many Other Items In the ACA Are Getting Extended…

<p>How many years has this been going on?  Well I have been blogging here at the Medical Quack for seven years and it’s an annual event and began a few years before I started talking about it.  This is kind of sad that this cannot get a fix.  I can see some of the logic in here with a delay as what hasn’t been delayed with the ACA?  Well everything hasn’t but anything that ties to complex IT infrastructures has.  That’s what the entire problem is here with the world we live in today is that all the data needs to match and come together.  So maybe they can compromise here and come up with a shorter delay?  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/07/medicare-unveils-plan-to-cut-doctor-pay.html">Medicare Unveils Plan to Cut Doctor Pay 30% in 2012–Step One of the Annual Plight to Attempt To Solve the Sustainable Growth Formula–Digital Literacy/Tech Needed</a></h5> <p>I realize budgets are based on the formulas but this formula was broke about a year or two after it was passed just due to economic conditions, so why keep<img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Y2FI4IvEEFA/UqKMeFvCPHI/AAAAAAABIyA/vafLcwhq7xY/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" /> a broken rule or law around.  In a couple years the SGR was not stalled off in time and what a mess Congress created there with retro-active billing as the cuts went through temporarily and then had to be adjusted.  Now that we have ICD10 coming up, oh boy….we don’t want to do adjusted billing that can be avoided again for sure.  The adjusted billing of course means less cash flow and reimbursement delays for doctors.  Here’s what I said a few weeks ago…again all the data and algorithms have to work together.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/those-damn-killer-algorithms-keep.html">Those Damn “Killer Algorithms” Keep Screwing Up Obamacare, One more Delay Added for Small Businesses, Static Text Laws and Digital Technology Crossing Hairs, We Continue To Endure the Constant Rise And Fall Of The Machines… </a></h5> <p>Might as well get this one taken care of sooner than later as the plate is getting more full of other issues that appear and technology is doing a good job of filling up the Congressional plates for sure.  Again with ICD10 we DO NOT need any more retro-active billing to take place as that would be enough complexities to put some over the edge.  Now I read where some want budget cuts else where in order to counter act the repeal of the SGR.  Do we really need to do that?  Budget cuts are out there in mass numbers anyway so we do we need to make this more complex?  We are beyond the point of having to show any kind of nobility in laws today for the most part, just take care of business in a reasonable fashion as this will come back and bite in some fashion later.  Is anyone going to learn how to model and not just do budgets alone?  Models need to be adjusted too as things move forward.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/medicare-sgr-formula-to-cut-medicare.html">Medicare SGR Formula To Cut Medicare Payments to Doctors, When Will Congress, CMS, HHS And A Few Others Learn How To Model and Fix And/Or Replace It? This Is Math, Like The Quants Build All The Time At Banks, Hedge Funds And Insurance Companies..</a></h5> <p>I just seem to think the “penalty” is loosing it steam as being a portion of the law to enforce participation.  It’s all about affordability today and whether or not the algorithms play correctly with insurance exchanges for a lot of it.  BD</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/obamacare-one-big-attack-of-killer.html">Obamacare - One Big “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” No Matter Which Direction You Turn, Compounded With a Lot of Government and Consumer “Algo Duping”…. </a></h5> <p>Since the economy has gone into the dumpsters for consumers and with banks and corporations having more cash than ever, the law and rules originally written before all of this occurred so massively in the last couple of years need some thought as to “what model” can really work.  The SGR should be abolished so lawmakers can move forward and deal with other pressing issues.  It’s to the point of embarrassment now. It’s this fear of math creating all this disruption in DC too…look at this real study and tell me there might not be some of this on the Hill (grin).  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/algo-duping-plos-one-journal.html">“Algo Duping” – PLOS One Journal Publication Explains Why The Fear of Math Plays a Big Role As One Underlying Reason We All Get Duped And Those Who Don’t Fear Math Take All the Money, Gradually, Using “Mathematical Formulas & Algorithms”</a></h5> <p> <hr />The latest effort to repeal Medicare's <a href="http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/sgr-reform-proposal-calls-10-year-pay-freeze-new-incentive-program">sustainable growth rate</a> (SGR) may be defeated by a partisan fight over the Affordable Care Act (ACA).</p> <p>Legislation to repeal the SGR was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, though a Republican-backed amendment that delays a penalty for the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) caused House Democrats to oppose the bill and predict its defeat in the U.S. Senate.</p> <p>The SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act passing the House is the first step toward <a href="http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/sgr-deal-revamps-incentive-programs-focuses-quality-measures">revamping the payment formula</a> that calculates how much physicians are reimbursed for Medicare services, and sets a standard industry-wide for how insurance companies pay providers. The reform effort would replace the SGR with a formula that would tie payments with quality metrics.</p> <p><a href="http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/house-passes-sgr-repeal-bill-includes-delay-individual-insurance-mandate#sthash.qppyYIqh.dpuf">http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/house-passes-sgr-repeal-bill-includes-delay-individual-insurance-mandate#sthash.qppyYIqh.dpuf</a></p>

House Passes Doctor SGR Bill With Conditions, Five Year Stall on Mandating Penalties For Individuals Not Buying Health Insurance - Why Not At Hold Off of Penalties (But Less Than Five Years) As Many Other Items In the ACA Are Getting Extended…

How many years has this been going on?  Well I have been blogging here at the Medical Quack for seven years and it’s an annual event and beg...

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FDA Approves Clinical Trial for “Natural Chemo Alternative” Cancer Treatment in Texas

<p>This is pretty major news here and the treatment is in the form of a vaccine. <a href="http://kiromic.com/overview.php"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="61" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-T0y3SQXqhns/UyPxC0hiq-I/AAAAAAABJno/ilqeffvUshs/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /></a> Texas doctors developed the vaccine.  The trial will begin in May and as I read here it is effective with many forms of cancer.  The patients go through a series of shots.  The vaccine goes after cancerous cells in the body to kill them off.  It’s not toxic either.</p> <p>There have been lab tests done but you don’t know until the trials are done in “real life”.  Karmic is the company in Texas who has developed and patented the product.</p> <p><em>“Karmic exists to create a robust diagnostic and therapeutic program for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies based on its portfolio of patented cancer-associated biomarkers and small molecules. Karmic aims to develop clinical diagnostic tools for rapid detection of cancer-associated antigens, which may translate into earlier diagnosis and accurate monitoring of response to cancer treatments. Our cancer-associated biomarkers also allow for the design and development of personalized, cancer-specific targeted immunotherapy strategies that may improve patient outcomes and result in less suffering and longer survival times.</em> “</p> <p>This will be interesting to follow as more details of the clinical trial come out as to what types of patients will participate and at what levels of cancer they have.  BD  </p> <p> <hr />Local cancer patients could have the option to try a “natural” alternative to chemotherapy and other drugs for cancer treatment. </p> <p>The Food and Drug Administration has approved a cancer vaccine developed by local doctors to go to clinical trials. </p> <p>The vaccine, identified as the Kirov VAX series, will be available in clinical trials in Lubbock in May, said Dr. Scott Dahl beck, chief executive officer of Karmic LLC, the company that developed the vaccine. </p> <p>“We’ve done all the preclinical work to present it to the FDA,” Dahl beck said. “The FDA gives approval called an IND (Investigational New Drug). … You can’t even study it in humans without all that.”</p> <p>It works by using proteins from tumor cells to fight back against cancerous cells, he said. It will be administered through a series of shots.</p> <p>Tests have shown the drug is not toxic like traditional cancer drugs, he said. </p> <p>“Helping the body help itself,” Dahl beck said. “It’s sort of natural … it uses a natural form of treatment rather than toxic chemo radiation (or) rather than take a knife to cut it out.”</p> <p><a href="http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2014-03-13/fda-approves-trial-local-doctors-natural-chemo-alternative#.UyPrwc6a_qE" title="http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2014-03-13/fda-approves-trial-local-doctors-natural-chemo-alternative#.UyPrwc6a_qE">http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2014-03-13/fda-approves-trial-local-doctors-natural-chemo-alternative#.UyPrwc6a_qE</a></p>

FDA Approves Clinical Trial for “Natural Chemo Alternative” Cancer Treatment in Texas

This is pretty major news here and the treatment is in the form of a vaccine. Texas doctors developed the vaccine.  The trial will begin in...

