Article Link Here

Should doctors be compensated more for preventative medicine? Basically, PBM's are getting together to arrange a pricing structure that rewards for making people healthier.

I think it is a great idea. Get a smoker to quit, get paid more. Decrease hospitalization or incidence of myocardial infarction, get a reward. This makes sense on the surface.

I am interested to see how this will drive adoption of technologies, including CPOE and electronic health records. Some type of scoring and monitoring system will need to be in place. How does that affect patient privacy?

Eweek Link
Need a definition? Start here. Podcasting has become an internet craze over the past year. In fact, it was identified as the most important new term of 2005 by Websters.

Newswire Link

The January 1, 2006 issue of AJHP provides a report on a bit of old technology. However, I think it made perfect sense. Nursing has traditionally rejected technology, relying on years of experience and "people power" to get the job done. The authors decided to provide nurses something that they could relate to. A video was distributed to a group of nurses that reviewed medication administration techniques, patient allergies, and some other necessary guidelines.

In case you have not seen these articles from December 2005 AJHP, I wanted to briefly mention them.

Hospitals Put IT in Second Place The financial climate of healthcare if forcing administrators to take a hard look at IT budgets. Most people would say this is bad, but it might be good to do more research up front before investing in costly automation and technology.

For those of you that provide ambulatory prescription services, CMS is testing its eligibility and verification system in the month of December. Check the CMS website for more info. I attend an online seminar today, and was intrigued to discover that the pharmacy has to pay $0.015 per eligibility request. Also, if the patient says they are enrolled, you submit the claim and get reimbursed; you could end up having to recover lost funds if the person turns out not to be eligible.

Press Release Check out IntelliFill here. I personally do not know of anyone else that is using this technology. I am curious to see how the ROI compares to frozen or pre-made solutions. Surely the customized preparation is advantageous. Does anyone have experience with inpatient robotics for preparing intravenous solutions?

Article on Pharmalive Wow. This is dated technology. At a time when most institutions are looking at CPOE, ASB releases a fax-enhancement system that has been available from competitors for years. I am not impressed.

CIO Article
Another IT feel good article from CIO Magazine. The industry is really gearing up for healthcare. the lack of innovation and safety enhancing technologies is finally spurring a movement. Of course, healthcare professionals in technology areas have been complaining about this problem for decades. Finally someone is listening to us!