A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine critiques the application of Medicare value-based purchasing to physicians, pointing out that doctors have not accepted the system or the specific quality measures and participation is likely to be very limited until a better and less expensive system is implemented.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1312287
Jan242014
DocsInk, a startup providing mobile administrative services to medical practices, has raised about $1 million.
A JAMA Viewpoint discusses use of guidelines by physicians, opining that guideline adherence is still spotty, costing the system billions and lowering quality, and recommending methods to improve both guidelines and use of them.
Surgical Information Systems, which does what its name suggests, has acquired AmKai Solutions, which also offers software and data analytics to surgery providers.
Streamline Health, which provides knowledge management systems to health care industry participants, has agreed to acquire Unibase Systems, which offers patient access software.
Veria Living, which provides a multiplatform approach to health and wellness information, has acquired dLife, which provides information and a social community for patients with diabetes.
Cloud-based EHR provider Kareo has raised about $30 million to bring its free core application to more physicians. Kareo makes money by selling add-on capabilities.
A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine points out that although the Medicare physician value-based purchasing program starts this year, doctors generally are unprepared and unengaged and there are more issues with this program than the comparable one for hospitals, including a lack of predecessor programs, sample size and measure issues and reward/penalty design.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1311957
About this Blog
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. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
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. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.