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Mat Kendall Leaving ONC, Creator the REC Offices That Help Doctors Get Started With Electronic Medical Records

<p>I do have to say he did a very good job there and when it was first announced,<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="78" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-rGyfD_aS5UQ/UyOMCAXPBCI/AAAAAAABJnY/EqQ-_Ab8pV0/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> all including self wondered how it would play out but it did very well and offered support that was needed as the vendors and REC office all worked together.  </p> <p>Funds are getting near the end at some point as it stands now.  Some REC offices were very much out there while others, like the one in the OC where I’m at drug their feet but eventually got moving a bit.  The RED offices, unless additional funding is given are slated to close in 2015.  BD </p> <p> <hr />This month, someone you probably don't know, but who had a major impact on healthcare IT, will be leaving your employ. And as he leaves office, the major project he built is in danger of disappearing as well.</p> <p>Mat Kendall steps down March 21 from the <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=1011">Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology</a> at HHS. There he has quietly headed the department that created a nationwide network of regional health IT extension centers known as RECs. The RECs are creatures of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.</p> <p>Kendall has been ONC's director of the Office of Provider Adoption Support for 4½ years. Since their inception, the 62 RECs have been Kendall's babies. </p> <p>The RECs have proven to be quite popular with Modern Healthcare readers, according to our latest health IT survey in which <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140222/MAGAZINE/302229930/extension-centers-a-great-investment-leaders-say">71% of respondents indicated they wanted to see federal support</a> for the REC .</p> <p><a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140314/BLOG/303149947?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TzZDL0NCa0IvREE0M3hlMENvaTBVZER1RT0=&utm_source=link-20140314-BLOG-303149947&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=top" title="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140314/BLOG/303149947?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TzZDL0NCa0IvREE0M3hlMENvaTBVZER1RT0=&utm_source=link-20140314-BLOG-303149947&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=top">http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140314/BLOG/303149947?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TzZDL0NCa0IvREE0M3hlMENvaTBVZER1RT0=&utm_source=link-20140314-BLOG-303149947&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=top</a></p>

Mat Kendall Leaving ONC, Creator the REC Offices That Help Doctors Get Started With Electronic Medical Records

I do have to say he did a very good job there and when it was first announced, all including self wondered how it would play out but it did...

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HHS Executive, Director of Office of Research Integrity (ORI) With Scathing Resignation Letter, Could No Longer Function Under a Department Suffering From the “Sebelius Syndrome”..Worst Job He Ever Had

<p>He was there for 2 years and there was no permanent director during this time.  He liked the part of the job with working with the scientists but that was only 35% of what he did.  The rest was bureaucracy dysfunctionality under HHS.  You know all those fake science reports we hear about, well this was part of his job to regulate and investigate some of that.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/kathleen-sebelius-kansas-governor-for.html" title="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/kathleen-sebelius-kansas-governor-for.html">Please Put Someone in Charge of HHS That Understands a Tiny bit About Health IT and Data...<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="96" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-BBjSjGrTNYw/UyOGMYkGCeI/AAAAAAABJnI/TBJAWR5arhY/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="268" /></a></h5> <p>What the heck does Sebelius know about “data integrity” as what do you think science investigation is..it’s all math and computer code over there too.  He aid the focus was to always make his bosses look good and that’ tough with Sebelius at the top as she puts her own foot in her mouth over and over, no help needed from outside when using weird perceptions that are not true.  Honestly I don’t know how anyone takes her seriously anymore.  It’s not like just once, but many “foot in mouth” instances, over and over.</p> <p>Research and the pursuit of algorithm fairies don’t mix and I don’t  know how far down the ladder he was but what’s at the top says it all.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/senator-grassley-and-kathleen-sebelius.html">Senator Grassley and Kathleen Sebelius Duking It Out Over Hospitals Paying Patient Premiums–A Case of One “Who Believes In Algorithm Fairies” Talking To Another…</a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/sebelius-asks-inspector-general-to.html">Sebelius Asks Inspector General To Review Healthcare.Gov, How Many JBoss, Red Hat, Linux, Oracle, MarkLogic And Other Experts Does OIG Have? Time Elements of Baking A Cake From Scratch With Writing Custom Code Was Just Not There..</a></h5> <p> <hr />A Health and Human Services official has resigned after dealing with the frustration of the “profoundly dysfunctional” federal bureaucracy, which left him “offended as an American taxpayer.”</p> <p>In a resignation <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/people-events/2014/03/top-u.s.-scientific-misconduct-official-quits-frustration-bureaucracy">letter</a> obtained by ScienceInsider, David Wright, director of the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) — which oversees and monitors possible research misconduct — offers a scathing rebuke of the unwieldy and inefficient bureaucracy that he dealt with for the two years he served in the position.</p> <p>In his letter to Assistant Secretary for Health Howard Koh, Wright explains that the 35 percent of his job that was spent working with science-investigators in his department “has been one of the great pleasures of my long career.” The majority of his duties, however, represented his worst job ever.</p> <p>As for the rest, I’m offended as an American taxpayer that the federal bureaucracy — at least the part I’ve labored in — is so profoundly dysfunctional. I’m hardly the first person to have made that discovery, but I’m saddened by the fact that there is so little discussion, much less outrage, regarding the problem. To promote healthy and productive discussion, I intend to publish a version of the daily log I’ve kept as ORI Director in order to share my experience and observations with my colleagues in government and with members of the regulated research community,” he wrote. </p> <p><a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/people-events/2014/03/top-u.s.-scientific-misconduct-official-quits-frustration-bureaucracy" title="http://news.sciencemag.org/people-events/2014/03/top-u.s.-scientific-misconduct-official-quits-frustration-bureaucracy">http://news.sciencemag.org/people-events/2014/03/top-u.s.-scientific-misconduct-official-quits-frustration-bureaucracy</a></p>

HHS Executive, Director of Office of Research Integrity (ORI) With Scathing Resignation Letter, Could No Longer Function Under a Department Suffering From the “Sebelius Syndrome”..Worst Job He Ever Had

He was there for 2 years and there was no permanent director during this time.  He liked the part of the job with working with the scientist...

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FDA Panel Voted Unanimously To Recommend the Pap Smear Be Replaced With a Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA Test As First Line Cancer Screening

<p>Well I don’t think you will find any women not liking this idea, self included here.  The vote was 13 to 0 in favor of the DNA test.  They did differ on the age to begin screening.  Those that test positive would proceed to have a colposcopy.  </p> <p>Roche is the manufacturer of the test and of course the next question is cost.  It will be interesting to see how this proceeds and of course there’s always smears for other diagnosis issues.  BD  </p> <p> <hr />COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- An FDA advisory committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that the Pap smear be replaced with a human papillomavirus (HPV) test as the first-line standard of care for cancer screening.<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="142" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-l70hQJpdmXc/UyEN-Ll-OII/AAAAAAABJm0/xh_DV1X88QU/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="155" /></p> <p>The FDA's Medical Devices Advisory Committee Microbiology Panel agreed by a vote of 13-0 in each of three successive votes that the cobas viral DNA test for HPV -- made by Roche Molecular Systems -- was safe and effective for cervical cancer screening, and that the benefits of the tests outweighed the risks.</p> <p>The cobas test currently has approval as a follow-up assessment for women 21 and older who have abnormal Pap tests, and as a co-test with the Pap smear to screen for the high-risk p16 and p18 HPV strains in women 30 to 65. The test comprises genotyping for HPV16 and 18 and pooled assessment of 12 additional high-risk HPV strains.</p> <p>Panelist <a href="https://www.doximity.com/pub/kenneth-noller-md">Kenneth Noller, MD</a>, of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in Dallas, agreed that real-world use could differ from the protocol proposed by Roche. "I've been watching how people practice; if you're high-risk HPV positive you're going to get colposcopy," he said. "That doesn't necessarily mean it's bad -- it's what you do with the colposcopy."</p> <p>The staff summary included the following performance characteristics of the cobas test versus cytology in the prospective cohort study: </p> <ul> <li>Sensitivity for ≥cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) -58.26% versus 42.63% </li> <li>Positive predictive value -12.25% versus 6.47% </li> <li>Negative predictive value -0.42% versus 0.59% </li> <li>False-positive rate -4.09% versus 6.04%</li> </ul> <p><a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/GeneralOBGYN/44745" title="http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/GeneralOBGYN/44745">http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/GeneralOBGYN/44745</a></p>

FDA Panel Voted Unanimously To Recommend the Pap Smear Be Replaced With a Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA Test As First Line Cancer Screening

Well I don’t think you will find any women not liking this idea, self included here.  The vote was 13 to 0 in favor of the DNA test.  They d...

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Beth Israel Does a “Real” Google Glass Beta With ER Physicians Combing Use of QR Codes For Location - Full Roll Out To Become Available Soon For Other Interested ER Physicians..

