Were looking for entrepreneurs with a healthy disregard for the impossible, said the managing partner of Google's

Bill Maris | Twitter

Google Ventures' Bill Maris a startup veteran, who founded and sold a web hosting company knows the challenges entrepreneurs face.

His challenge: Help the fund invest $200 million a year in startups. That works out to about one to two investments a week.

For Maris, who's also a neuroscientist, health care is a good place to look; seven of the 130 plus startups listed in its portfolio are focused on life sciences.

And clearly the Google Ventures team has an eye for talent. Shinya Yamanaka, who pioneered the intellectual property behind Google Ventures portfolio company iPerian (and now serves on the startups board), was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his groundbreaking stem cell research.

As part of CNBC's Healthy Week special report, we asked Maris to talk about the power of funding big ideas to change the practice of medicine. (See exclusive web video below.)

How are you changing the way venture Capitalism is done?

We've really taken a radically different approach to venture capital than has been seen before. We built a venture fund from the ground up, which is a pretty rare thing these days. And we hired a team of entrepreneurs and engineers and people who have built significant companies in the past and decided that we should focus our efforts on being hands on, helping them solve the kinds of problems that we faced as entrepreneurs just a few years ago.

We're measured by financial return, like all venture capitalists are, and probably should be. But we do have a larger goal, which is to invest in and support the most disruptive, interesting entrepreneurs in the world that are really looking to make a big change for the better in the way we live our lives.

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Health Care Needs More Entrepreneurs and Innovation: Google Ventures Head

Always Best Care shares an important report from Society of Certified Senior Advisors to provide information about the effects of health care reform legislation for seniors.

Roseville, CA (PRWEB) October 12, 2012

The new health care reform bill officially, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" includes a variety of provisions that impact individuals, businesses, insurance companies, health care providers and the government. While some of the provisions have already taken place, many will be phased in over the next six years. It's important to understand the approaching provisions and what they mean for seniors. Areas that will be most affected may include taxes, adjustments in existing health care coverage, access to health care coverage, access to information and requirements of employers.

Seniors are the focus of major portions of the bill, including Medicare benefits, Medicare Part D drug coverage, and the Elder Justice Act. The Society of Certified Senior Advisors has assembled a white paper to provide factual and helpful information about the effects of health care reform legislation for seniors. Always Best Care is proud to share this important report.

Always Best Care is one of the nations leading providers of non-medical in-home care, assisted living placement services and skilled home health care. The company delivers its services through an international network of more than 200 independently owned and operated franchises and area representative offices. Always Best Care has assisted over 25,000 seniors, representing a wide range of illnesses and personal needs.

To download a free copy of this important report, please visit http://www.alwaysbestcare.info/HCR.pdf

To find the closest Always Best Care office, please visit http://www.AlwaysBestCare.com, and click on Locations in the top menu bar.

Contact Us Always Best Care 1-(855)-470-2273 Email Information

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Special Report: How Health Care Reform Affects Seniors

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Healogics, Inc., the nations largest provider of advanced wound care services, announced today the acquisition of Nautilus Health Care Group of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Healogics, and its affiliated companies, partner with hospitals to manage over 500 outpatient Wound Care Centers nationwide. Nautilus Health Care Group and its 30 physicians and nurse practitioners provide wound care services to patients throughout the care continuum, including outpatient Wound Care Centers, hospital inpatient programs and to residents of skilled nursing and long term care facilities. Nautilus is primarily focused in the state of Florida with additional operations in Indiana.

Jeffrey W. Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of Healogics, announced the acquisition saying, This partnership accelerates our growth beyond our core hospital outpatient market. Expanding our footprint to other care venues brings us one step closer to our goal of advancing wound healing everywhere we can, for every patient who would benefit, by the best means available. Mr. Nelson goes on to say, We evaluated a number of companies for potential acquisition. Due to their commitment to clinical excellence and quality patient care, Nautilus was the obvious choice. We are thrilled to welcome them to the Healogics team.

In addition to expanding Healogics wound care expertise into the post-acute market, this acquisition will allow Healogics to further strengthen its outpatient Wound Care Centers through enhanced support from specially trained wound care physicians.

Christopher Morrison, MD, founder and CEO of Nautilus Health Care Group said, We are excited to become part of the Healogics network. As the recognized leader in the industry, Healogics will help us to better serve our current customers and expand our model beyond our current market. Together, we will continue to build awareness of the chronic wound epidemic that affects millions of people. Our combined teams will focus on clinical excellence and outstanding outcomes while finding new ways to reach more patients with chronic wounds.

