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Category Archives: Health Care

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Upgrades Teradata Integrated Data Warehouse to Power Analytics for Healthcare Reform

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BOSTON, May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC), a full-service health benefits company headquartered near Boston has expanded its integrated data warehouse (IDW), Teradata (TDC) announced today. This upgrade supports their analytics access to increasing volumes of detail data to fuel improved consumer engagement, cost containment, and a new level of data transparency with both providers and patients.

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Business users at HPHC access the Teradata data warehouse to analyze terabytes of integrated detail data spanning claims, encounters, members and providers. Using this powerful data asset, they take steps to improve the overall consumer experience, improve the quality of patient care, identify gaps in care and take actions to reduce per capita cost of care.

Harvard Pilgrim has almost 1.2 million members, and a growing network of over 135 hospitals and 28,000 doctors and clinicians. They have been a Teradata customer for over ten years.

"The Affordable Care Act opens the door for us to add members via Health Insurance Exchanges, starting later this year. Our new Teradata platform provides the analytics foundation to help us confidently move into the retail healthcare insurance market," said Ralph Miller, Director of Corporate Information Management, HPHC. "We recently formed a new medical informatics group to spearhead analytics projects that include understanding bundled payments, partnering more closely with providers and creating new wellness programs for our members. This growth in both data and the demand for information is substantial, and Teradata is positioned at the core of our data management and analytics infrastructure."

"Harvard Pilgrim Health Care continues to be a leader in leveraging its growing detailed information assets to produce ever-higher quality of insight and care across its extended community," said John Burke, Teradata industry vice president for financial services, insurance and healthcare. "We recognize the outstanding innovation and operational achievements of the HPHC Information Management team for its effective use of analytic intelligence to meet and exceed the goals of the business."

Teradata's momentum continues in the health care industry as companies invest in high performance data analytics to help them make the best decision possible in the midst of cost pressures, competition forces and market changes driven by health reform.

Teradata's health care customers include BKK (Germany), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CHRISTUS Health, Centene, Express Scripts Inc., BCBS of Tennessee, Aurora, Highmark, BCBS of North Carolina, INPS (Italy), Medibank Private (Australia), and many others.

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Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Upgrades Teradata Integrated Data Warehouse to Power Analytics for Healthcare Reform

New health care model centers on the patient

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Lovelace and Atrinea Health have partnered to bring a new model for health care to Rio Rancho.

Thats according to Dr. John Cruickshank, the chief medical officer for Lovelace Health System. The model is called patient-centered medical home.

The Rio Rancho primary care clinic is owned and operated by Atrinea, which employs all the clinics health care providers including four primary care doctors who coordinate patient care and is exclusively for Lovelace Health Plan members.

What is different about the medical home model is that the physicians goal is simply to identify and treat common illnesses before illness can progress and before those illnesses get really, really expensive.

It seems simple enough, but its easier said than done.

The Rio Rancho clinic recently held a ribbon cutting, where Cruickshank and several others who are involved in the clinic spoke about the virtues of the new health care model. Cruickshank said the medical home model isnt really new, but it is new to New Mexico.

There have been many places around the country where this concept has taken hold and physicians and organizations have embraced the model, he said.

To help prevent or limit the severity of illnesses, physicians test for common illnesses according to the patients age, sex, weight and an assortment of other health indicators. Knowing about potential illnesses before they get too severe is key, Cruickshank said. But connecting patients to the appropriate tests and treatments that will keep them healthy takes a lot of work, he said.

As part of the partnership, Lovelace works with clinics like the one in Rio Rancho to keep tabs on patients and make sure they are making their appointments, according to Dr. John Iacuone, chief medical officer for the Lovelace Health Plan.

He said Lovelace has invested significant dollars in software that help the clinic keep track of what patients are billed for and shares that information with the clinic.

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New health care model centers on the patient

Health care costs decline for retired couples – Sun, 19 May 2013 PST

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After years of increasing health care costs, the outlook is improving for seniors worried about paying their medical bills duringretirement.

For the second time in the last three years, estimated medical expenses for new retirees have fallen, according to a study released Wednesday by Fidelity Investments. A 65-year-old couple retiring this year would need $220,000 on average to cover medical expenses, an 8 percent decrease from last years estimate of $240,000. The study assumes a life expectancy of 85 for women and 82 formen.