<p>This is great write up on the testing of Google Glass.  There was a lot of extra work here and most importantly as noted is security with moving all the components over to In house servers so <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="272" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-t6RPebW6YcY/UyCDdOySy6I/AAAAAAABJmk/niZOYRDjtbA/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="273" />there’s nothing traveling to a Google Server.  This was a bit of work.  Also worth noting is that the “color” used was a bright orange so they are noticed by all and don’t blend in as sometimes Google Glass is so small it can blend in.  This way patients and everyone involved “knows” the technology is in use.  </p> <p>In addition, Dr. Halamka included information from a an ER doctor who is on the “beta” team using Google Glass and what he has to say about it.  He’s had a very positive experience it sounds like and it does give him the ability to have both hands free.  Additional features added include pairing the headset with their iPhones and external batteries for longer life.  The QR code reader needs a little additional work but that’s normal when you put something like this out with all the connectivity.  The short amount of time, just since 12/17/2013 is amazing too that in less than 3 months a status report like this became available.  So far there are 4 beta doctors using Google Glass.  It’s all about improving work flow for the doctors.  Here’s a quote from the testing doctor that gives a specific scenario use with a patient that was having a massive brain bleed and the ability to get allergy and medication information. <strong> The doctor did not have to stop and go “log in” somewhere to get the information needed.  </strong></p> <p><em>“Google glass enabled me to view this patient’s allergy information and current medication regimen without having to excuse myself to login to a computer, or even loose eye contact. It turned out that he was also on blood thinners that needed to be emergently reversed. By having this information readily available at the bedside, we were able to quickly start both antihypertensive therapy and reversal medications for his blood thinners, treatments that if delayed could lead to permanent disability and even death. I believe the ability to access and confirm clinical information at the bedside is one of the strongest features of Google Glass. "</em></p> <p>Again the security here is important with protecting patient data for sure and what a great way to save time and get the patient needs addressed quickly.  <a href="http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2014/03/wearable-computing-at-bidmc.html">Use the link here</a> or at the bottom of my post to read the entire blog post from Dr. Halamka.  BD  </p> <p> <hr />Over the past few months, Beth Israel Deaconess has been the pilot site for a new approach to clinical information technology, wearable computing. <br />In the Emergency Department, we’ve developed a prototype of a new information system using Google Glass, a high tech pair of glasses that includes a video camera, video screen, speaker, microphone, touch pad, and motion sensor.</p> <p>Staff has definitely noticed them and responded with a mixture of intrigue and skepticism. Those who tried them on briefly did seem impressed. <br />We have fully integrated with the ED Dashboard using a custom application to ensure secure communication and the same privacy safeguards as our existing web interface. <strong>We replaced all the Google components on the devices so that no data travels over Google servers. All data stays within the BIDMC firewall.</strong></p> <p>When a clinician walks into an emergency department room, he or she looks at bar code (a QR or Quick Response code) placed on the wall.  Google Glass immediately recognizes the room and then the ED Dashboard sends information about the patient in that room to the glasses, appearing in the clinician’s field of vision. The clinician can speak with the patient, examine the patient, and perform procedures while seeing problems, vital signs, lab results and other data.</p> <p>We have designed a custom user interface to take advantage of the Glass’ unique features such as gestures (single tap, double tap, 1 and 2 finger swipes, etc.), scrolling by looking up/down, camera to use QR codes, and voice commands. Information displays also needed to be simplified and re-organized.</p> <p><a href="http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2014/03/wearable-computing-at-bidmc.html" title="http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2014/03/wearable-computing-at-bidmc.html">http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2014/03/wearable-computing-at-bidmc.html</a></p>

Beth Israel Does a “Real” Google Glass Beta With ER Physicians Combing Use of QR Codes For Location - Full Roll Out To Become Available Soon For Other Interested ER Physicians..

This is great write up on the testing of Google Glass.  There was a lot of extra work here and most importantly as noted is security with mo...

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Qualcomm Life Reaches Agreement With Tunstall Healthcare in the UK To Utilize 2net Hub Platform to Connect and Store Medical Data in the Cloud From Devices..

<p>Ok for all who want data from wearables and other mHealth apps and products,<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="176" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-75GQfgh9MIc/UyB1UAjIPQI/AAAAAAABJmU/2GA4nDaJEXU/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="232" /> here’s a device and platform that will serve to gather all the information in the cloud.  Every time a new gadget comes out this will save having to build yet one  more communication platform.  When you watch the video you will see some examples of technologies you may have already seen or read about, Withings scale for one.  You also here some words from Kaiser Permanente give a short comment of support.  </p> <p><a href="http://www.qualcommlife.com/wireless-health">From the website:</a></p> <p><em>There are four gateways onto the 2net Platform’s data center:</em></p> <ol> <li><em>A standalone FDA-listed external device – the 2net Hub* </em></li> <li><em>An FDA-listed software module that connects mobile computing devices – 2net Mobile Core*  </em></li> <li><em>Medical devices with an embedded cellular component </em></li> <li><em>Service platform integration between the FDA-listed 2net Platform to customer and technology partner service platforms using application programming interfaces (APIs) </em></li> </ol> <p><em>* The 2net Platform, 2net Hub and 2net Mobile Core are separately FDA listed as Class I MDDS (Medical Device and Data Systems) in the U.S., Class I MDD and CE Registered in Europe, and Class I in Canada. As MDDS devices, they are designed, developed and manufactured in accordance with a quality system compliant with ISO13485 standards, meaning it aligns with the quality requirements of U.S. and international regulatory agencies in the health care industry.</em></p> <p><em>2net Mobile is a software module that enables mobile computing devices such as mobile phones and tablets to serve as gateways to the cloud-based 2net Platform. The solution enables a mobile phone or tablet to collect and visualize data from medical devices and biometric sensors and to securely transmit that data via the mobile phone or tablet’s wireless wide area network (WWAN) cellular connection or Wi-Fi to the 2net Platform’s data center. 2net Mobile is driven off of the end-user’s data plan, so enterprise customers are not limited to working with specific wireless operators.</em></p> <p><iframe style="height: 260px; width: 454px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3XVdWaxwPLY" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>So with everyone and all the choice of devices this is a platform to handle them all and as you can see the product carries FDA approval.  So again we get into the conversation with data and where it goes into medical records be it a PHR or an EMR we have crossing lines here.  You can see why an FDA approval was needed here providing a software engineer review for safety, mostly making sure there’s privacy and security as the information becomes available for providers.  We also need the human input so maybe some day the ONC will be it’s entity at the FDA as it’s just a matter of time before a closer integration of communication will be needed to cover more than just one side of the data issues, not to mention privacy.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/mhealth-why-battle-over-where.html">mHealth Why Battle Over Where the Responsibility Lies, Make the ONC A Division of the FDA, Better Collaboration and Software Engineering Exposure Both Ways Around</a></h5> <p>Here’s another video that shows how the platform can work with a patient leaving the hospital and where the connection can continue to provide information to all involved with follow up care.  Again implementation and using with humans is key here and not just putting in a connection and expecting all to coordinate efficiently.  As well as the patient, the team has to adjust and be ready to receive helpful information and know how and where to react with it as well.  This is learning curve as we are all so busy today and needs to be done right and explained to all how it works.  Sure there will be savings but while this is new, let’s hope the folks with their analytics give a try before the reports and ROI stuff starts rolling in too soon.  That’s a problem today with some technologies is that people are impatient and want immediate savings reports when in fact it may take a while.  In addition the other side with insurers are the ones pushing for a lot of this as well.  BD</p> <p><iframe style="height: 276px; width: 441px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lYZDAlMU4vw?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>)</p> <hr />Qualcomm Life has reached agreement with the UK’s Tunstall Healthcare to adopt its 2net Platform, the US company’s cloud-based system for holding data uploaded from medical devices for patients and caregivers. <p>Through its collaboration with Qualcomm Life, Tunstall will add the 2net Hub - which collects patient data before uploading it to the cloud-based platform - and mobile applications to its product portfolio, in addition to integrating the 2net Platform into its existing telehealth systems.</p> <p>Tunstall, which claims to be the world’s leading telehealth provider, is active in more than 40 countries and supports more than 2.5 million people with its systems.</p> <p><a href="http://www.mobileworldlive.com/qualcomm-strikes-deal-leading-telehealth-provider#.UyBf_xiKehs.twitter" title="http://www.mobileworldlive.com/qualcomm-strikes-deal-leading-telehealth-provider#.UyBf_xiKehs.twitter">http://www.mobileworldlive.com/qualcomm-strikes-deal-leading-telehealth-provider#.UyBf_xiKehs.twitter</a></p>

Qualcomm Life Reaches Agreement With Tunstall Healthcare in the UK To Utilize 2net Hub Platform to Connect and Store Medical Data in the Cloud From Devices..