An aging population, combined with the rise in diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, creates a $14 billion global wound care industry. The demand for specialized wound care services is rapidly growing, said Nelson. The current patient population is underserved by existing wound care programs. Less than 1 in 7 patients who have non-healing chronic wounds are treated in venues where they receive specialized wound care services.

About Healogics, Inc.

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Healogics is the nations largest provider of advanced wound care services. Healogics and its affiliated companies manage more than 500 Wound Care Centers in the nation and see nearly 200,000 patients per year through a connected network of centers, partner hospitals, academic medical centers, patients and families. Leveraging its scale and experience, Healogics utilizes an evidence-based systematic approach to chronic wound healing in treating an underserved and growing patient population. For more information, please visit http://www.healogics.com or to find a Wound Care Center near you, please call 1-800-373-HEAL (4325).

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Healogics, Inc. Acquires Nautilus Health Care Group

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Oct 12, 2012) - Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) has been presented with the 2012 Mayoral Prize for Innovations in Pulmonary Care from the city of Boston, MA. HCWH was honored for its work to foster healthier food and workplace environments in Boston area hospitals.The presentation was made on October 12 by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who was joined by Dr. Paula Johnson, chair of the board of the Boston Public Health Commission, to present awards to HCWH and two other recipients.Now in its third year, the award raises awareness about best practices for improving the delivery of primary care services in healthcare, community-based, and workplace settings.

"Some of Boston's greatest assets are our world-renowned health care institutions.Part of being a leader means highlighting the great work that goes on in our city as a model for others to see," Mayor Menino said."I'm constantly impressed by the innovative work that organizations of all sizes are able to accomplish, and this year's winners champion that spirit of ingenuity.These awards strive to show that prevention is primary care, whether it's in the doctor's office, the workplace, or the community."

Health Care Without Harm was honored for its Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI), that focuses in part on improving the food and beverage environment within hospitals, places that touch hundreds of thousands of lives in Boston every year.All major teaching hospitals in the city joined a Healthy Beverage Learning Network in 2010 that was co-led by Health Care Without Harm.Just two years later, all ten of these hospitals have made progress toward increasing consumption of healthier beverages by hospital staff, patients, and visitors.The initiative is now being scaled nationwide, as hundreds of hospitals and food service contractors have begun to view food production and distribution through the lens of preventative medicine by support sustainable agriculture in the communities that it serves.

"In order to reverse the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in America, we need the healthcare sector to lead by example and create healthy food environments for patients and employees," stated Gary Cohen, president of Health Care Without Harm."Additionally, health care has an important economic engine and can leverage its enormous purchasing power to support sustainable agriculture in the communities that it serves. We need to move beyond treating sick people and demonstrate the path to helping people stay healthy."

Along with two other NGOs and 11 major U.S. health care systems, HCWH established HHI to help speed the progress of the health care sector toward sustainability. HHI recently introduced a series of Challenges for hospitals to undertake, and provided guidance and measurement systems to achieve the challenges.One of those challenges is Healthier Food, which asks hospitals to engage in a variety of initiatives to develop sustainable, healthy food programs within their facilities. Since the Challenge program was launched in April of this year, 150 hospitals have signed up for the Healthier Food challenge.

Today's event, held at the historic Boston Public Library in Copley Square, featured Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby as keynote speaker.It was sponsored by the Boston University School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School's Center for Primary Care, and Harvard University School of Public Health.

Health Care Without Harm is an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, working to transform the health care industry worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. More than 400 hospitals have signed the HCWH Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge, committing to the development of healthy and sustainable food service operations in their facilities. For more information on HCWH, see http://www.noharm.org.

Visit the HCWH Healthy Food in Health Care Program Enroll or find out more about the HHI Food Challenge Learn more about previous winners of the Mayoral Prize in Primary Care

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Boston Honors Health Care Without Harm With 2012 Mayoral Prize in Primary Care

THURSDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Health care is now the second most important issue in the presidential election, topped only by concerns about the economy, according to a study that analyzed 37 national opinion polls.

That's the highest health care has ranked as a presidential election issue since 1992, according to the researchers.

The study also found that voters who consider health care the top issue are more likely to side with President Barack Obama over challenger Mitt Romney on the Affordable Care Act and Medicare.