Fidelity attributes this years decrease to several factors, including a

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After years of increasing health care costs, the outlook is improving for seniors worried about paying their medical bills duringretirement.

For the second time in the last three years, estimated medical expenses for new retirees have fallen, according to a study released Wednesday by Fidelity Investments. A 65-year-old couple retiring this year would need $220,000 on average to cover medical expenses, an 8 percent decrease from last years estimate of $240,000. The study assumes a life expectancy of 85 for women and 82 formen.

Fidelity attributes this years decrease to several factors, including a slowdown in health care spending that hasnt rebounded with theeconomy.

When times are tough, people tend to cut back on health care expenditures, said Sunil Patel, a senior vice president for benefits consulting at Fidelity. I think what surprised many people is that in recent years, even as the economy recovered, youve still seen a fairly significantslowdown.

Although fewer doctors visits can help seniors save money, Patel stressed that skipping necessary care can lead to more serious health problems and higher expenses down theroad.

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Health care costs decline for retired couples - Sun, 19 May 2013 PST

Health care workers sickened by SARS-like virus

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NEW YORK (AP) In a story May 15 about a new SARS-like virus spreading from patients to health care workers in Saudi Arabia, The Associated Press reported erroneously the location of the 20 deaths attributed to the virus. There have been no deaths reported in France and Qatar, only in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany and Britain.

The story also said that the spread to health care workers was new. Health workers were previously infected in a cluster in Jordan before the new coronavirus had been identified.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Saudi health workers sickened by SARS-like virus

2 Saudi Arabia health care workers get SARS-like virus; officials consider naming it MERS

By MIKE STOBBE

AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) A deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS has apparently spread from patients to health care workers in eastern Saudi Arabia, health officials said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia told world health officials that two health care workers became ill this month after being exposed to patients with the virus. One is critically ill.

Since September 2012, the World Health Organization has been informed of 40 confirmed cases of the virus, and 20 of the patients have died. The deaths occurred in Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

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Health care workers sickened by SARS-like virus

Technology to Trim America's Health Care Fat

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Want to talk about the obesity epidemic that doesn't get as much press as Mayor Michael Bloomberg's supersized soft drink ban? It's the bloated waistline, and bottom line, of the health care industry itself.

Spending on health care now running at roughly $3 trillion per year -- is on its way to 34 percent of GDP by 2040, according to the federal government.

Here's a few more eye-opening ways to examine GDP and the health care system: the government contends that cutting into health care costs by just 1.5 percent would increase real GDP by over 2 percent in 2020 and nearly 8 percent in 2030. It also claims that as much as 30 percent of health care costs (or about 5 percent of GDP) could be saved without compromising health outcomes.

Health care has been a pretty bad investment. All that money into the system isn't improving our health or the patient experience. We may be living longer than ever before, but we aren't getting collectively better at a reasonable price. The percentage of personal bankruptcies with a medical cause? Sixty-two percent, according to a study by Harvard University researchers.

Sounds like disruption is just what the doctor ordered.

The five health care companies on the inaugural CNBC Disruptor 50 List are: 23andMe, Audax Health, Castlight Health, Ginger.io, and ZocDoc.

Ironically, some of the health care companies being disrupted are now prescribing disruption to their own patients. And that's not as unhealthy as it may seem.

As the CEO of Audax Health, Grant Verstandig, told CNBC, health care companies know that between the Affordable Care Act and the pressure from startups like his--whose businesses are being fostered by technological leaps--the competitive landscape is changing, and not in the favor of a wasteful, overpriced health care market. Prices are going to come down, and companies that want to be health care survivor stories will have to do a better job of competing.

That's why companies like Aetna and Cigna have top executives on the board of Audax Health, and why Cardinal Health is a client. These companies want to be the health care sector leaders that eventually get a larger share of the market through more competitive offerings. The lazy incumbents with legacy revenue streams who don't adapttypical of a disrupted companywill be forced out of the market, as consumers are provided more and better information.

As with many disruptive innovations driven by technology, the biggest force for change in health care is you, the passive health care system participant.