Ok for all who want data from wearables and other mHealth apps and products, here’s a device and platform that will serve to gather all the...

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FDA Approves Extended Use Xartemis XR (Oxycodone and Acetaminophen) Pain Reliever

<p>It was not too long ago the drug maker, Mallinckrodt, received their<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="73" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-JjS4wERe2QE/UyBrc-y2goI/AAAAAAABJmE/i8v21Vjw0mw/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> patent for the drug.  In addition the extended use technology was used from <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140312-907051.html">Depomed</a> for the new drug and this will generate a $ 5 to 10  million dollar license for that company as well.  </p> <p>We are aware of the focus on pain killer drug abuse and this new formulation is stated to help address some of it and is the only extended use oxycodone with acetaminophen on the market with this approval.  </p> <p>This is a controlled substance opioid drug of course and there’s a lot of education material and warning that go along with it, even with the Acetaminophen content warning of liver damage as well as the standard warnings for addiction. </p> <p><em><b>About XARTEMIS</b>^<b>™</b><b> XR</b></em></p> <p><em>“XARTEMIS XR is an extended-release oral formulation of oxycodone hydrochloride and acetaminophen with immediate-release and extended-release components. It is not interchangeable with other oxycodone/acetaminophen products because of differing pharmacokinetic profiles that affect the frequency of administration. XARTEMIS XR is a schedule II controlled substance.</em> “</p> <p> <hr />DUBLIN--(<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mallinckrodt.com&esheet=50822622&newsitemid=20140312005447&lan=en-US&anchor=Mallinckrodt+plc&index=1&md5=80a365431a6c785fe5f2db92e8e37e63">Mallinckrodt plc</a> (NYSE: MNK) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved XARTEMIS^™ XR (oxycodone hydrochloride and acetaminophen) Extended-Release Tablets (CII), previously known as MNK-795, for the management of acute pain severe enough to require opioid treatment and in patients for whom alternative treatment options (e.g., non-opioid analgesics) are ineffective, not tolerated or would otherwise be inadequate. XARTEMIS XR is the first and only extended-release oral combination of two clinically proven pain medications -- oxycodone and acetaminophen. </p> <p>XARTEMIS XR has both immediate- and extended-release components: formulated to provide onset of pain relief in less than one hour and to allow twice daily dosing. The product’s release profile combines Mallinckrodt’s newly patented technology, including design, formulation, pharmacokinetic and release characteristics, and Depomed’s advanced Acuform^® drug delivery technology. </p> <p>The approval is based, in part, on the pivotal Phase 3 efficacy study conducted in an acute post-surgical pain model. XARTEMIS XR met the study’s primary endpoint and showed statistically significant improvement in pain scores compared to placebo from baseline over 48 hours.</p> <p><a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140312005447/en/Mallinckrodt-plc-Receives-FDA-Approval-XARTEMIS-XR#.UyBgkc6a8Ys" title="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140312005447/en/Mallinckrodt-plc-Receives-FDA-Approval-XARTEMIS-XR#.UyBgkc6a8Ys">http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140312005447/en/Mallinckrodt-plc-Receives-FDA-Approval-XARTEMIS-XR#.UyBgkc6a8Ys</a></p>

FDA Approves Extended Use Xartemis XR (Oxycodone and Acetaminophen) Pain Reliever

It was not too long ago the drug maker, Mallinckrodt, received their patent for the drug.  In addition the extended use technology was used...

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MMR Global and Cerner Reach Patent Agreement

<p>In reading the press release all terms appear to be confidential so all I can assume is that some<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="83" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PUQdUX5OAgc/UyBgIeVkbvI/AAAAAAABJl0/Wm8KrdyaR2E/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> kind of licensing was perhaps attained with a dollar value.  Being around as long as they have I’m sure Cerner has a number of patents as well when it comes to intellectual property with the size of company they are such as their <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/01/cerner-receives-fda-clearance-for.html">CareAware FDA approved systems</a> for one example.  </p> <p>Just recently Walgreens settled with MMRGlobal and there’s a few more out there yet like Allscripts and WebMD that have been given patent infringement notices.  The Walgreens agreement was interesting as it also had Drugstore.com, a division of the company to begin marketing and selling MyMedicalRecords, the PHR from MMRGlobal.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/walgreens-and-mymedicalrecords-reach.html">Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements </a></h5> <p> <hr />LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/12/14 -- <a href="http://www.mmrglobal.com/">MMRGlobal, Inc.</a> (OTCQB: MMRF) ("MMR") today announced an agreement with <a href="http://www.cerner.com">Cerner Corporation </a>relating to MMR's MyMedicalRecords, Inc. Personal Health Record patent portfolio, including U.S. Patent Nos. 8,117,045; 8,117,646; 8,121,855; 8,301,466; 8,321,240; 8,352,287; 8,352,288; 8,498,883, 8,626,532 and 8,645,161. The confidential agreement includes other terms and conditions related to an ongoing business relationship between the parties. </p> <p>MMRGlobal CEO, Robert H. Lorsch stated, "We're pleased to announce this Patent Agreement with <a href="http://www.cerner.com">Cerner</a> which represents a unique opportunity for Cerner to benefit from MMR's patented intellectual property. MMR is especially proud to have entered into this agreement with an organization that collectively provides solutions to more than 14,000 facilities worldwide including more than 3,000 hospitals and 2,900 physician practices."</p> <p><a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1908273&highlight=" title="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1908273&highlight=">http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1908273&highlight=</a></p>

MMR Global and Cerner Reach Patent Agreement

In reading the press release all terms appear to be confidential so all I can assume is that some kind of licensing was perhaps attained wi...

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FDA Approves Headband Device To “Prevent” Migraines By Prescription Only

<p>The good news is that it works on frequency, bad news is that intensity doesn’t<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="117" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-HkrtBVB-U6U/Ux_4nM3p00I/AAAAAAABJlk/Jf1U6RwZcz8/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="142" /> change but if you experience fewer then that seems like a win.  Watch the vide below to see how it works. </p> <p>It will be available by prescription and yes there’s  USB cable that comes with it if the doctor wants to take the data from the device and import it into the software to analyze.  The software will keep an entire data base of patients.  </p> <p>The kit sells for $349.00 and when I look at the website, it appears that anyone in Canada <a href="http://www.cefaly.ca/site/buynow">can order one</a> without a prescription.  The sites does say “don’t use while driving”…it is using TENS technology.  BD  </p> <p><iframe style="height: 277px; width: 420px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/S_p0WlJd_dw" frameborder="0" width="420" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>)</p> <p> <hr />(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it approved a nerve-stimulating device to prevent migraines that is worn as a band across the forehead.</p> <p>The battery-powered device, which should be positioned above the eyes, sends an electric current to the skin and underlying tissue via a self-adhesive electrode to stimulate the trigeminal nerve that is associated with migraines.</p> <p>Manufactured by Belgium-based CEFALY Technology SPRL, the prescription-only device is intended for use once per day for 20 minutes.</p> <p>FDA said in a clinical study of 67 patients in Belgium, those who used the device had significantly fewer migraines per month and used less medication than those who used a placebo device. The device did not reduce the intensity of migraines that occurred.</p> <p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/fda-migraine-idUSL2N0M81Y120140311" title="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/fda-migraine-idUSL2N0M81Y120140311">http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/fda-migraine-idUSL2N0M81Y120140311</a></p>

FDA Approves Headband Device To “Prevent” Migraines By Prescription Only

The good news is that it works on frequency, bad news is that intensity doesn’t change but if you experience fewer then that seems like a w...