The analysis of survey data, conducted by 17 different organizations, revealed that 20 percent of respondents said health care/Medicare was the most important issue in their 2012 voting choice. The economy and jobs was first, at 51 percent.

Voters who said health care/Medicare was the most important issue were much more supportive of the Affordable Care Act than the general public. Forty-one percent of such voters said they were much less likely to vote for a candidate who would repeal all or part of the act, while 14 percent said they were much more likely to vote for such a candidate.

An average of current polls shows that about 44 percent of people support the act and 45 percent oppose it.

The study also found that 27 percent of people support and 66 percent oppose changing Medicare to provide seniors with a fixed amount of money they could use to buy either private health insurance or Medicare coverage.

Among voters who said health care/Medicare is the most important issue, 39 percent said they were much less likely to vote for a candidate who supported such a change in Medicare, and 11 percent said they were much more likely to vote for such a candidate.

The study was published online Oct. 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The economy dominates most voters' thinking in terms of their priorities for choosing a candidate," study co-author Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said in a school news release. "But in a close election, the two candidates' stands on health care issues could help swing the balance among some voters."

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Health Care Is No. 2 Concern on Voters' Minds

10-10-2012 18:32 State officials are meeting with healthcare providers to prepare for the implementation of a new health care overhaul law designed to bring healthcare costs down. The Patrick administration says in the coming months patients will see their health insurance premiums go down and the quality of their healthcare go up.

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Health care law close to implementation - Video

11-10-2012 12:12 Stephanie asks Current's Jacki Schechner if Romney is just being "willfully ignorant" about health care. She tells Stephanie she likes the caller who says there is a serious psychological issue here with Romney. Jacki says, "It doesn't make sense that this is the guy who fought for health care in his state now says people should go to the emergency room to get treatment." Every weekday morning on Current TV at 9e/6p

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Jacki Schechner examines Romney's 'rich man's perspective' on health care - Video

MARY PEREZ/SUN HERALD Gulfport Police Chief Alan Weatherford, standing second from right, asked state legislators Thursday to pass legislation requiring interlocking ignition for DUI offenders. He also asked for radar enforcement to be legalized for local sheriffs' departments.

BILOXI -- Hands and voices trembled Thursday as 22 residents of South Mississippi told House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, and Coast legislators what they most want to see taken up in the next legislative session.

The meeting at the Biloxi Council chambers was the eighth of nine stops this week on his Mississippi Solutions -- Idea Tour. About 100 people filled the seats and more stood around the room as Gunn and 11 members of the Coast delegation listened to their concerns. They spoke about the state retirement system; controlling the check-cashing industry; and the need for radar speed enforcement.

Education and health care were the two primary issues, and Gunn said, "Those two areas are where we spend most of our tax dollars."

Retired Biloxi School District Superintendent Paul Tisdale suggested the state should have legislative report cards to track progress. "As schools are held accountable, we would like our Legislature to be just as accountable," he said.

Other speakers said the state should provide funding for early childhood education and work with state universities that could award scholarships to encourage talented students to stay in the state.

James Crowell, director of the local NAACP chapter, asked the legislators to oppose charter schools. "We need to keep our education money in the public schools," he said.

After the meeting, Rep. Casey Eure, R-Biloxi, said he expects charter schools to be a hot topic during the next session. "I think it's probably going to pass this year," he said. Eure said he supports the idea. "Competition is not a bad thing," he said.

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Education and health care top South Mississippians' concerns

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

MVP Health Cares Medicare Advantage members now have another way to keep healthy and active. Partnering with Healthways (HWAY), a Franklin, TN-based population health management company, MVP is introducing the new Well-Being Program, offering a comprehensive set of activities and resources to help Medicare members maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The signature piece of the new program is Well-Being ConnectTM, an online portal that allows members to create a tailored approach to accessing and improving their overall health. Along with the new online portal, the program includes popular existing MVP programs, such as wellness classes, the SilverSneakers Fitness Program and outreach designed to help improve the lives of members living with chronic diseases.

The Well-Being Program is currently available to the approximately 85,000 Medicare Advantage members in MVPs service footprint.

This is an informative and fun new way for our Medicare Advantage members to be proactive about maintaining and improving their health, said Patrick Glavey, Executive Vice President of Government Programs for MVP. Our wellness and fitness programs are already so well utilized that we think our members will really embrace these new options for engaging with their health.

