HealthAchieve2010 partners with Canada’s Health Informatics Association (COACH) to Grow eHealth Track (Canada)

Citation

Lamb-White, J. (2010), "HealthAchieve2010 partners with Canada’s Health Informatics Association (COACH) to Grow eHealth Track (Canada)", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs.2010.21123dab.001

HealthAchieve2010 partners with Canada’s Health Informatics Association (COACH) to Grow eHealth Track (Canada)

Article Type: News and views From: Leadership in Health Services, Volume 23, Issue 4

Edited byJo Lamb-White

Keywords: Healthcare provision, Change management, Health informatics

HealthAchieve2010 and COACH have announced their partnership to provide a forum for all health care providers, executives and staff to strengthen their understanding of and build their capacity to deliver transformation through eHealth.

HealthAchieve Vice President Warren DiClemente articulated what COACH brings to HealthAchieve2010: “COACH is dedicated to advancing the health informatics (HI) profession and promoting a clear understanding of HI within the Canadian health system. This partnership with HealthAchieve2010 helps all of our attendees to appreciate the value of health information technology to their organizations. We expect that COACH’s educative and facilitation role will result in a more enriching eHealth Track experience for delegates and access to a broader set of delegates by our exhibitors, sponsors and advertisers.”

“COACH is excited about this partnership,” said Lydia Lee, COACH President-Elect and Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO), University Health Network & Integrated CIO, Shared Information Management Services. “An eHealth track at HealthAchieve2010 is an ideal forum for COACH to build on our commitment to advancing the HI profession with established health care leaders in Ontario.”

“This is a great complement to our national eHealth conference in the Spring, with its focus on current, compelling issues and key learning points,” said COACH Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Don Newsham. “It also facilitates the continuation and growth of the COACH Fall Forum in Ontario at one of the largest, most prestigious health care events in North America.”

The eHealth Track features presentations, education sessions and keynotes with highly prominent thought leaders. For example, the 2009 program included former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, TVO’s Steve Paikin and André Picard, National Public Health Reporter at the Globe and Mail. A similarly prominent slate of thinkers, experts and learning sessions is now in development for the 2010 edition of HealthAchieve to be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

For more information: www.ohahealthachieve.com

“Doc Fix” vote contains unwelcome news for hospitals (USA)

Keywords US healthcare, Hospital payments, Healthcare reform bills, Medicaid funding

After weeks of debate, the Senate finally agreed in a unanimous voice to postpone a 21 per cent decrease in Medicare and TRICARE (the civilian care component of the US Military Health System) physician reimbursements through a six-month period ending in November. But the vote comes with an unpleasant trade-off for hospitals.

The Senate approval to extend a $6.4 billion temporary “doc fix” deadline goes onto the House this week for reconciliation. The House had passed its bill with an amendment calling for a 19-month postponement through 2011 of the sustainable growth rate before the Memorial Day recess.

Like the House bill, the Senate measure calls for reducing hospital payments by preventing hospitals from submitting separate claims for inpatient and outpatient therapeutic care provided within 72 hours of an admission.

This means that all outpatient services provided within those three days before an inpatient admission – and related to the inpatient admission – would be included in a bundled payment for that admission. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this provision is expected to save $4.2 billion over ten years and reduce excess spending.

In its description of the legislation, the Senate Finance Committee said the provision closes a “loophole.” However, the hospitals are disagreeing – saying these provisions “would take away the option for hospitals to bill retrospectively for these services, unless they had already done so by the date of enactment.”

In a letter sent Friday to the Senate, five healthcare groups – the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Federation of American Hospitals and the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems – said that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) and the Recovery Audit Contractors directed hospitals to refile in this manner.

“But now refiling for underpayments would be retrospectively prohibited,” the groups said. “This is unfair on its face.” While supporting the doc fix provision, the groups called for removal of “the offset to finance the short-term physician payment patch partially paid for” by “changing the so-called Medicare ‘72-hour rule.’”

When adding $155 billion from the healthcare reform bill – plus an additional reduction of $3.7 billion being proposed by CMS for fiscal 2011, “we believe such additional savings from hospitals are unfair and unwarranted,” they said. “We, therefore, ask that you modify this proposal and opt for a more responsible solution” that “fairly addresses the needs of the physicians.”

The hospital groups also called for increasing Medicaid funding to the states through June 2011 for Medicaid’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, as proposed in an earlier version of jobs bill legislation.

For more information: www.healthleadersmedia.com