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CMS Issues Hardship Exception Information - Who’s Going to Administrate All Of This and Keep Track? Just Get Your Vendor To Vouch for You? Extension Would Have Been Much Simpler In View of All the Other Algorithmic Complexities Happening With Obamacare At Present…

<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="77" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-K_wWn2xNQe8/Ux_wb64mgEI/AAAAAAABJlU/bldnN10JxTM/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="274" /> <p>That’s right this come from the same folks that put out Healthcare.Gov.  It’s amazing in a time where folks in technology are looking to “simplify” some rules and technology but CMS prefers to add more complexity, and that’s the way I see it after reading the documents.  For goodness sakes a delay would have been a heck of a lot easier to keep track of and monitor for compliance.  Leave to HHS and CMS to make things difficult and confusing to an already over loaded healthcare system.  </p> <p><a href="https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/HardshipException_EP_Application.pdf">Here’s the application…</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/CEHRT2014_HEGuidance_EPs.pdf">Here’s the guide for eligible professionals for exception…</a></p> <p>Here’s the <a href="http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/paymentadj_hardship.html">CMS page</a> with the rest of the forms if these two don’t apply to you.  You know what, is a contract going to be awarded for the tracking of the Hardships now?  Fro the archives, link below, those Senators better get that Office of Technology Assessment back to explain some of this stuff to them.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/latest-letter-from-gop-senators.html">Latest Letter From GOP Senators Regarding Health IT Adds Real Urgency to Bring Back the Office of Technology Assessment for Congress–It Is Getting Stranger All the Time With So Many Not Understanding IT Complexities</a></h5> <p>Ok this is going to be good when the GOP Senators digest all of this, they wanted an explanation.  If nothing else this will keep them busy monitoring and asking a lot of questions and there will be plenty of those.  Again, what’s the matter with these folks at CMS; do they like to make things complex?  It’s not like the old days when everything was in silos and easier to monitor.  It sounds like all you need to have is your vendor agree they had issues and by today’s standards, well who has not had some kind of issue, whether it’s meaningful use or not.  These folks are backing themselves into a difficult corner here, but they are focused on “verbiage” and not code or data mechanics, and that’s what you get from those who don’t have the data mechanics somewhere in the background or thinking.  They seem to forget we all this going on over here with complex algorithmic formulas and insurers getting more quants on board for their math models too.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/obamacare-one-big-attack-of-killer.html">Obamacare - One Big “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” No Matter Which Direction You Turn, Compounded With a Lot of Government and Consumer “Algo Duping”…. </a></h5> <p>If hospitals met Meaningful Use in 2013, they will be excluded from the payment adjustment and do not have to submit a Hardship Exception.  They still have until July 1, 2014 to attest and avoid payment adjustment.  </p> <p>These hardships can be filed year after year up to five years…heck all the vendors are going to have issues by that time:)</p> <p><strong><em>One more item from the CMS page “Hand written applications may delay processing”…kind of interesting statement since we are talking about incentives for electronic medical records stimulus money.</em></strong>  </p> <p>Sure wished these folks at CMS knew how to model a bit better.  After reading all of this I think everyone might just jump in here and file one in the interest of having one in file in case things change then they won’t have to scramble and do one later.  BD  </p> <p> <hr />Correlation is not causation, but only a few days removed from a <a href="http://ehrintelligence.com/2014/03/07/gop-senators-seek-details-about-meaningful-use-exemption/">group of GOP senators’ request</a> for clarification about the <a href="http://ehrintelligence.com/glossary/meaningful-use/">meaningful use</a> hardship exception the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has now provided more details. </p> <p>The federal agency responsible for the oversight of the <a href="http://ehrintelligence.com/glossary/what-are-the-ehr-incentive-programs/">EHR Incentive Programs</a> has made several resources available via its website, including the hardship exception applications for eligible professionals and hospitals as well as tipsheets for each group of eligible providers. “Hardship exceptions will be granted only under specific circumstances and only if CMS determines that providers have demonstrated that those circumstances pose a significant barrier to their achieving meaningful use,” the federal agency indicates.</p> <p>An addition to the list of reasons for applying for a meaningful use exception concerns 2014 vendor issues, which CMS defines as a provider being  “unable to obtain 2014 certification”  or “unable to implement meaningful use due to 2014 EHR certification delays.”</p> <p><a href="http://ehrintelligence.com/2014/03/11/cms-provides-clarification-for-ehr-meaningful-use-hardship/">http://ehrintelligence.com/2014/03/11/cms-provides-clarification-for-ehr-meaningful-use-hardship/</a></p>

CMS Issues Hardship Exception Information - Who’s Going to Administrate All Of This and Keep Track? Just Get Your Vendor To Vouch for You? Extension Would Have Been Much Simpler In View of All the Other Algorithmic Complexities Happening With Obamacare At Present…

That’s right this come from the same folks that put out Healthcare.Gov.  It’s amazing in a time where folks in technology are looking to “...

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President Obama Appears on “Between Two Ferns” - Drives A Lot of Traffic to Healthcare.Gov Today (Humor)

<p>This worked as far as getting traffic as has been reported on the web.  It drags a little bit at the<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="110" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-4Qk0VdeHW8w/Ux-S7V4KDeI/AAAAAAABJlA/LV33m0PncaM/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="251" /> beginning but kicks in later when the discussion moves to Healthcare.Gov…”it’s working now” President Obama says…</p> <p>The questions are pretty funny and this was the first I have seen this show.  </p> <p>He asks about the websites the President visits…”let’s get this out of the way” he states…</p> <p>And then it moves on to spider bites…BD  </p> <p><iframe height="400" src="http://www.funnyordie.com/embed/18e820ec3f" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <div style="font-size: x-small; width: 640px; text-align: left; margin-top: 0px"><a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/18e820ec3f/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis-president-barack-obama" title="from President Barack Obama, Zach Galifianakis, Scott Aukerman, BJPorter, Funny Or Die, Between Two Ferns, rachelgoldenberg, Brian Lane, Aaron Ulrich, and BoTown Sound">Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: President Barack Obama</a> from <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/president_barack_obama">President Barack Obama</a> <iframe style="overflow: hidden; border-top: medium none; height: 21px; border-right: medium none; width: 90px; vertical-align: middle; border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?app_id=138711277798&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.funnyordie.com%2Fvideos%2F18e820ec3f%2Fbetween-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis-president-barack-obama&send=false&layout=button_count&width=150&show_faces=false&action=like&height=21" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="allowtransparency" scrolling="no"></iframe></div> <p><a href="http://recode.net/2014/03/11/viral-video-obama-plugs-healthcare-gov-on-funny-or-die-and-it-works/" title="http://recode.net/2014/03/11/viral-video-obama-plugs-healthcare-gov-on-funny-or-die-and-it-works/">http://recode.net/2014/03/11/viral-video-obama-plugs-healthcare-gov-on-funny-or-die-and-it-works/</a></p>

President Obama Appears on “Between Two Ferns” - Drives A Lot of Traffic to Healthcare.Gov Today (Humor)

This worked as far as getting traffic as has been reported on the web.  It drags a little bit at the beginning but kicks in later when the ...

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Couple Applying for Health Insurance Through Exchange Encounters a Nightmare Due to “Flawed Data” With Husband’s Background Check-Said He Was Incarcerated - One More Attack of the Killer Algorithms Related Back to the Data Selling Epidemic in the US