The utilization of online technology as a component of an overall well-being improvement strategy represents a significant breakthrough, and we applaud MVP for incorporating this strategy to drive engagement of their Medicare Advantage members, said Ben R. Leedle, Jr., President and CEO of Healthways. Both MVP and Healthways are convinced the real value for members is using Well-Being Connect as the gateway to delivering comprehensive and effectively integrated services.

Well-Being Connect can be accessed by Medicare Advantage members once they log into their MVP account at http://www.mvphealthcare.com. To begin using the new portal, members must first complete the Well-Being Assessment, a confidential questionnaire that evaluates their lifestyle and overall health. Once the assessment is completed, they are provided a full health report and customized action plan, which they are encouraged to share with their doctors.

Completing the assessment provides access to a number of online resources including weight, fitness and medication use trackers; videos and articles; recipes and meal ideas; and tools to help them quit using tobacco.

Additionally, members whose answers on the Well-Being Assessment show that they might benefit from health coaching (for tobacco use, nutrition, physical activity, etc.) will be contacted by Healthways to participate in a coaching program by phone.

For more information about Healthways, visit http://www.healthways.com or http://www.silversneakers.com.

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MVP Health Care Introduces Well-Being Connect for Medicare Advantage Members

*An article in the Oct 10. edition of the Tribune incorrectly stated the number of contracts renewed at Barton Health in the past year. The hospital renewed contracts with 25 physicians in the past year, and around 63 physicians in the past few years.

As the debate on health care reform continues to take center stage across the country, some very real effects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act have already reached California and the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Barton Health's failure to renegotiate the contracts with the two obstetrician and gynecological physician groups has roots in the act, aka Obamacare. The hospital, which expects large cuts in reimbursements during the upcoming years, has been forced to make some changes to streamline their system, Barton's Director of Public Relations and Marketing Monica Sciuto said.

Contract negotiations with the groups fell through after Barton decided to stop managing the Tahoe Women's Care and Emerald Bay Center for Women's Health offices in South Lake Tahoe and Minden, Nev. According to a statement from Chief Medical Officer Dr. Clint Purvance, both practices were losing a significant amount of money the hospital could not provide the exact amount because of privacy issues and they were asked to consolidate physicians and services.

According to Dr. Kelly Shanahan, the obstetrician and gynecologist with the Emerald Bay Center for Women's Health who worked directly on the contract proposals, the doctors were never told the exact amount they needed to cut, but they'd heard the number ranged from $500,000 to $700,000.

Shanahan said the physicians agreed to combine offices in Tahoe and Minden and they laid off one doctor. She said she estimated those savings would cover the practices' losses.

The physician groups' original proposal asked for a base compensation amount in addition to continued management of one Tahoe office, one Minden office and the Barton obstetrician clinic, according to Shanahan.

That compensation amount which neither Barton nor the physicians specified was considerably higher than the current compensation structure, Purvance wrote, and Barton responded with two counter offers: the groups could become an outpatient department or they could accept a daily amount to cover the obstetrician clinic. Management of the practices was not mentioned in the second proposal, Shanahan wrote in an email.

(There was) no base compensation just payment based on productivity, pay for providing coverage of the Barton clinic obstetrical patients at a rate that was half of what Dr Kobalter and I were paid 20 years ago when we were moonlighting as residents, and only payment for roughly half of our malpractice expenses, Shanahan said of the first option.

The physician groups responded by calling for a meeting with Barton's senior administration. Barton replied with their final proposal: there would be a set amount of obstetrician services and no management of the practices, according to Shanahan.

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Health care reform at heart of Barton, OB-GYN conflict

TEMPLE, Texas, Oct. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A unique partnership between Scott & White Healthcare and Walmart will take the Central Texas health care system into new territory, marking its first formal relationship with an international retailer for the purpose of providing health care.

Walmart recently inducted Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, into the retailer's Centers of Excellence program, along with five other leading hospitals in the nation: Cleveland Clinic; Geisinger Medical Center; Mayo Clinic; Mercy Hospital Springfield (Missouri); and Virginia Mason Medical Center. Scott & White Memorial Hospital is the only Texas health care provider to be designated by Walmart as a Center of Excellence.

The Centers of Excellence initiative offers Walmart associates access to heart, spine, and transplant surgeries at facilities geographically located across the country. Scott & White will receive spine and heart patients at Memorial Hospital starting in January.

