Friday, November 13, 2015

White House Details Privacy Rules for Precision Medicine Initiative - iHealthBeat



On Monday, the White House unveiled a series of privacy principlesfor President Obama's precision medicine initiative, FierceHealthITreports (Hall, FierceHealthIT, 11/11).

Initiative Details

In February, Obama in his fiscal year 2016 budget proposal asked Congress for $215 million in funding for a precision medicine initiative that centers on the creation of a massive database containing the genetic data of at least one million volunteer participants. A panel of experts in September endorsed the plan for creating the database (iHealthBeat, 9/18).

Details of the Privacy Principles

The privacy principles aim to protect the data of individuals participating in the precision medicine initiative. 




White House Details Privacy Rules for Precision Medicine Initiative - iHealthBeat

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Medicare blocks Research into Substance buse


HIPAA is interfering with legitimate research goals


In an eye-catching study last week, Nobel Prize for Economics, for 2015, winner Angus Deaton and his co-author Anne Case found that deaths among middle-aged white men are spiking — and concluded that alcohol and substance abuse are at least partly to blame.

The finding is "shocking," health care historian Paul Starr wrote at the American Prospect. "This midlife mortality reversal had no parallel in any other industrialized society or in other demographic groups in the United States."But here's an even bigger surprise: The federal agency that oversees the nation's largest trove of health data won't let researchers study the problem. 
In an unusual move, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2013 began quietly deleting substance use disorder data from the files they share with researchers. Up until that point, CMS had freely allowed researchers to use the data to track health care procedures related to substance use across millions of patients.

We know substance abuse deaths are rising. But Medicare won't let researchers study the problem.


Given our results, and the great interest in what is happening, it is clear that the removal of those data is particularly ill-timed, although I am sure it was done for legitimate reasons," Deaton says. "There is an enormous amount of stigma associated with addiction, and perhaps [CMS officials] were concerned about that. I don't know. But it certainly makes it harder to dig down into a vitally important question of social and health policy."

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

The remedy is to reimagine health

Sometimes the road to imaging health is to imagine disease. The vision of disease and/or death is striking. However health cannot be evaluated strictly by looking at a person.  We all have heard about people who look good, fit, are very active and who suddenly die. It leaves us all perplexed.  However careful appraisal and digging into details results that all is not what it  seems.




The Remedy is to Reimagine Health







The Affordable Care Act is similar to comparing disease and health.  It ain't what it seems. The ACA diverted most clinicians away from the essentials of modern medicine, the rapid technological advances that have occured and even more, that which is on the near horizon.


Healthcare Industry | Digital Revolution | Entrepreneurship | Innovation | The remedy is to reimagine health | Vision Magazine



Healthcare Industry | Digital Revolution | Entrepreneurship | Innovation | The remedy is to reimagine health | Vision Magazine

Medical Marijuana: No snake oil, but it may hold hope for some - AgingCare.com

Growing older is a bit like early childhood. Each day evolves differently.  It is a bit like childhood in reverse. As a child matures he gains some ability, in speech,  motor activity, cognition and emotional development.  The stages are all there.



As we age maturation appears to reverse itself, gradually at first, then more quickly.  The process is sensescence. We recognize some of this by cognitive changes, behavioral changes, physical changes, and at times the expression of infantile or emotional reactions of early youth.





Medical Marijuana: No snake oil, but it may hold hope for some - AgingCare.com

How Doctors Became Subcontractors | THCB



In our healthcare system, the “middleman” is not who you think



Your doctor no longer works for the patient, but to satisfy a payer.



It works like this. You, the patient pay a monthly premium in return for payment coverage to your physician. The requirements for payment are complicated, and if the physician does not meet these inflexible demands he is not paid ("Denied"). Often times there is no explanation.



This has been a gradual shift in doctor-patient relationship which has become the dominant model for reimbursement.  What this means essentially is that your doctor works not for you, but your insurer. You pay the premium for the insurer to reimburse a doctor of their choosing (see your provider directory) Often times your  doctor is part of a group practice and in a closed network.



It has been a pervasive cancerous expansion of limiting your access to care, and you are paying the insurance company to limit your freedom of access. It is part and parcel of the "Nanny State", one in which someone else is deciding what is good or bad for you, the patient.



It is not the only organization which uses the Nanny state approach. It is the means which Government now controls almost anything.Your freedoms are disappearing.



The Health Care Blog carries the important message from MICHEL ACCAD, MD, who says, In our healthcare system, the “middleman” is not who you think"







How Doctors Became Subcontractors | THCB