<p>Here we go again and we come back to the data selling epidemic in the US and you can watch the video and listen to the story yourself.  Listen to the newscaster as well “this is not uncommon”..how many<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="85" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-1dPqQ9MJ-nY/Ux8zXPuxwOI/AAAAAAABJkw/MsqxNZzWxwc/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="209" /> other cases of flawed data are out there?  </p> <p>Take look at this post and see what happens and how information about you can easily contain flaws as more and more data is queried together and sent about you.  60 Minutes did a good job showing the “requery” process that takes place as everyone seems to just stop at the original data base information and you can’t do that anymore.  The FTC admitted they have lost control as well.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/60-minutes-blasts-data-sellers-ftc.html">60 Minutes Blasts The Data Sellers, FTC Admits They Have Lost Control - Time To License and Excise Tax “ALL” Data Sellers, Banks, Companies, Etc. - Congress Needs to Act On This… </a></h5> <p>The exchange told the woman her husband was incarcerated and he had never been.  The woman spent more than 100 hours before she was told she was qualified.  She called and was told she had no insurance.  It turns out that anyone who had ever been to the federal detention center was listed as incarcerated and the government that was no unusual.  Again we know when you get a “data file” on anyone, context is everything too.  The government said there are others in her same situation.  Lovely, right?  Really how can we expect to have any real level of accuracy you might ask.  Here’s a company that provides credit information that rides below the radar all the time and you can “never” see or get any of the information they report about you.  Why does this happen?  It’s the way they classify “what their business is” and I guess you could call it a loophole.  It was chapter 42 of my original Attack of the Killer Algorithms series.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/e-scoring-credit-algorithms-invisible.html">e-scoring Credit Algorithms Invisible To Consumers Used to Market and Evaluate, Does Not Fall Under Federal Law And Such Are Used by Insurance Companies - How Will This Work With Exchanges –Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 42</a></h5> <p>I have had my own issues as when I sold my house, 6-7 months later the new owners who bought my house showed up as secondary drivers on my car insurance, so there you go with a “bad” address <img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TdYNiZF0RQI/AAAAAAAAxks/UEJVJ2qMb7Y/image%5B8%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" />match as other than being the new owners of the house there was absolutely no other connection.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/insurance-company-data-mining-with.html">Insurance Company Data Mining With Automated Transactions? What Is Being Done With Consumer Data–My Flawed Corporate America Data Shows Up -Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 45</a> </h5> <p>This has been going on for a long time and over 2 years ago we had this story, same thing flawed data keeping a woman from getting a job.  The amount of flawed data out there is on the rise and a big part of this goes back to the data sellers making big money and have a full staff of free labor to fix it, and that would be use as we denied something.  You can read the entire <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/attack-of-killer-algorithmsdigest-links.html">Killer Algorithm series here</a>…links to the 2 years of blog posts on the topic.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/12/flawed-datamined-by-corporations-online.html">Flawed Data–Mined by Corporations Online Provides Background Checks Riddled With Errors–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 7</a></h5> <p>Again with the government in Nevada saying there’s more like this out there, what faith do you have anymore on some of the data checks that are provided?  How flawed are we becoming due to the data selling epidemic?  Governments sell data too.  We need to license and entertain excise taxing the data sellers and this way if they are selling flawed data, law enforcement could step in and require steps be taken to ensure accuracy and we could have a place to report such.  I have a feeling it could be a busy agency just from what I write here.  BD</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/08/ftc-tries-to-bring-strong-case-for.html">FTC Tries to Bring Strong Case for Consumer Protections With Use of Data–But Nothing About Creating IT Infrastructure Path to Allow Regulation–Gov Can’t or Won’t Model?</a></h5> <script src="http://v9.anv.bz/scripts/anv_mcp_9.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">var p = new anv_pl_def();p.loadVideoWithKey("eyJtIjoiR1JUViIsInAiOiI2MSIsInYiOiIyNzczMjc1In0=");</script> <hr />It all started because her previous insurance was one of those health insurance plans that was going to expire in Nevada and not be renewed as of December 31st. <p>“It was a policy so bad that it didn't follow the law,” says Claudia.</p> <p>With the letter from Aetna telling her that policy would no longer be available on December 31st, Lamb got to work signing up for insurance through Nevada's Health Exchange.</p> <p>“Our applications were being denied,” says Claudia.</p> <p>One reason? The exchange told Claudia she and her husband couldn't qualify for the insurance together because Richard is incarcerated.</p> <p>However, he was sitting next to us at the table during the interview.</p> <p>“3 hours 20 minutes, then I was put on hold and at that time the guy came back and I told him my phone was low on power it was actually beeping, he called me back,” says Claudia as she shows us her notebooks loaded with handwritten notations.</p> <p><a href="http://www.kolotv.com/news/northernnevadanews/headlines/Unlinked-From-Nevada-Health-Link-244114531.html" title="http://www.kolotv.com/news/northernnevadanews/headlines/Unlinked-From-Nevada-Health-Link-244114531.html">http://www.kolotv.com/news/northernnevadanews/headlines/Unlinked-From-Nevada-Health-Link-244114531.html</a></p>

Couple Applying for Health Insurance Through Exchange Encounters a Nightmare Due to “Flawed Data” With Husband’s Background Check-Said He Was Incarcerated - One More Attack of the Killer Algorithms Related Back to the Data Selling Epidemic in the US

Here we go again and we come back to the data selling epidemic in the US and you can watch the video and listen to the story yourself.  List...

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CVS Drug Stores Could Face $29 Million in Fines For Losing Track of Prescription Pain Killers At California Stores - Don’t Worry About Tobacco So Much And Go Hunt Down That Missing Vicodin..

<p>This was kind of like I said a few weeks ago about CVS, pay attention to the core business rather than going crazy over tobacco.  This is a good report from the LA Times.  Sure if they want to not sell tobacco <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="187" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-2odgHnz5oRM/Ux7BRyOYX8I/AAAAAAABJkY/3PJ86Xq7Wfg/image%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="246" />products, that’s fine but don’t lose track of the main core business and that’s what appears to have happened at 4 stores in California.  </p> <p>Prescription drugs and tracking is a big issue today for all drug stores.  Last year you can read below where CVS paid $11 million in fines in Oklahoma.  Also last year CVS had the big raid fro the DEA in Florida.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/dea-raids-2-cvs-stores-in-florida-and.html">DEA Raids 2 CVS Stores in Florida and Suspends License of Drug Distributor Cardinal Health–Lots of Oxycodone</a></h5> <p>Drug stores are in the data selling business too and we read about the rivalry with Walgreens quite frequently these days and below is the latest example of getting more data to sell.   See the 60 Minutes <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/60-minutes-blasts-data-sellers-ftc.html">story and video here</a> on data selling and how your prescription data gets out there.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/not-to-be-outdone-by-walgreens-in-data.html">Not To Be Outdone by Walgreens In the Data Selling Business, CVS Pushing a New “My Weekly Ad”, Former White House Healthcare Czar Nancy DeParle Now Sits On Their Board, Discloses Award of 562 Shares..</a></h5> <p>You might also remember the AutoFill situation CVS has in place to where incentives are paid to pharmacists for capturing refills.  In the LA Times report, David Lazarus reported that the pharmacists were required to enroll 40% of patients in this program.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-prescription-auto-refills-still-out.html">The Prescription Auto-Refills Still Out There With CVS and Others as Pay for Performance Efforts Ramp Up at US Corporate Retail Pharmacies To Meet Quotas and Make Those Profit Numbers for the Shareholders</a></h5> <p>I don’t know if bar codes were involved with refills but now you have Walgreens suing both CVS and Rite Aid for patent violations on software.  <a href="http://www.faqs.org/patents/assignee/cvs-pharmacy-inc/">Here’s a page with 3 CVS patents</a>..and they are very strange…one having to do with improved adherence  to medication therapy so if you get your prescription filled at CVS <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="83" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-lBj1cKRIG10/Ux7BSdkKTDI/AAAAAAABJkc/1zN82xh6z04/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" />you could be falling under this “compliance” type of patent:)  <strong>Auto refill cases are still pending.</strong>  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/walgreens-suing-cvs-rite-aid-wants.html">Walgreens Suing CVS, Rite Aid, Wants License and IP Damage Reimbursement, Patent Violations, Software Used For Refilling Prescriptions Via Mobile Phone Scanners…Not Getting Enough Data to Sell?</a></h5> <p>Who cares about tobacco, keep track of the Vicodin in the system and that campaign was more advertising than anything else when it came out.   I guess when you have more serious issues like this you want to what you can to try to keep a clean image.  I’m looking at this from a “risk management” opinion here and I really don’t care if they sell tubas, take care of the core business, please as that’s what I go there for, prescriptions.  Refills on prescriptions  no matter what they are add to the bottom line profits.  BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/cvs-tobacco-announcementgood-marketing.html">CVS Tobacco Announcement–Good Marketing, Good Ethics, Good PR, But What Does It Have To Do With Filling Prescriptions And What Will Replace The Revenue Streams…</a></h5> <p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/consumer-goods-industries/cvs-caremark-corporation-ORCRP004225.topic"> <hr />CVS Caremark Corp.</a> could face as much as $29 million in fines for allegedly losing track of prescription painkillers at four of its California stores, from which authorities said thousands of pills may have been sold on the black market.</p> <p><strong>Officials at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the California Board of Pharmacy told me Monday that more than 37,000 pills were apparently taken from CVS stores in Modesto, Fairfield, Dixon and Turlock.</strong></p> <p>Meanwhile, CVS pharmacists in Southern California said they've been instructed by the drugstore chain to get their paperwork in order so that no other prescription meds are found to be missing.</p> <p><strong>The chain and its Oklahoma subsidiary agreed to pay $11 million last April to avoid civil charges that they failed to keep accurate records of drugs being received from wholesalers and dispensed to customers.</strong> </p> <p>In June,<strong> </strong>the DEA disclosed that Walgreen Co. had agreed to pay $80 million in fines to end a probe into allegations it failed to prevent prescription meds from going astray from some of its Florida stores. It was the largest-ever civil penalty paid under the Controlled Substances Act. </p> <p>CVS is no stranger to official scrutiny. Investigations were launched by the U.S. Department of Justice and officials in California and New Jersey after I <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/05/business/la-fi-lazarus-20121005">reported</a> that pharmacists were refilling customers' prescriptions without their permission.</p> <p>CVS blamed the practice on rogue drugstore managers and insisted that the company's official policy was that customers are always asked before being enrolled in ReadyFill, the chain's refill program.</p> <p>But I subsequently obtained company documents showing that all CVS pharmacists were expected to enroll at least 40% of patients into ReadyFill. Failure to do so, pharmacists told me, could result in reduced compensation or even being fired.</p> <p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20140311,0,1949776.column#ixzz2vdW2D1GX">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20140311,0,1949776.column#ixzz2vdW2D1GX</a></p>

CVS Drug Stores Could Face $29 Million in Fines For Losing Track of Prescription Pain Killers At California Stores - Don’t Worry About Tobacco So Much And Go Hunt Down That Missing Vicodin..