"As an integrated delivery system with a reputation for providing quality care and possessing superior diagnostic capabilities, Scott & White's goal is to be among the leaders in transforming health care," said Robert W. Pryor, MD, MBA. "Our partnership with Walmart reflects a mutual commitment to combining quality with value."

The Scott & White partnership with Walmart is an example of the type of industry innovation that can provide high quality care with the potential to reduce health care costs. "Our approach to delivering high quality care is in step with the Walmart philosophy," said Dr. Pryor. "It's about the right care, at the right place, at the right time."

In addition to offering outstanding patient care, Scott & White Memorial Hospital provides a location that Walmart associates may find familiar. The hospital anticipates receiving many patients from New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida who are accustomed to smaller-sized communities with convenient access to amenities.

Walmart associates and their caregivers will receive logistical assistance for travel to Temple and housing arrangements for the recovery period. Ongoing care or rehabilitation will be coordinated between the team of Scott & White physicians and advanced practice professionals treating the patient in Temple and the associate's personal physician back home.

About Scott & White Healthcare (sw.org) Scott & White Healthcare is a non-profit collaborative health care system established in 1897 in Temple, Texas. Among the leading health systems encompassing one of the nation's largest multi-specialty group practices, Scott & White provides personalized, comprehensive health care enhanced by medical education and research. Scott & White Healthcare includes 12 hospital sites with two additional announced facilities, and 143 clinics at more than 65 clinic locations throughout Central Texas providing adult and pediatric care in 46 medical specialties. Integrated, high-quality care is delivered by a dedicated staff of more than 12,000 (including 1,000 physicians and scientists and more than 300 specialized health care providers).

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Scott & White Healthcare, Walmart join forces

EBENSBURG Over employee protests, Cambria Countys two Republican commissioners approved a $100,000-a-year agreement with a health-care consulting company that says it can assure a $300,000 savings next year in health-care costs.

Thomas Chernisky, the Democratic minority commissioner on the three-member board, cast a dissenting vote after his motion failed to table the agreement until other proposals could be heard and reviewed by the countys health-care committee.

Protesting the agreement were members of the health-care committee made up of 18 union employees and Brian Beppler, the countys human resources director. The committee has saved the county millions of dollars in health-care coverage over several years while doing the same job at no cost as the consultant would do, Patricia Moore, a member, said.

The agreement, which is effective Nov. 1, is with Gallagher Benefit Services Inc., a subsidiary of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. The parent company, which merged with the former Gleason Agency of Johnstown last year, was retained as Cambrias insurance broker last year, also by the same 2-1 vote.

Christopher Gleason Jr., Gallagher area vice president, said that the anticipated increase in cost in the countys health-care coverage is expected to go up as much as 13.5 percent, although Beppler said it might be 8 percent.

Cambria is a self-insured county and has a plan through UPMC. Its health-care cost this year is about $11 million.

President Commissioner Douglas Lengenfelder said Cambria will end up with a $200,000 net savings after paying Gallagher the $100,000 fee in the first year. If Gallagher fails to deliver on the savings, there will be reductions in its fee.

Moore, an assistant public defender, disputed whether the memorandum of understanding with Gallagher does provide the outs that Lengenfelder described.

The committee has saved Cambria $4.27 million in health-care costs since 2007, she said. Between 2009 and 2011, the savings have been

$1 million a year as the committee explored options and looked at employee incentives to cut costs, she said.

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Despite protests, county hires health-care consultant

--Veteran health care executive John Baackes to lead AMFC's newest line of business

--Enrollment to begin on October 15

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 11, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies (AMFC) announced today that it has been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to offer Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans (SNP) to dual-eligible beneficiaries in select counties in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. AMFC will begin accepting enrollment applications on Monday, October 15, with services to begin on January 1, 2013.

AMFC's newest line of business will be led by veteran health care executive John Baackes, president, Medicare VIP Plans. Baackes reports to AMFC President and Chief Executive Officer Michael A. Rashid.

AMFC will offer AmeriHealth VIP Care in Lancaster, Lehigh and Northampton Counties, and a separate D-SNP product in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties.

In addition, AMFC will offer First Choice VIP Care in South Carolina. This D-SNP product will be open to eligible beneficiaries in Abbeville, Anderson, Berkeley, Charleston, Greenville, Laurens, Lexington, Orangeburg, Pickens, Richland, Saluda and Spartanburg Counties.

