Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Tuesday Tidbits

Following up on Sunday's post, here's a link to an ehrintelligence.com article about a recent American Hospital Association report on the importance of electronic medical (or health) record interoperability.  Specifically,
EHR use also provides the opportunity for enhanced public health reporting. Because patient data is aggregated on one, electronic system, healthcare professionals can track healthcare trends and analyze information about population health. But without adequately interoperable systems, that process is significantly hampered.
No kidding.

Before the exchanges launched in October 2013, the FEHBlog predicted and he was not going out on a limb that the ACA's health insurance co-operatives would wind up being the ACA's Solyndras. This Washington Post article proves that FEHBlog's point.

Speaking of waste created by the ACA, the IRS this week announced that for plan years beginning on or after October 1, 2015 (e.g., FEHB plans) but before October 1, 2016, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute ("PCORI") Fee that the ACA imposed on health plans will be $2.17 per member.  The PCORI is flinging around millions of health plan dollars but where are the results?

Additional tidbits --
  • Business Insurance reports that cyberinsurance premiums are rising but in the FEHBlog's view the coverage is worth the cost.
  • Medpage Today discusses the evolution of urgent care centers here
  • Health Data Management reports on the problems that the ICD-10 is creating for one small family practice, and
  • Drug Channels discusses the prescription drug benefit aspects of a Kaiser report on employer sponsored health plan coverage. 

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