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Technology to Trim America's Health Care Fat

Wisconsin surgeon indicted on health care fraud counts

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MADISON A federal grand jury has indicted a Milwaukee spinal surgeon on 13 counts of federal health care fraud.

Dr. Cully White, 44, faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 on each count if hes convicted.

According to the indictment, White was the owner and operator of a Milwaukee-based neurosurgery business. In October 2010 he recruited another doctor identified only as K.B. to prepare reports showing K.B. had conducted nerve monitoring during Whites surgeries. White agreed to pay K.B. $150 for each report.

K.B. had no training or experience in performing nerve monitoring and never conducted any monitoring during Whites procedures but still prepared reports, the indictment said. Still, White submitted claims to insurance companies totaling more than $265,000 for K.B.s services based on the fraudulent reports. He received $82,000 and paid K.B. $14,250, prosecutors said in a statement.

The grand jury returned the indictment in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Prosecutors announced the charges Thursday.

White is scheduled to appear at an arraignment in federal court in Milwaukee on Thursday.

Online court records list Whites attorneys as Sean Bosack and Dennis Coffey. Bosack declined comment Friday, saying he is withdrawing as Whites attorney because White has chosen to go with Coffey.

Coffey didnt immediate return a message.

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Wisconsin surgeon indicted on health care fraud counts

Surgeon indicted on health care fraud counts

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MADISON A federal grand jury has indicted a Milwaukee spinal surgeon on 13 counts of federal health care fraud.

Dr. Cully White, 44, faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 on each count if hes convicted.

According to the indictment, White was the owner and operator of a Milwaukee-based neurosurgery business. In October 2010 he recruited another doctor identified only as K.B. to prepare reports showing K.B. had conducted nerve monitoring during Whites surgeries. White agreed to pay K.B. $150 for each report.

K.B. had no training or experience in performing nerve monitoring and never conducted any monitoring during Whites procedures but still prepared reports, the indictment said. Still, White submitted claims to insurance companies totaling more than $265,000 for K.B.s services based on the fraudulent reports. He received $82,000 and paid K.B. $14,250, prosecutors said in a statement.

The grand jury returned the indictment in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Prosecutors announced the charges Thursday.

White is scheduled to appear at an arraignment in federal court in Milwaukee on Thursday.

Court records list Whites attorneys as Sean Bosack and Dennis Coffey. Bosack declined comment Friday, saying he is withdrawing as Whites attorney because White has chosen to go with Coffey. Coffey didnt immediate return a message.

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Surgeon indicted on health care fraud counts

GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will ensnare their biggest target: President Barack Obama's health care law.

But no one appears to have connected the factual dots yet, and it's unclear whether they will.

The Internal Revenue Service has a major role in carrying out the health care law, because financial assistance to help the uninsured afford coverage will be funneled through the tax system. At the same time, the IRS is also responsible for penalties on individuals and employers who fail to comply with the law's requirements.

In the latest twist, it turns out that the former head of the office that subjected tea-party groups seeking tax exemptions to tougher scrutiny is now running the tax agency's division in charge of implementing the health care law.

That official apparently switched roles before internal alarm bells went off about the problem. But feed all that into today's frenzied world of online speculation, and red-meat associations are irresistible.

"Now we've learned that the IRS, which is tasked with enforcing this very unpopular bill of Obamacare, the IRS admitted they targeted Americans," Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said during floor debate this week on repealing the health care law.

"And so this gargantuan government expansion known as Obamacare will allow bureaucrats access to our most intimate, personal health information," she added. "It will be a huge database that government is putting together and building right now. Under Obamacare, the average American will pay more, they'll get less, and now they have to worry that their government may punish them because of their beliefs."

Nonsense, says Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the IRS.

"There really isn't a tie," said Levin. "This is another effort by the Republicans to essentially try to score political points."

The head of the IRS health care office, Sarah Hall Ingram, was in charge of the tax exempt division when agents first started improperly targeting conservative groups over their applications for tax-exempt status. The fallout has already led to the ouster of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, followed by the announcement that the current head of the division will retire.