D-SNPs are Medicare Advantage plans for dual-eligibles, or individuals whose combination of income, health and age makes them eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. There are approximately nine million dual-eligibles in the United States. About $350 billion is spent each year on health care for this population.

"Dual-eligibles are an underserved population with significant health disparities," said Rashid. "Our 30 years of experience in Medicaid managed care makes us uniquely qualified to help Pennsylvania's and South Carolina's dual-eligibles manage their health and live more comfortable lives."

About John Baackes

Baackes was most recently CEO of Senior Whole Health, a voluntary health care plan for more than 9,000 low-income seniors in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. Senior Whole Health specialized in the dual-eligible market, offering both SNP and Part D plans. He has also served as a senior vice president for Group Health Incorporated and as president of Kaiser Permanente's Northeast division.

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AMFC to Offer Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans in Pennsylvania and South Carolina

Health care in the region is in a better state than in most places in the country. Still, families and businesses continue to be battered by health costs. And the advent of major legislative changes on the federal and state levels has exacerbated business uncertainty.

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Health care costs, initiatives focus of RBA conference

09-10-2012 23:30 More at

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Darden Restaurants Cut Workers' Hours to Avoid Paying Health Care Coverage - Video

10-10-2012 00:48 A new mental health bill will soon be presented to the Cabinet for approval. But activists say the bill is only an eyewash. India has the highest suicide rates in the world, said a Lancet study. 10 per cent adult Indians have mental health disorders, according to the World health Organisation and an estimated 1 million Indians are in need of mental health services. 25 years since the mental health act of 1987 came into being, a new Mental Health Care Bill will soon be presented to the Cabinet for approval.But for people like Bhargavi Davar, a mental health patient and an activist herself, the bill definitely has loopholes, at the patient's end. "Robbing all personal rights - treatment, hospital, indefinite stay - laws make the individual more vulnerable," Bhargavi said. With India being home to 30 to 40 million people living with psychosocial disabilities, the bill needs a wider debate before it is adopted.

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Activists question new mental health bill to be proposed - Video

10-10-2012 07:44 GE has been acknowledged by the Chicago Department of Public Health at the halfway point of its two-year, $1.25 million grant program that started in 2011. Five non-profits and many volunteers, supported by the grant from the GE Foundation for the Developing Health Chicago program, have worked to increase access to primary health care for underserved communities. The many accomplishments of the program after a year's work were celebrated in a recent event at the Howard Brown Health Center. The FedEx Healthcare Industry Summit held in New York City focused on "borderless" health care in an interconnected world. Presenters and attendees discussed how the industry, from R&D and manufacturing to caregivers, could develop more and better solutions to meet the changing dynamics of a global healthcare industry. FedEx showcased a portfolio of its new products and service solutions, from innovations in cold chain technologies to temperature-controlled shipping capabilities with increased speed and reach. A new study from researchers at Quest Diagnostic and Pfizer reveals that a laboratory-developed blood test using deep-sequencing technology performed comparably to the industry's current, standard phenotypic test in predicting clinical response to HIV antiretroviral therapy. The study's findings confirm the potential of advanced sequencing technologies to help in cost-effective management of HIV patients. For more information on these and other stories, go to ...

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GE Funds Chicago Healthcare; FedEx Healthcare Summit; Pfizer Quest HIV Tests- Health Min 10/10/12 - Video

For many providers that accept Medicaid, the new privatized program that will manage health care services for the states poor and disabled citizens is full of uncertainty.

Pending various approvals, KanCare will go live on Jan.1, 2013, replacing the states current Medicaid system.

But the state is still waiting on federal approval of the program. At this time, there is no indication the state will not obtain federal approval from the Department of Health and Human Services by the Jan. 1, 2013, implementation, according to an official at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.Under the new system, state Medicaid recipients will be assigned to one of three corporate providers, called managed care organizations. Amerigroup, UnitedHealth Care and Sunflower State Health Plan, a subsidiary of Centene, are all Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in other states.

State officials said they expect Medicaid participants will start to receive enrollment packets for the new system sometime in November.

Managed care is a growing trend throughout the U.S. All states except three enroll Medicaid beneficiaries in some kind of managed care program, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation 2011 survey.

Kansas already uses two managed care companies, UniCare and Coventry, for HealthWave, which provides low-cost insurance for uninsured children and qualifying parents, according to the KDHE.

