Contributing Member of the Healthcare Councils

All News Analyses by this Author

The Impact of Potential Health Care Reform on Health Plans

May 20, 2009

Analysis of:Health Plans Would Add to Controls on Insurers | www.nytimes.com

This week, we're getting an introduction to the direction that the Democrats want to take the health care reform discussion. Consistent with the mandate viewpoint, the House and Senate sponsors seem to be taking an aggressive stance. While the plans are very complex (and assuredly difficult to administer, especially via the tax code), they contain some interesting details, which, if adopted, will have significant impact on health plans and shape the marketplace for the future.

Successful health information exchange will occur when barriers formed by competing interests are mitigated through federal mandate and funding

January 8, 2009

Analysis of:WA Launching Health Record Bank Pilot | www.fiercehealthit.com

We should applaud the State of Washington for taking initiative in this important area, but we must acknowledge that the health record bank is just the flip side of the coin regarding the question of centralized or federated models for HIE.  Beginning with the CHINs of the early 90's until now, we see that all stakeholders in the system consider stewardship of health data to be an asset, and they do not readily see a sustainable ROI for investing in any methodology for exchange of the data with others. Success of Washington's efforts and those of the many other State and regional efforts depends, not on the efficacy of the model, but on the successful demonstration of HIE infrastruction via the NHIN projects and subsequent mandate and funding at the federal level.

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