What’s more, prescription benefits manager Medco Health Solutions Inc., has released its 2008 Drug Trend Report.
“there still are many unknowns about the adoption of health information technology, including what its true costs and benefits might be.
The report, “Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology,” does not recommend what Congress should do about health IT, but it states that “if policymakers are interested in promoting health IT, some version of a requirement or an explicit or implicit penalty for providers who fail to adopt health IT is likely to be more cost-effective for the federal government than a subsidy.”
- Electronic Health Record;
- Electronic Medical Record;
- Health Information Exchange;
- Health Information Organization;
- Personal Health Record; and
- Regional Health Information Organization.
The internet giant, Google, launched its personal health record site on Monday. As I am a Google subscriber, I bit and signed in. I was presented with terms of service to approve. Here are some interesting tidbits from that agreement:
4. Use of Your Information If you create, transmit, or display health or other information while using Google Health, you may provide only information that you own or have the right to use. When you provide your information through Google Health, you give Google a license to use and distribute it in connection with Google Health and other Google services. However, Google may only use health information you provide as permitted by the Google Health Privacy Policy, your Sharing Authorization, and applicable law. Google is not a “covered entity” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the regulations promulgated thereunder (“HIPAA”). As a result, HIPAA does not apply to the transmission of health information by Google to any third party.
plus indemnification of Google, exclusion of warranties, and limitations on Google’s liability.
Needless to say, I did not click any further. The New York Times reports on the launch here.
• Eliminate what Leahy called a loophole in the original bill that would have allowed operators of personal health information databases to give sensitive health records to virtually anyone under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule.
• Ban certain health care providers from using or disclosing health records for marketing purposes.
• Direct the HHS Secretary to submit a report to Congress recommending privacy and security protections for personal health records.
• Give patients the right to inspect their e-health records and receive electronic copies of the records. Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, individuals have a right to see their medical records, but there is no clear right to electronic ones.
• Strengthen congressional oversight over federal health privacy compliance and enforcement of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
However, the article also reports that it is unlikely that Congress will pass the bill this year.
It’s my understanding that many of these annuitants are so-called dual eligibles who were automatically enrolled in Medicare Part D because they also are covered under Medicaid. For others, it’s a personal choice. As FEHB plans carriers hold the insurance risk for their plans, they have every reason to coordinate benefits with Medicare.
Average annual medical costs increased by 7.6%, or $1,109, for the typical American family of four from 2007 to 2008, according to the fourth annual Milliman Medical Index. The rate of increase was lower than the previous year—8.4%—and also represented the lowest rate of the past five years, according to the index.
Happy Mother’s Day!
The Regional Health District of Southern Nevada announced today [May 8] that 77 cases of potential hepatitis C cases have been identified from those who have been tested since an outbreak was announced in January. The 77 cases are not acute hepatitis C, said Jennifer Sizemore, a spokeswoman for the health district. Of the 49,000 people notified by health officials, these 77 people were then interviewed and identified, she said. To date there have been eight cases of acute hepatitis C cases identified with links to a clinic that reused syringes and provided anesthesia to two or more patients from single dose vials. Seven of them have been linked to the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada operated by Dr. Dipak Desai, who is not allowed to practice medicine and is under investigation by state and local authorities. Seven of the acute hepatitis C cases have been linked to the clinic at 700 Shadow Lane and the eighth to another clinic owned by Desai.
Although e-prescribing is increasing, it is still practiced by fewer than 85,000 of the country’s more than 560,000 doctors. The holdouts tend to physicians in smaller practices who lack technical expertise.
In some cases, their local pharmacies do not accept e-prescriptions, although most large chain drug stores are equipped to handle them. Small, rural drug stores are less likely to be able to fill e-prescriptions.
While no official cost estimate has been calculated, Daniel Green, deputy associate director of the Office of Personnel Management’s Center for Employee and Family Support Policy, said covering dependents already in FEHBP for an extra three years could cost approximately $200 million per year. He said the estimate was calculated by multiplying the number of dependents in the 22-to-25 age bracket (245,000) by the annual cost of health care for a young adult ($1,640).Green added that the government would take on $160 million of the additional cost, with the remainder paid by enrollees through increased premiums.But Kelley and John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, argued that increasing the dependent age by three years is likely to decrease premiums, since infusing a large number of young and generally healthy adults into a risk pool of typically older or retired federal employees should come at very little to no cost.”It’s not a matter of simple math,” Gage said. “I can’t believe that this is a simple matter of multiplying the number of potentials times the cost for young adults, who should be very good at underwriting risk.”
Give me a break. I am not an actuary, but common sense tells you that savings only occurs when FEHB plans add young, healthy employees who pay the full premium. However, as OPM points out, adding members to an existing family enrollment only increases the cost of the enrollment.