Nearly all of Kansas 380,000 Medicaid recipients will be placed under the three managed care organizations under KanCare. The Brownback administration has said the new program will not cut benefits, limit enrollment or lower provider compensation rates but will save the state $1billion over the next five years.

Alex Melugin, an administrator for Phoenix Home Care, is concerned that many patients will lose their targeted case managers, who work to make sure people are signed up and authorized to use Medicaid under the new plan. The three companies will now be in charge of those tasks, and Melugin said its unclear how helpful the companies will be if they dont have any incentive to get people signed up.

Although Melugin said his companys reimbursement amounts will stay the same for now, he said that the word from providers in other states is that some managed care organizations reduce the number of approved hours to be spent with patients if the company thinks those extra hours are unnecessary, and that could mean less revenue for the providers.

One of our concerns is if what happened in other states happens here, but I dont think it will happen overnight, Melugin said. We are afraid they will cut approved hours down.

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Kansas providers unsure of Medicaid replacement

Provincial governments for years have complained about the ballooning cost of providing health care.

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Health care changes in Ajax, Pickering can't mean fewer key services

NEW YORK, Oct. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --More than half the U.S. population and their health care providers could soon have access to health data shared across multiple states and systems. A public-private partnership of states, public agencies, federally-funded health information exchanges (HIEs) and health information technology (HIT) companies has established a program to test and certify electronic health records (EHRs) and other health IT to enable reliable transfer of data within and across organizational and state boundaries.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120816/NE58665LOGO)

High costs, technical differences and long wait times for interface development are barriers to sharing health data among health care providers and across state lines. The coalition of 15 states, 37 technology vendors and 34 HIEs, representing more than 50 percent of the U.S. population, has created a robust, highly automated testing program to verify that, once tested, a system is capable of exchanging health information with many other systems. With this testing, a single set of standardized, easy-to-implement connections can support communication among systems.

The effort is being jointly led by the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup, a New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC)-led consortium of states and vendors; and Healtheway, the newly formed public-private partnership of the eHealth Exchange, a network of 34 public and private organizations representing hundreds of hospitals, thousands of providers and millions of patients across the country.

This effort will build on and accelerate consensus on national standards, adopting EHR certification criteria and testing procedures as relevant and finalized for Stage 2 of meaningful use. Members of both groups will continue to provide feedback from these real-world implementations to the national health IT standard setting initiativesestablished by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

"Today's announcement brings together several activities supported by ONC over the past years: a core set of national standards, an Accredited Certification Body, the Public-private partnership that has emerged from the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange, and the convening power of New York and other State Health Information Exchange grantees," said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. "We look forward to working with this consortium to continue progress on interoperability and secure health information exchange, and to reflect what is learned in national standards as necessary."

The coalition selected the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), the most experienced HIT certification organization in the U.S., to carry out the testing. As the compliance testing body, CCHIT will certify that the interfaces between the HIT and HIEs are consistent across multiple states and systems. CCHIT is also an Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) authorized certification body and is an accredited testing laboratory for EHRs. CCHIT is collaborating withAEGIS.neton the testing software, which is being developed under an open source license.

"The collaboration between the states and vendors to address a shared marketplace gap and work toward a mutual vision has been one of the remarkable aspects of this effort," said David Whitlinger, Executive Director of NYeC. "And momentum is building within both communities as states grow their HIE networks by working with the EHR and HIE vendors to provide seamless integration and clinical workflow, taking the market to a new level for the benefit of patients."

"The testing program Healtheway has developed with NYeC is the key to realizing secure and interoperable exchange of health information across organizational and geographic boundaries," said Michael Matthews, Healtheway President and Board Chair. "The launch of a compliance testing program will enable the eHealth Exchange to more than double participation and connectivity over the next 9 to 12 months."

Realizing that merging efforts with other states would create economies of scale and provide the vendor community with a single, consistent set of specifications, NYeC created the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup last year. Over the course of 18 months, the group has developed technical and test specifications to address the major use cases of interoperable exchange. Around the same time, plans took shape to transition the NwHIN Exchange to function outside the federal government as a public-private network, now called the eHealth Exchange. To expand nationwide HIE, Healtheway and NYeC formed a strategic partnership to enable technology systems, public and private providers and health information organizations (HIOs) to have access to more efficient testing.

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Health IT Testing Program Will Enable Health Data Sharing For More Than Half Of U.S. Patients And Their Providers