Telehealth Monitor

Experience fostering health IT in Virginia informs the new technology chief’s wide view of innovation

The Obama administration’s top technology official said he will actively support the efforts of Dr. David Blumenthal to advance the adoption of health information technology, one of the president’s priorities for health reform.

Aneesh Chopra said he would use his position in the White House as the country’s chief technology officer and assistant to the president to support Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, by concentrating on innovation, digital security and “pushing the levers of government.”

Before accepting the federal position, Chopra was secretary of technology for Virginia. The Senate approved his nomination in May.

via Chopra will use CTO position to advocate for health IT — Government Health IT.

As President Barack Obama prepared to meet with Congressional Democrats Tuesday to discuss healthcare reform, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report that highlights both the upside and the downside of technology.

On the plus side, healthcare IT could lead to high-value care by providing key information to providers rapidly. The the down side includes the overuse of diagnostic technology such as MRIs.

“For many types of medical conditions, a patient may have a choice of several methods or treatments, each having different benefits or risks,” the council noted. “Systematic examinations of the merits of different treatments and dissemination of the results of those examinations to patients and providers is one mechanism for promoting high-value care.  Health information technology may play an important role in increasing the rate at which new information broadly diffuses to providers and is incorporated into practice behavior.”

via White House report highlights ups and downs of healthcare technology | Healthcare IT News.

President Obama will meet with influential Senate Democrats on Tuesday to discuss overhauling health care, as the White House releases a report asserting that revamping the system would increase the income of a typical family of four by $2,600 in 2020, and by $10,000 in 2030.

The Democrats on two Senate committees that are drafting health legislation have been invited to the White House to meet with Mr. Obama, hours before he leaves for the Middle East and Europe. As part of a push to secure Congressional passage of a bill this year, the administration will also make the case on Tuesday that reforming health care is critical to fixing the economy.

“If we don’t do this we’re going to be facing a real mess 30 years from now,” Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters Monday on a conference call to discuss her new report, “The Economic Case for Health Care Reform.”

via Senators Set to Visit White House to Discuss Health Care Overhaul – NYTimes.com.

Doctors, hospitals, drug makers and insurance companies will join President Obama on Monday in announcing their commitment to a sharp reduction in the growth of national health spending, White House officials said Sunday.

The officials said the plan could save $2,500 a year for a family of four in the fifth year and a total of $2 trillion for the nation over 10 years. That could make it less expensive for Congress to enact comprehensive health insurance coverage, a daunting challenge facing the Obama administration.

via Health Care Industry Is Said to Commit to Holding Down Costs – NYTimes.com.

President Obamas Cabinet was finally filled yesterday after the Senate, on the eve of President Obamas 100th day in office, voted 65 to 31 to confirm Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Hours later, the former Kansas governor was sworn in in an Oval Office ceremony.

Democrats had sought a quick vote on Sebelius as Congress moves ahead with health-care reform this summer, but Republicans slowed her advancement because of her support for abortion rights. But GOP procedural objections faded with the recent outbreak of swine flu and the threat of a global pandemic, our colleague Shailagh Murray reported from the Senate.

via Al Kamen – Just Inside 100 Days, Sebelius Completes the Cabinet – washingtonpost.com.

President Obama said yesterday that his administration will create an electronic record for veterans that will “contain their administrative and medical information from the day they first enlist to the day that they are laid to rest.”

Research has shown that the handoff of medical information — between individuals and hospital systems — can be dangerous. Incomplete, incomprehensible or misunderstood data can contribute to medical error or substandard care.

While the Defense Department’s hospitals and the Veterans Affairs medical system have electronic records, they are not seamlessly connected — a problem Obama said he is determined to solve.

“Currently, there is no comprehensive system in place that allows for a streamlined transition of health records between DOD and the VA,” the president said during a briefing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that was attended by the secretaries of those two departments as well as patients and practitioners from Washington area hospitals and military and VA facilities.

via Obama Seeks to Create Seamless Transition of Electronic Medical Records Between DOD and VA – washingtonpost.com.

President Obama launched a campaign today to reform health care in the United States by the end of this year, telling a White House summit on the issue that that fixing the troubled system is “no longer a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative.”

Joined by lawmakers, health industry executives and a handful of “average Americans,” Obama vowed to press for legislation this year that dramatically expands insurance coverage, improves health care quality and reins in skyrocketing medical costs.

“The same soaring costs that are straining our families’ budgets are sinking our businesses and eating up our government’s budget, too,” Obama said in an East Room appearance.

“At the fiscal summit that we held here last week, the one thing on which everyone agreed was that the greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security, though that’s a significant challenge,” he said. “It’s not the investments we’ve made to rescue our economy. By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It’s not even close.”

At the same time, the White House unveiled a new Web site, www.healthreform.gov, and said it plans to hold town-hall-style meetings across the country to rally public support for what is expected to be a protracted and arduous legislative battle. The meetings will be hosted by Democratic and Republican governors.

Medical spending, now about $2.3 trillion, consumes about 16 percent of the gross domestic product. And although the United States spends more per capita on health care than any industrialized nation, Americans do not live longer or healthier lives, according to a range of international measures.

As an opening maneuver, Obama set aside $634 billion in his proposed budget to be dedicated to health reform. The 10-year reserve fund could be used to provide health insurance to some of the 46 million Americans who do not have it today. To raise that money, Obama would cut itemized tax deductions for the wealthiest Americans and trim federal payments to hospitals, home health aides, drug manufacturers and some physicians.

via At Summit, Obama Urges Solutions for Rising Cost of Health Care – washingtonpost.com.