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GOP hopes IRS scandal will snag health care law

EQuiP Equity Conference: Christos Lionis – The crisis and the equity of health care (Greece) – Video

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EQuiP Equity Conference: Christos Lionis - The crisis and the equity of health care (Greece)
The main focus and theme of the meeting in Paris was "Equity as a Dimension of Quality in Primary Care". Huge variation exists in the care that patients with...

By: EQuiP2011

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EQuiP Equity Conference: Christos Lionis - The crisis and the equity of health care (Greece) - Video

Novel Coronavirus Infects Two Health Care Workers

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WHO: SARS-like Virus Infects Health Care Workers After Exposure to Patients

Two health care workers have been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a World Health Organization update released Wednesday. These two incidents mark the first times health care workers have been diagnosed with nCoV after exposure to patients. In its update, WHO urges health care facilities to continue taking measures to decrease risk of virus transmission through both workers and patients, and to practice the "systematic implementation of infection prevention and control." Additionally, health care providers must remain alert to patients with acute respiratory infections especially those who had recently travelled to areas affected by the virus.

The two infected health care workers are a man, age 45, who became ill on May 2 and is in critical condition, and a woman, age 43, who became ill on May 8 and is in stable condition. Since September 2012, WHO reports 40 confirmed cases of nCoV human infections, including 20 deaths spread among six countries.

Diet Changes That Might Cut Breast Cancer Risk

By now, we all know that Angelina Jolie quietly underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a genetic mutation that sharply increased her risk of breast cancer. Women with a faulty BRCA1 gene typically have a 45 to 90 percent risk of getting breast cancer during their life, compared to a 12 percent risk for the average woman. "My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent," Jolie wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday. "I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."

Jolie's surprise announcement shines a spotlight on breast cancer and women's health, bringing intense public attention to issues like prevention and treatment. While her condition is rare mutations in BRCA1 and another gene, BRCA2, only cause 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers in the United States all women can take steps to protect themselves against the disease. While you can't do anything about the genes you were born with, committing to a sound diet can help protect against breast cancer. "Researchers estimate that in the U.S., we can prevent about 38 percent of breast cancers with some basic healthy steps," says registered dietitian Karen Collins, a nutrition advisor for the American Institute for Cancer Research. "We can make a difference without doing anything extreme."

While no food or dietary approach can flat-out prevent breast cancer, the risk of developing the disease could be reduced. Here's a roundup of findings. [Read more: Diet Changes That Might Cut Breast Cancer Risk]

Mastering Food Obsession

I was privileged last week to join Mika Brzezinski, along with her co-host Joe Scarborough, on MSNBC's Morning Joe program, to talk about Mika's new book, "Obsessed," writes U.S. News blogger David Katz. I am further privileged to appear throughout the book, in very good company, apparently as something of a vicarious consigliore. Mika and I met face-to-face for the first time on the set of the show.

Mika's book is all about food obsession. But more particularly, it is about the intensely personal side of food obsession. Mika tells her own story, and her struggle to maintain the perfect, slender, on-air appearance for which she is known.

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Novel Coronavirus Infects Two Health Care Workers

Health care workers sickened by new virus

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By Ashley Hayes, CNN

updated 6:44 AM EDT, Thu May 16, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Two health care workers in Saudi Arabia were sickened while treating patients with a dangerous new virus, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The health care workers were exposed to patients with the novel coronavirus, or nCoV, the WHO said in a statement Wednesday. One is a 45-year-old man who is currently in critical condition after becoming ill May 2, and the second is a 43-year-old woman who became ill on May 8 and is in stable condition. The woman has a co-existing health condition, the organization said.

"Although health care associated transmission has been observed before with nCoV (in Jordan in April 2012), this is the first time health care workers have been diagnosed with nCoV infection after exposure to patients," according to the WHO.

Experts: New SARS-like virus could show up in US

"Health care facilities that provide care for patients with suspected nCoV infection should take appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to other patients and health care workers."

NCoV was recently found for the first time in humans, and cases have occurred across parts of the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia.

As of Wednesday, the organization said it had been informed of 40 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with nCoV worldwide since last September. Twenty people in six countries -- France, Germany, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom -- have died.

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Health care workers sickened by new virus


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