For overseas readers, this Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. That means family and friends will gather from far and wide to eat far too much, watch a lot of football and perhaps argue politics before passing out in a tryptophan-induced stupor. But you really have to feel for those whose points of contention include health IT.
Over at HealthITAnalytics.com, Jennifer Bresnick imagines a nightmare scenario: Thanksgiving with a table full of healthcare professionals who want to bicker over the future of Meaningful Use, health IT interoperability and accountable care.
I’d say it’s better than fighting about the Affordable Care Act, but — surprise — accountable care actually is part of the ACA. (Hey, maybe that’s a good point of discussion, that the ACA is about a lot more than just insurance exchanges. In a pleasant surprise, a mainstream publication, the Wall Street Journal on Monday noted this in an interview with Leslie Dach, a senior counselor to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.)
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
But to answer Bresnick’s questions: Yes, Meaningful Use Stage 3 seems destined to fail, given all the pushback, though the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) promises to supersede it; The health IT vendor community can’t deliver on its promises because vendors really haven’t been forced to yet, either by customers or regulators; and value-based reimbursement had better be worth it because fee-for-service has gotten U.S. healthcare into the current mess.
Hopefully, your Thanksgiving will be peaceful and festive. But if all else fails, maybe it’s Adele time.
Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net user hyena reality
BioLabs Pegasus Park Cultivates Life Science Ecosystem
Gabby Everett, the site director for BioLabs Pegasus Park, offered a tour of the space and shared some examples of why early-stage life science companies should choose North Texas.
