Tag Archives: cmi

CMS & CMMI: Taking A Flying Leap

Posted on October 19, 2010 by
Now That's a Leap!

Let me start with what’s important:  The Giants are up 2 games to 1 over the Phillies in the NLCS.  I am looking forward to collecting on my bet with my partner, Joe Riley, who is a seriously misguided Phillies fan.  What the hell is that mascot anyway?  Looks like a mutant bigfoot that ran into a brick wall face first.

But back to the subject at hand.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak as an invited guest at a public meeting hosted by the Brookings Institution and CMS. The focus of the meeting was “Accelerating Health Care Innovation to Improve Quality and Lower Costs:  The Role of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.”  This meeting was the sequel to a private meeting that occurred several months ago in which many people from all facets of the healthcare industry provided input and suggestions to the joint Brookings-CMS team that is defining how the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) will set its goals, operating plans and procedures.  As you may recall from an earlier post, CMMI was established as a result of the Affordable Care Act … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Patient Safety, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Money don’t get everything it’s true; What it don’t get I can’t use…

Posted on August 26, 2010 by

According to an August 18th, 2010 Reuters article,  a new study suggests that a patient’s odds of having an orthopedic operation may depend on whether or not the surgeon has a financial stake in the treatment center. Patients receiving care for their wrist, rotator cuff or knee from a provider with ownership in the facility were up to twice as likely to have surgery compared to those treated by non-owners according to a study performed by Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. and published in the Archives of Surgery.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but……duh. I hope they didn’t spend a lot of money on that study.

Your lovin’ give me such a thrill,
But your lovin’ don’t pay my bills;

Financial incentives, at least in America, appear to be one of the most powerful motivators of behavior one can find.  There have been numerous studies demonstrating the somewhat insidious connection between physician financial ownership and over-utilization of services.  The Stark Law was passed more than 20 years ago for this very reason–to break the connection and remove financial incentives to over-treat.  … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happiness? That’s nothing more than health and a poor memory

Posted on August 4, 2010 by

That’s a great quote from Nobel prize winner Albert Schweitzer and it would have served me well a few days ago when it felt like nothing was going right.  I was whining via email to my partner Steve and he wrote back simply, “Positive Mental Attitude.”  Steve’s point, a valid one that would resonate with most of us, was that if I could adopt a positive mental attitude, I would likely have a better outcome (or at least stop whining to him).

This body-mind connection is a concept that is commonly accepted among both pop-psychologists and serious scientists.  Significant amounts of research have gone into proving that a positive mental attitude, or “happiness” as I will refer to it in shorthand here, is highly predictive of numerous positive attributes.  Notably, people who consider themselves to be generally happy are also those found to be in better physical health.  We can screen all we want for cancer, and diabetes, but screening for happiness appears to be may tell us more about healthiness.

If that is the case, wouldn’t logic tell us that promotion of happiness would also have a direct positive … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Random Thoughts of the Day, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Government as an Engine for Innovation

Posted on July 21, 2010 by

I’ve been thinking a great deal about the newly formed Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. (CMI). This entity was established as a result of the Affordable Care Act (the new healthcare reform legislation) and its purpose is to “research, develop, test and expand innovative payment and service delivery models that will improve the quality and reduce the costs of care for” patients covered by CMS-related programs. The legislation gives this entity over $10 billion dollars initially and broad authority to figure out new ways of doing things better and differently than before. What is great about CMI is that they have the authority to run their programs much more like a business would without many historical governmental constraints. That’s great news for innovation, which is sorely needed in the U.S. healthcare system.

Among the key objectives that the administration has discussed is how to transition the collective mindset from one of healthcare to one of health. In other words, if a person is healthy, they do not need health CARE. This is a very important distinction; it puts the emphasis on prevention and wellness as opposed to what … (read the rest)

Posted in Girls Rule!, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Venture Capital, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments