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Tag Archives: healthcare services
Innovating for More Affordable Healthcare
Yesterday the Stanford Social Innovation Review published a 24-page supplemental section in its journal that was sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) and entitled Innovating for More Affordable Healthcare. As a fervent UC Berkeley supporter it pains me to promote anything out of Stanford, but I admit this is some very interesting reading (it helps that a few of us Cal Bears snuck some editorial influence into the supplement, right Will?).
The supplement says it’s about “new ways for social investors to spur innovations that create better, stronger, faster, and less expensive healthcare in the US.” But if you read the piece as a whole, the 24-page supplement is really about how challenging it can be to bring about impactful innovation in the delivery of healthcare services and how very similar the issues are whether you are looking through a social or financial investor lens.
There are many articles in this document but a few items really stood out to me. Authors Stefanos Zenios and Lynn Denend underscore Mark Smith’s (CHCF) and Barbara Lubash’s (Versant Ventures) opening comments about how hard it is to get from a successful … (read the rest)
Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized
Tagged arnold milstein, chaim indig, chcf, cms telemonitoring, health care investing, health care private equity, health care services, health care social investing, health hero network, healthcare innovation, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, margaret laws, phreesia, psilos, stanford social innovation review, todd park
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The Second Coming of Healthcare IT
Once upon a time there was “ehealth.” That time was the late 1990’s and there was a temporary ripple in The Force when anything that combined healthcare and the Internet had a suddenly popularity in the venture capital investment community. Companies like the original WebMD, the original Medscape, Mediconsult.com, DrKoop.com, Medibuy, Adam.com, PlanetRx, and a host of other online pharmacies, healthcare group purchasing entities and online health portals were born and sought after by investors looking to capitalize on the collision of the Internet and the healthcare industry. The theory at the time was that you could take any traditional industry, add a soupcon of Internet, and “voila!” instant value creation.
Unfortunately, it turned out not to be so easy and by the early 2000’s, the ehealth industry died a painful death, leaving behind a few bedraggled companies, a mountain of cashed checks with venture capital firms’ signatures on them and thousands of vacant Aeron chairs. Healthcare technology became the Mike Tyson of venture capital investment: wistfully remembered for what it might have been but shunned for how it had behaved towards its fans. “Never again,” the VCs muttered, “never … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged ACA, Allscripts, ehealth, Gibson Consultants, healthcare IT, healthcare reform, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, HIT, HITECH Act, medical technology, PPACA, psilos, venture capital
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Follow the Money
This weekend’s NY Times had an Op-Ed by doctors Peter Bach and Robert Kocher about why medical school should be free for people willing to pursue a career in primary care. Drs. Bach and Kocher note that primary care is critical to the successful improvement of quality and cost in the healthcare system and yet the American Academy of Family Physicians has estimated a shortfall of 40,000 primary care doctors by 2020. Their point is that despite these statistics, the system is somewhat rigged against primary care physicians (“PCPs”)….it costs them just as much as specialists to go to medical school but they come out making 58% of the money ($190K vs. the $325K of the average specialist). Thus, since we need PCPs far more than we need more specialists, let’s pay for PCP candidates to go to medical school but effectively cause those going into specialty care to cover the costs of those who remain as PCPs. In other words, let those who will financially benefit from their career choice (specialists) subsidize those that, for all intents and purposes, go into a life of “medical public service” (my term, … (read the rest)
How Health Insurers Can Avoid Being Blockbuster in a Netflix World
Talking about health insurance is a good way to clear a room. It is a rare person who is excited to interact with their insurance company or who can understand the explanation of benefits they receive in the mail detailing all of the things that the insurance carrier has decided not to pay on their behalf. According to JD Power and Associates, only four out of ten people fully understand their health benefit plan. No doubt those four are also able to read the Dead Sea Scrolls in their original text.
JD Power also found that consumers rank health insurers at 710 on a 1000-point scale, a number heading downhill faster than Lindsey Vonn. In contrast, consumers rank homeowners insurance carriers at 750 on a 1000-point scale and auto insurers at 837. Nothing like being last place in the league: just ask the Minnesota Twins.
“So what am I supposed to do about it?” you might say. “My employer gives me whatever insurance they want to give me and I have little say in it.” We as consumers have become accustomed to paying (through paycheck deductions and lower wages) … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Patient Safety, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged ACA, ACO, Click4Care, consumer engagement, extend health, health insurance, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare reform, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, healthedge, medical errors, patient safety, PPACA, psilos, venture capital
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Sound and Fury Signifying Quite a Lot, Actually
This last week I attended Health Evolution Partners’ Leadership Summit in Laguna Niguel. If you have to leave home for work, Laguna Niguel is the place you want to go. I had a moment during the closing dinner where, on the lawn just beyond my ocean cliff-side table, there were six little bunnies hopping around and in the water behind them dolphins were swimming. You would have sworn this was a Disney production, except everyone at my dinner table worked in the healthcare industry. While there is a lot of Mickey Mouse behavior in healthcare, these were some pretty great people with whom to have dinner.
Anyway, at the kick-off event of the conference there was a panel of four health insurance executives representing some of the largest companies in that field (Aetna, United Healthcare, Humana). Jeff Margolis, CEO of Trizetto, which makes its money selling IT systems to these guys, was the moderator. One of the questions he started with was, “Do health plans need to repudiate their heritage and do things differently [to survive]?”