This was kind of like I said a few weeks ago about CVS, pay attention to the core business rather than going crazy over tobacco.  This is a ...

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60 Minutes Blasts The Data Sellers, FTC Admits They Have Lost Control - Time To License and Excise Tax “ALL” Data Sellers, Banks, Companies, Etc. - Congress Needs to Act On This…

<p>If you have read here at the Medical Quack then you know about my 2 year old campaign to at least identify who they are, we have no clue other than the obvious.  I have written to the FTC until I am <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="165" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-siQIgyqLnc8/Ux44ulEt7lI/AAAAAAABJkI/ySB78Dc4dvc/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="249" />blue in the face about this and yet it seems that there’s a real lack of understanding there on how this works.  Everyone works on the “legal verbiage” but the code runs hog ass wild out there.  What action that has come from the FTC has been totally useless.  They don’t get how deep this goes.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/08/ftc-tries-to-bring-strong-case-for.html">FTC Tries to Bring Strong Case for Consumer Protections With Use of Data–But Nothing About Creating IT Infrastructure Path to Allow Regulation–Gov Can’t or Won’t Model?</a></h5> <p>The big company, Axiom denied the opportunity for an interview wit 60 Minutes.  If you read the link below on what happened in the UK, they had everything on these people that someone at Barclays sold out.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/02/barclays-brokers-caught-selling.html">Barclays Brokers Caught Selling Confidential Data of Thousand of Clients–Whistleblower Exposes The Largest Detailed Information Bank Data Breach On Record, Information Included Health Information, Mortgages, Earnings and So On…Kind of Reads Like An Inside Job…</a></h5> <p>Your medications, sure they can get all of this and match it up.  Watch the video as it’s everything you have read here for a few years.  The query monsters are alive and well.  They have been under the radar for years.  The evidence is there if you know where to look.  </p> <iframe height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_Cty7ctycsI" frameborder="0" width="460" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/senator-rockefeller-puts-data-sellers.html">Senator Rockefeller Puts the Data Sellers on Notice–We Need to Index and License All Data Sellers to Include Banks, Insurers And Other Companies In Addition to the Data Brokers..</a></h5> <p>The Senator above had done a “little” in this area.  Here’s a video that folks made to exploit all of this..”Data Dealer” the game.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/data-selling-game-now-exploits-non.html">Data Selling Game Now Exploits the Non Regulated Billion Dollar Epidemic–”data dealer” The Attack of the Killer Algorithms Gamified</a></h5> <p><iframe style="height: 275px; width: 440px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/x2eCAgQ1DTo" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>Companies and banks, selling data…health insurance companies buy your Visa and Master Card data.  When you watch he 60 Minute video, the survey…mining and scraping data for sale, but again if you read here you know that already.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/03/insurance-companies-are-buying-up.html">Insurance Companies Are Buying Up Consumer Spending Data-Time is Here to License and Tax the Data Sellers-As Insurers Sell Tons of Data, Gets Flawed Data When Data Buyers Uses Out of Context Too</a></h5> <p>Look at what’s next in some areas…clinical trial data…</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/12/next-up-in-us-data-selling-epidemic.html">Next Up In The US Data Selling Epidemic- Clinical Trial Data Mining Recruiters Buying From Credits Agencies, Banks And Who Knows Where Else…</a></h5> <p>The show “Disconnect” software and I use it and you can see who’s all there with you, use it on Firefox.  A<img align="right" height="240" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-sEazwu7ZOGE/UrQC1h7qjJI/AAAAAAABI6E/_sRDx8Aki9E/image%25255B20%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="306" />gain this has been going on forever.  60 Minutes even looked at their own site..that was good.  Then they went to the data selling dating site, OK Cupid…they get your IP address and can match that up too.  Here’s another good 60 minute report on how facial recognition can be used to find your data.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/05/licensing-and-excise-taxing-data.html">Licensing and Excise Taxing Data Sellers, Facial Recognition Yet One More Tool Used To Secure & Match Data - The Epidemic, Billions in Profits for Banks and US Corporations Using Killer Algorithms to Further Erode Consumer Privacy</a></h5> <p>It’s all about the Query Monsters if you have ever written SQL queries, you know all about it and re-matching.  Your smart phones are little mini tracking devices.   Here’s yet one more 60 Minute report that was included in my Attack of the Killer Algorithm series, see how all the flaws work and don’t work for you in credit reports and the slip shod processes there. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/02/60-minutes-confirms-super-attacks-of.html">60 minutes Confirms the Super Attacks of the Killer Algorithms With Consumer Credit Information With Flawed Data and the Inability to Algorithmically Fix Errors Which Really Makes a Huge Case for Licensing and Taxing All Data Sellers in the US–Chapter 54</a></h5> <p>Consumers don’t know who tracks…why we need to license.  Senator Rockefeller can’t do anything to regulate until we have the index for all to buy a license.  We regulate drivers this way, doctors, stock brokers, real estate brokers & sellers, you name it.  The one broker tries to stick up for himself but his case is not strong at all, there’s no self regulation.  </p> <p>ALL NEED TO PURCHASE A LICENSE AND PAY EXCISE TAXES ON HUGE PROFITS MADE AS WELL AS HAVING A WEBSITE TO WHERE CONSUMERS CAN LOOK UP WHO SELLS WHAT KIND OF DAT AND TO WHO.  </p> <p>Below is the 60 Minutes Overtime video.  BD  </p> <h6><embed src="http://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsnews_player.swf" scale="noscale" salign="lt" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" background="#000000" width="425" height="279" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="pType=embed&si=254&pid=TXZmynbEKrck&url=http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information" /></embed></h6> <p><i></i></p> <hr />The following script is from "The Data Brokers" which aired on March 9, 2014. Steve Kroft is the correspondent. Graham Messick and Maria Gavrilovic, producers. <p>Over the past six months or so, a huge amount of attention has been paid to government snooping, and the bulk collection and storage of vast amounts of raw data in the name of national security. What most of you don't know, or are just beginning to realize, is that a much greater and more immediate threat to your privacy is coming from thousands of companies you've probably never heard of, in the name of commerce.</p> <p>They're called data brokers, and they are collecting, analyzing and packaging some<img align="right" height="178" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-9yH5tRIAip0/Uc-Kpm6i8LI/AAAAAAABHIc/e2V2CizVTWo/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" width="153" /> of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity...to each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge. Much of this is the kind of harmless consumer marketing that's been going on for decades. What's changed is the volume and nature of the data being mined from the Internet and our mobile devices, and the growth of a multibillion dollar industry that operates in the shadows with virtually no oversight. </p> <p>Companies and marketing firms have been gathering information about customers and potential customers for years, collecting their names and addresses, tracking credit card purchases, and asking them to fill out questionnaires, so they can offer discounts and send catalogues. But today we are giving up more and more private information online without knowing that it's being harvested and personalized and sold to lots of different people...our likes and dislikes, our closest friends, our bad habits, even your daily movements, both on and offline. Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says we have lost control of our most personal information.</p> <p><strong><em>Steve Kroft: What about medications?</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>Tim Sparapani: Certainly. You can buy from any number of data brokers, by malady, the lists of individuals in America who are afflicted with a particular disease or condition.</em></strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information/" title="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information/">http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information/</a></p>

60 Minutes Blasts The Data Sellers, FTC Admits They Have Lost Control - Time To License and Excise Tax “ALL” Data Sellers, Banks, Companies, Etc. - Congress Needs to Act On This…

If you have read here at the Medical Quack then you know about my 2 year old campaign to at least identify who they are, we have no clue oth...

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Mayo Study States “E-Visits” Via Patient Portal Has No Impact on Face To Face Visits, But We Can Stop With the Money Saving Projections For Now Anyway-Humans Still Like Humans And More Work on the Model Might Be A Good Idea

<p>Of course there will be more studies done here but this is good to see a model tested and what came out of it.  You an use the link at the end of this post and read the entire article.  It’s going to take a while longer before we ease into more portal communications for sure according to what we read here.  People are not ready for all of this yet and speaking for myself I still like to see my doctor face to face.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="75" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-vRyp0-uLMyc/Ux4QpQGqy8I/AAAAAAABJj4/XVBU7mycgKo/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="156" /></p> <p>Portals are good for follow up information and reading about diseases, drugs, etc. for sure with having it in one place to reference, no arguments there.  So all those folks who are doing these massive studies on billions going to be saved might want to hold off for a while or move their numbers ahead into the future a bit:)  You really do have to watch what you read today too as we have a lot of “quantitated justification”  news stories and reports that pop up.  As Professor Siefe says in video #1 in my footer “ we are suckers for a math formula and gee if that formula has a square root in it, it must be good even though it could be total bunk”  So be aware…and time for more studies…not even model works as designed, as people don’t work that way, algorithms do but  not us.   BD</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/algorithmic-health-insurance-subsidy.html">Algorithmic Health Insurance Subsidy Calculations in California Need Some Mathematical Adjustments - Models Used In the Real World Don’t Always Play Out As Created With a “Proof of Concept”As Designed…Real People Don’t Work That Way </a></h5> <p> <hr />A recent <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/tmj.2013.0097">Mayo Clinic study </a>reveals secure messages and electronic visits (‘‘e-visits’’) through patient portals had no significant impact on adult primary care face to face visits, iHealthBeat <a href="http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2014/3/4/study-electronic-messaging-has-little-effect-on-inperson-visits">reports</a>.</p> <p>The study found that patients sending the most messages had higher numbers of face to face visit both before and after implementation of messaging; however, the frequency of their visits did not change.</p> <p>The study published in the journal <em><a href="http://www.liebertpub.com/TMJ">Telemedicine and e-Health</a> </em>examined 2,357 primary care patients who used electronic messaging (both secure messages and e-visits) on a patient portal. The cohort comprised all adult primary care patient portal users in Rochester, MN. who also had at least one primary care office visit within the study time interval. Face-to-face appointment frequencies (visits/year) of each patient were calculated before and after the first message in a matched-pairs analysis. The study was approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board.</p> <p><a href="http://hitconsultant.net/2014/03/05/mayo-clinic-study-reveals-patient-portals-little-impact-face-face-visits/?utm_content=buffer1d734&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" title="http://hitconsultant.net/2014/03/05/mayo-clinic-study-reveals-patient-portals-little-impact-face-face-visits/?utm_content=buffer1d734&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">http://hitconsultant.net/2014/03/05/mayo-clinic-study-reveals-patient-portals-little-impact-face-face-visits/?utm_content=buffer1d734&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer</a></p>

Mayo Study States “E-Visits” Via Patient Portal Has No Impact on Face To Face Visits, But We Can Stop With the Money Saving Projections For Now Anyway-Humans Still Like Humans And More Work on the Model Might Be A Good Idea

Of course there will be more studies done here but this is good to see a model tested and what came out of it.  You an use the link at the e...

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Florida Doctor Dropped From HMO After Open Enrollment Leaving Patients to Have to Yet Find Another Doctor - 3rd Party Consultant Algorithm Tells Doctors & Patients You’re Out…

<p>I read this and it’s crap story.  First of all there’s a 3rd party here doing analytics and the doctor was sent a letter, out of the blue with no early warning that he was out.  Again why did this not take place during open enrollment.  It’s time to go back and use data to make someone look “bad” and that’s exactly what occurred here.  The man from the 3rd party says they had complaints that the doctor was turning patients away.   Ok but was he up to a limit to where he had tons of patients?  What about all the seniors he takes care of now, punish them too?  He has 200 patients affected that he was seeing…so no small number.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="196" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-dKCZhxuZqwQ/Ux0UKZDOo3I/AAAAAAABJjo/pCAtbFtUA-U/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="249" /></p> <p>Why did it take place two weeks after open enrollment closed?  The doctor’s group uses that 3rd party to do their analytics and if patients were being turned away did anyone ask the doctor as to why or how many…yes how many were turned away, 1, 2,3 or whatever?  This has been going on with Untied Healthcare in the northeast..same thing, analytics and algorithm says…this is the danger on building a data case after the fact as things are taken out of context.  If you want to learn more about how some of this works, scroll down to my footer and watch video #1, Charlie Siefe from NYU will tell you how some of this happens.  If you don’t get enough with the 4 videos there, <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/">hop on over to the Algo Duping page for more</a>..and don’t expect to take everything in at once but this is my effort to help inform those who want to know what the cause and root of all of this is beyond believing in Fairy tale politicians who believe in the “Algo Fairies”..as most we have in office run for hills when “math” is brought up.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/10/united-healthcare-firing-thousand-of.html">United Healthcare Firing Thousand of Doctors Caring For Medicare Advantage Plan Patients in Connecticut, Florida and Rhode Island-Attack of the Business Intelligence Killer Algorithms…</a></h5> <p><strong>You can use data and analytics to find something wrong with everything and everybody today and it’s being done over and over.  Everyone is trying to protect their profits</strong>.  Below is more information about how the processes work.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.de/2013/12/quantitated-justification-for-believing.html">Quantitated Justification For Believing Things That Are Not True And Using Mathematical Processes To Fool Ourselves-The Journalistic Bot Functionality Debuts As Media Can’t Resist the Formulas… </a></h5> <p>This is all that Obamacare and Health insurance is all about today, one more Attack of the Killer Algorithms.  How can anyone have any confidence on what they bought, what they are going to get as far as care when one new algorithms goes ripping through and changes things in a flash, where’s the ethics here? </p> <p><strong><em>It’s hurting people and you can’t keep shifting people around like cattle!  This is what corporate USA is doing along with analytics that make a case for any unpopular decision that has to be made.</em></strong>  For many years what’s on the computer screen brought us a lot of accuracy and help and that’s still true today but it’s not like it used to be.  So when you look at the answer a query gives you, sniff it and be a skeptic if the context is not relative as it very well may not be. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/obamacare-one-big-attack-of-killer.html">Obamacare - One Big “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” No Matter Which Direction You Turn, Compounded With a Lot of Government and Consumer “Algo Duping”…. </a></h5> <p>I am guessing there will be more stories like this doctor as the analytic roll and people get shifted around like cattle to save a buck.  Again the content in this story as written hides analytics use and I don’t think there’s any real grounds to boot the doctor out as again you can trump up anything to make an excuse to do what you want to do.  Remember too it usually is the 3rd party analytics folks that seem to be the cause of so many security breaches today too with their methodologies that nobody questions.  The patients are all stuck having to change doctors until 2015 open enrollment comes up.  BD</p> <p> <hr />TAMPA — Walter Bennett had one question before signing up for a Medicare HMO plan: Was his doctor of 14 years, Fred Bearison, in its network?</p> <p>Yes, came the answer from Physicians United Plan, a private company that contracts with the government to offer managed care plans to seniors and disabled people. So Bennett, 84, enrolled for 2014. </p> <p>But in January, less than a month after seniors were locked into their Medicare picks for the year, the insurer informed him — and nearly 200 other patients — it was dropping Bearison's Valrico practice from its network.</p> <p><strong>The case also illustrates the instability of some Medicare plans' networks as insurers try to protect their profits amid new financial challenges. Last year during open enrollment,<em> UnitedHealthcare dropped thousands of doctors and a number of prominent hospitals, including H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, from its Medicare plan networks.</em></strong></p> <p>Last year Medicare Advantage was the most profitable line of business for Florida health insurers, which are paid by the federal government based on enrollment. Physicians United Plan, an 8-year-old Winter Park company, had nearly 31,300 enrollees and made $4 million in net revenue last year, according to industry publication <i>Florida Health Market Review</i>.</p> <p>Bearison, a former member of the Florida Board of Medicine, said his office was told only the termination of his contract was "for business reasons."</p> <p>"We just got the letter out of the clear blue sky," he said. "They did not send us one shred of paper that there were complaints against us."</p> <p><a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicare-hmo-plan-drops-popular-doctor-leaving-patients-to-wonder-why/2169198" title="http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicare-hmo-plan-drops-popular-doctor-leaving-patients-to-wonder-why/2169198">http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicare-hmo-plan-drops-popular-doctor-leaving-patients-to-wonder-why/2169198</a></p>

Florida Doctor Dropped From HMO After Open Enrollment Leaving Patients to Have to Yet Find Another Doctor - 3rd Party Consultant Algorithm Tells Doctors & Patients You’re Out…

I read this and it’s crap story.  First of all there’s a 3rd party here doing analytics and the doctor was sent a letter, out of the blue wi...

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