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December, 2003
Volume I, Issue 14
Healthcare News Trends
Will the $395 billion Medicare bill help the IT sector?
Several investment analysts think so. A new investment report
out from W.R. Hambrecht & Co. says the new bill will
spur physician adoption of EMRs. It notes that Medicare payments
to physicians will go up and adds "language in the bill
calls for e-prescribing standards to be developed and potential
funding for physicians who implement such systems."
An article in the December 10 issue of Barron's
Online, "Is
New Bill Right Rx for Hospitals?" quotes another analyst
as saying "As a whole, this law highlights one of the
biggest positive fundamentals for the healthcare services
group - stable government reimbursement."
The article said hospitals will be the biggest single winner,
getting an additional $25 billion in the next 10 years and
notes hospital stocks rose 26% in the weeks prior to passage.
It said the drug benefit could add 3-5% growth to the pharmaceutical
market in 2006 and provide 15 million more members to PBMs.
An article in the December 1 of Health
Data Management Online notes that "several provisions encourage the use of
electronic prescribing technology" and adds that it "permits
Medicare drug plans to pay an additional fee to physicians
who demonstrate they have reduced errors, improved formulary
compliance or reduced adverse drug interactions.The bill
authorizes $50 million in matching grants (for physicians)
in 2007" and undetermined amounts in future years.
Another big winner is the conference industry. In the past
month, I've received notices for six new conferences explaining
various aspects of the new bill.
PR Workshop
While The Medicare bill generated tons of news media coverage,
relatively little hard news or commentary was generated as
the result of corporate PR efforts. A check of PRNewswire
and BusinessWire showed that more than 300 news releases
were issued in the last 30 days with "Medicare" in
the headline. Many were by advocacy groups, for and against
the bill. Most of those never got picked up because they
had little new information of interest to local papers.
One PR effort that did achieve some success was made by
the Congressional Republican caucus. They supplied each of
their members with a 750-word commentary article that spelled
out the impact within their district.
For example, an article by Rep. Henry Brown, Jr. ran in
the Charleston Post and Courier's editorial page. It noted
that "hospitals throughout the 1st District will see
an increase of $105 million rather than a cut of $44 million."
It went on to include a number of other regional statistics
including new funding for specific local hospitals and the
fact that the state government will save "$356 million
over eight years" because of the bill.
When submitting a guest commentary article to a local daily
or business journal, a local angle and detailed statistics
are very important. Including them can make the difference
between going into the paper or going into the round file.
Industry Insight
"EMR sales will blow past practice management system
revenue. Driven by Medicare, health plan and employer demands
for error reduction, quality improvement and cost containment,
clinical software has become the next hot app for healthcare
providers. 2004 will mark the shift of IT attention from
back office to exam room as software and service revenue
to EMR vendors crosses the billion-dollar mark and eclipses
practice management system (PMS) sales.
"Health plans will boost site usability with natural
language search. ...In 2004, Forrester predicts that ...UnitedHealthcare,
Oxford and Aetna...will implement natural language search
tools from vendors like Verity and Autonomy.
"Disease management will hitch a ride on real-time
eligibility checks. As the impact of HIPAA transactions permeates
the infrastructure, providers will enjoy amore real-time
connection for transactions like referrals, claims submission
and electronic remittance....In 2004, vendors like NaviMedix
and WebMD will add copay levels and deductibles to these
transmissions to help collect the right fees at the point
of care...
>From "Forrester's Top 10 Healthcare Predictions
For 2004," by analyst Eric Brown. Available at no cost
at Forrester's site under "Research Topics: Healthcare."
Resources
What are the most dangerous abbreviations in medicine?
JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)
has compiled a list of dangerous abbreviations, acronyms,
and symbols as part of its National Patient Safety Goals
for 2004. JCAHO has recently mandated that each accredited
organization must include these abbreviations on their "Do
Not Use" list beginning on January 1, 2004.
The commission said that until Dec. 31, 2004, the survey
and scoring of this new requirement will be limited to all
handwritten patient-specific documentation, including orders.
Beginning on January 1, 2005, the scoring will be expanded
to include preprinted forms, software, and electronic media.
Among the top five most dangerous abbreviations are:
-- U (for unit). It can be mistaken for zero or cc. Write "unit'
instead.
-- Q.D. and Q.O.D. They can be mistaken for each other. Write "daily" and "every
other day" instead.
-- Lack of leading zero (.X mg). The decimal point can be
missed. Never write a zero by itself after a decimal point
(X mg), and always use a zero before a decimal point (0.X
mg).
For more information about the Patient Safety Program and
a complete list of dangerous abbreviations, see JCAHO's
site.
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