Tuesday tidbits

Recent Open Season articles here and here.

The Washington Post’s health section reported on the unwillingness of many doctors to use electronic prescribing. According to the article,

As part of its e-prescribing project, CareFirst provided hand-held devices, software and training to 500 physicians. Today, 350 are still enrolled. Some of the remaining 150 doctors have graduated to more sophisticated electronic medical records, but many simply returned to pen and pad. “Providers are creatures of habit; they have processes they are used to,” said Pete Stoessel, a CareFirst administrator involved in the initiative. “They are very, very averse to change.”

Actually that’s not a bad result, and the new Medicare incentive/mandate should help increase adoption.The American Medical Association, at its November meeting, expressed support for the patient centered medical home concept according to the AMA News. Deloitte Consulting recently released a study on the concept which it described as follows:

“In a medical home model, primary care clinicians and allied professionals provide conventional diagnostic and therapeutic services, as well as coordination of care for patients that require services not available in primary care settings. The goal is to provide a patient with a broad spectrum of care, both preventive and curative, over a period of time and to coordinate all of the care the patient receives.

The AMA wants more “deets” on how insurers will reimburse physicians for operating a medical home.