All Posts By

Kevin Roche

The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry through Roche Consulting, LLC. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.

Nov 25 2013

CMS has changed the planned 9.4% reduction in dialysis treatment payments to only a very small reduction.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-22/davita-spared-as-medicare-wipes-out-9-4-dialysis-cut.html
Nov 25 2013

A new survey from IDC Health Insights finds that 58% of outpatient providers are unhappy with their EHRs, many very dissatisfied, primarily because of a negative effect on productivity.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131113006395/en/IDC-Health-Insights-Survey-Ambulatory-Providers-Reveals
Nov 22 2013

HHS is seeking comment on proposed quality measures for health plans sold through the exchanges.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-11-19/pdf/2013-27649.pdf
Nov 22 2013

From the Department of failed government IT projects, the Department of Defense has announced that its new EHR won't be ready until 2017, at the earliest.  This following the abandonment of a joint DOD/VA EHR that was projected to cost $28 billion (yes, you read that right).  This one will "only" cost $4 or $5 billion; just 10 or 100 times more than buying an off-the-shelf system would, even for this large a customer.  An absurd waste of taxpayer money.

http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2013/11/pentagons-electronic-health-record-not-ready-initial-use-until-2017/74135/#disqus_thread
Nov 22 2013

CodeSmart has received $1.5 million in equity financing to help with its IDC-10 related products.

http://www.pehub.com/2013/11/20/codesmart-grabs-1-5-mln/
Nov 21 2013

A scale that measures the relationships that patients and physicians have appears to show that poor relationships lead to perceptions of poorer quality according to a study in the Annals of Family Medicine.

http://www.annfammed.org/content/11/6/543.full
Nov 21 2013

eClincial Works is investing $50 million and hiring 100 software developers to strengthen its patient engagement and population health management capabilities.

http://medcitynews.com/2013/11/eclinical-works-adding-100-software-developers-part-50m-investment/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=75baf350f4-RSS_Daily+Top+Stories&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-75baf350f4-67648197
Nov 20 2013

General Electric is selling its Vital Signs unit, which makes anesthesiology and respiratory products, to Carefusion for $500 million.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303985504579205712067990806?mod=dist_smartbrief
Nov 20 2013

A study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research reports that use of an app on a smartphone can help improve glycemic control in patients with Type 1 diabetes.

http://www.jmir.org/2013/11/e235/
Nov 19 2013

MapMyFitness, a maker of apps to enter and track various kinds of exercise and fitness apps, hit the jackpot, being bought out by Under Armour, a maker of sports clothing for a cool $150 million.  Map that!!

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20131114-909210.html?dsk=yhttp://