Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare:
What to repeal; that is the question. Like other reform supporters, John McDonough believes that the more people know about what’s in federal health reform law, the less they will want to see it struck from the books, regardless of which political party emerges as leader in next week’s mid-term election, according to Kaiser Health News.
Are seed valuations really rising? Wisconsin is awash in angel investment. Minnesota is encouraging the investments with a new tax credit. But new data from the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research found that angel investors put much less money into startups during the first half of 2010 than they did in 2009, according to VentureBeat.
Portable scanner detects tumors in seconds. The University of Manchester’s Zhipeng Wu has invented a portable scanner based on radio frequency technology that can identify breast cancer tumors in seconds, compared to a few minutes by stationary equipment in hospitals or imaging centers.
Phenomix calls it quits. After burning through $165 million in eight years in pursuit of a new diabetes drug, San Diego-based Phenomix is calling it quits because it can’t find another pharmaceutical partner (Forest Labs walked away in April) to pay the company’s clinical trial bills, according to Xconomy San Diego.
ACOs no panacea. Changing payment mechanisms and care delivery structures alone won’t create successful accountable care organizations, according to a new report, ModernHealthcare reports. Meanwhile, an America’s Health Insurance Plans white paper says an ACO should cover no more than 20 percent of providers in its market, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
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.
Co-pays start to disappear. Co-payments for a host of preventive services like cholesterol screenings, which typically cost at least $20, will disappear starting Jan. 1 for most workers, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to the Chicago Tribune.