Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of healthcare:
Is America’s EMR plan doomed to fail? While the idea of every doctor in the country using technology to become a better and more-efficient caregiver is mighty attractive (and possibly wishful thinking), it looks like getting close to that point is going to be very ugly. Standards for federal grants that help defray doctors’ cost of technology investment are “so strict and so ambitious that hardly any doctors or hospitals can meet them,” many insiders believe. Given that EMR software currently on the market is frequently derided by doctors as being clunky and outdated, one has to wonder whether widespread EMR adoption by small-practice docs is likely to happen in our lifetimes.
How one doctor view patients: Sermo CEO Dan Palestrant gives a bit of red meat to his doctor colleagues with a blog post that berates Mr. and Mrs. Average American for unhealthy lifestyles, unrealistic expectations and irresponsibility. Alas, the post makes Palestrant appear more of an exasperated, petty, arrogant and condescending father figure. Many doctors will love it, but such a diatribe only reinforces negative stereotypes of physicians. Far better is a comment by Margalit Gur-Arie addressed to Palestrant: “You cannot purport yourself to be a member of a noble, selfless and caring profession, while engaging in offensive and callous monologues aimed at ensuring your income level is preserved while Mr.& Mrs. America are quickly sliding into abject poverty.”
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The best health reform politics would allow: A new study claims that if the goal of health reform was to cover the most people at the lowest cost, the bill that was passed was the best option that was also politically feasible.
Stretched thin at the FDA: A new report says the FDA is stretched thin, too often reactive and not focused enough on prevention, leaving it without the vision necessary to keep the nation’s food supply safe. To remedy the problem, the authors recommend a centralized, independent “risk-based analysis and data management center” free from political forces that could conduct rapid assessments of food safety risks and make policy recommendations.
Whither Buckeye Surgeon? Buckeye Surgeon roars back to the blogosphere with an excellent, contemplative post (before it slips into a kid-in-the-newfallen-snow metaphor at the end) on the nature of medical blogging, and physician blogging in particular, that’s a must-read for any fan of the genre. “To write about a meaningful patient encounter is to cheapen it somehow,” he writes. “And I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the exploitative, self-aggrandizing solipsism inherent in writing about patients.”
Dry pipeline: The Atlantic takes a look at much-discussed topic in Pharma circles–the lack of new drug innovations. The article finds the popular conservative narrative (Too much regulation!) and liberal explanation (Too much corporate greed!) lacking. “What if creating new drugs is just getting harder and harder?” the author asks.
The Healthcare Payments Industry Has a Perception Problem
Healthcare payments are no longer about transactions. It’s about controlling the revenue cycle. And increasingly, that control is not sitting with ISOs.
Overtreatment goes mainstream? As GoozNews points out, the Associated Press has published a couple worthwhile articles about the concept of overtreatment, a general overview and a look at the cost-inflating trend it relates to back pain.
Photo from flickr user BlatantNews.com