LoJacking Grandma and "Reality Mining," or "Daddy, What was Anonymity?"

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e-Prescriptions Increase as Medicare Incentive is About to Take Effect

The AP reports that in “December 2007, 35,000 doctors were writing at least some paperless prescriptions, according to SureScripts-RxHub, which tracks the drugstore network.
The 2008 count isn't finished yet, but SureScripts estimates that number has doubled to more than 70,000. Moreover, the volume of prescriptions filled electronically grew about 15 percent a month since August, faster than the 5 percent to 8 percent monthly increase seen earlier in the year — presumably as doctors geared up for the Medicare incentive.” Read more here.

First Steps; Web-based Medical Records?

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports that the Democrats are at work trying to include some aspects of health reform into the economic stimulus package slated to be unveiled next month.

The plan is said to include help for the Medicaid program. The WSJ Health Blog also stated that “according to the Washington Post, there’s also talk of packing the stimulus package with provisions to retrain medical workers, bolster the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and expand Cobra."

Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee Chairman, is said to have stated that the package will likely include grants and tax breaks for doctors and hospitals to invest in health IT. The Washington Post is said to have reported that it’s sources "cited $10 billion as a potential figure for health IT in the stimulus package." Read full story here.

In a related story, the Health Blog reported that the cousin of President George Bush, athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, has called for the use of a Web-based platform for health IT initiatives. Athenahealth currently provides a Web-based medical records platform for 17,000 customers. “Bush says. Software ‘isn’t the dominant approach in financial services or retail banking or anywhere else, and it shouldn’t be in health care.’” Read more here.

Member of Obama’s campaign health care advisory committee cites private sector increase in computer-based health records systems

Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts and a member of Obama’s campaign health care advisory committee, cited the need to cut costs and reduce the risk of medical errors as reasons for an increase in physician and hospitals switching to computer based health records. “According to Tullman, Allscripts, the largest U.S. provider of software to physicians, has seen a fivefold increase in the number of physicians who are using electronic prescribing technology.” Tullman also noted that CMS has modified its Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement payments to include a 2% incentive to encourage hospitals to upgrade their records systems with health IT and a 2% penalty within two years for hospitals that do not adopt health IT (Bloomberg, 12/9). Read more here.