While they did it in different ways, the members of this health insurance … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged ACA, ACO, affordable care act, consumer engagement, extend health, guaranteed issue, health insurance, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare reform, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, healthedge, PPACA, psilos, seechange health
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Baby Got Back Pain
Ben Franklin once said that the only things that are certain are death and taxes, but a close runner-up is this: in your lifetime, you will likely experience at least one incident of serious lower back pain. In fact, over 80% of Americans have a major lower back pain event during their lifetime and it is the second most common reason to go to the doctor in the U.S. Stand down, Star Spangled Banner; our new national anthem, sung as you try to get out of bed in the morning, is, “Oy, my back is killing me!”
Considering that back pain is nearly as common as the common cold, and despite the fact that over $85 billion is spent in the U.S. every single year on diagnosing and treating back pain, the state of medicine in this area hasn’t come much further than crossing your fingers and wishing on a star when it comes to effective outcomes. Truth be told, most physicians will tell you that whatever the cause of your pain, the odds are that it will resolve itself within about 6-8 weeks with some combination of rest, basic … (read the rest)
Posted in Diagnostics and Screening, Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Venture Capital, Medical Devices, Uncategorized, Venture Capital
Tagged back diagnostics, back pain, halifax hospital, healthcare, healthcare IT, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, lower back pain, medical technology, psilos, spinematrix, venture capital, verium, verium diagnostics
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Transmogrifying California Healthcare
I’m really looking forward to this coming Friday, February 4th, as I get to moderate a panel on “The Impact of Health Reform on California.” The panel, which was organized by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies is being held in Sacramento and will take place before a sold-out crowd of nearly 200, in large part because it has a meaty topic and some really top-notch participants, including:
- Diana Dooley
Secretary, Health and Human Services Agency - Cindy Ehnes
Director, California Department of Managed Healthcare - Paul Markovich
Chief Operating Officer, Blue Shield of California - Saumya Sutaria
Director, McKinsey & Co.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (who I went to college with) and Congresswoman Doris Matsui will also make some remarks.
This should be a great event because each of the panelists has a pretty significant role to play in how the State of CA adopts and adapts to health reform, and there is a remarkable amount at stake.
Saul Bellow once said, “California is like an artificial limb the rest of the country doesn’t really need.” That may be true, but in our healthcare economy we can’t afford to amputate.… (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform
Tagged ACO, affordable care act, california budget cuts, california healthcare, Diana Dooley, health insurance, healthcare, healthcare budget, healthcare IT, healthcare reform, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, Institute of Governmental Studies, PPACA, psilos, Scripps health
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ACO: A Care Odyssey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3MiD_U4CHQ”
Recently PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) put out a report that included their top health industry issues of 2011. The list includes these six items:
- #1: Booming business in health information technology
- #2: Gearing up to redefine health insurance: From MLRs to insurance exchanges
- #3: ACOs: Is this the next big thing or not?
- #4: Nowhere else to cost shift: Consumers could continue to reduce utilization
- #5: M&A: Deals will bond the familiar and unfamiliar as organizations look to fill strategic gaps
- #6: Follow-me healthcare: Patients look to health organizations that are always on
While they are all interesting issues with a lot of implications, the one that makes my head spin is number 3: ACO’s.
ACO, which stands for Accountable Care Organization, is one of those healthcare policy wonk terms that is about to go mainstream, in large part because of their prominent role in the PPACA (national health reform law). The federal government, and especially the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has put this concept front and center as the great white hope to reform its healthcare delivery programs.
The idea behind ACOs is that physician groups, hospitals and … (read the rest)
Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Uncategorized
Tagged ACA, accountable care organization, ACO, affordable care act, capitation, cms, health insurance, healthcare, healthcare reform, healthcare services, healthcare venture capital, psilos
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Crybaby!
It’s nearly New Year’s Eve and if you are typical you will hear someone wish you a new year that brings good health. The promise of good health generally supposes that one will not get sick; in other words, that one will be able to prevent the onset of illness that might cramp ones style or worse.
Prevention of bad health constitutes a huge industry in the United States. For instance, approximately $11 billion was spent on products and services directed towards preventing chronic diseases in 2009 and that number is growing by about 8% per year. Preventive health is comprised of everything from diagnostic and screening products to smoking cessation to immunizations and beyond. According to a study by BCC Health on the topic:
“Prevention must become a cornerstone of the healthcare system rather than an afterthought. This shift requires a fundamental change in the way individuals perceive and access the system as well as the way care is delivered. The system must support clinical preventive services and community-based wellness approaches at the federal, state, and local levels. With a national culture of wellness, chronic disease and obesity will … (read the rest)
Twas the Night Before [HIT] Implementation
An ode to healthcare information technology modernization
by Lisa Suennen, stealing liberally from Clement Clarke Moore
‘Twas the night before Christmas, in the ER of St. Strauss,
Not a doctor was working, not even House;
The IVs were hung by the bedsides with care,
In hopes that some pain meds soon would be there;
The patients were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of discharge danced in their heads;
And nurses in scrubs, washed their hands at the taps,
And checked out the charts to ensure no care gaps,
When out on the unit there arose such a clatter,
Everyone raced to see what was the matter.
To the nurse station they flew like a flash,
And witnessed the CFO counting his cash;
The IT incentives came with a red, white and blue bow,
And the luster of ARRA coin twinkled and glowed.
When, what to our wondering eyes did appear,
But a wild-eyed CIO and eight engineers.
With an old printer driver, and mice that go click,
They knew in a moment it was likely Epic.
Or McKesson or Cerner or Meditech to name
just a few … (read the rest)
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized
Tagged aneesh chopra, ARRA, blue button, CIO, david blumenthal, don berwick, healthcare, healthcare information technology, healthcare IT, healthcare reform, healthcare services, hospital CIO, hospital IT, meaningful use, psilos
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