QCHF Workforce

ONC Releases Final Version of Federal Health IT Strategic Plan

jimkoontz — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:16:36 +0000

On Monday, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released an 80-page final version of its Federal Health IT Strategic Plan for 2011 through 2015, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 9/12).
The agency issued the final plan after receiving about 240 public comments on the draft plan that it released in March.

Details on Public Comments:
In a post on its “Health IT Buzz” blog, ONC noted that the majority of public comments centered on four key themes, which are the:
1. Approach toward health IT outreach for health care providers and consumers;
2. Privacy of health information exchange networks;
3. Timing of Stage 2 of the meaningful use program; and
4. Usability of electronic health records.
5. Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus program, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.

Details on Final Plan:
1. In response to some of the issues raised in the public comments, the final version of ONC’s strategic plan calls for:
2. Establishing an HHS Inter-Division Task Force to develop an updated approach to certain health IT privacy and security issues;
3. Supporting efforts to refine EHR usability testing and use protocols;
4. Helping vendors develop EHR products that improve data portability; and
5. Scaling up consumer outreach and education campaigns to raise awareness of health IT issues (Sullivan, Government Health IT, 9/12).

New Rule Proposed by Federal Health Officials

jimkoontz — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:10:53 +0000

Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:48pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. medical patients would be able to get their laboratory test results directly from the labs rather than wait for a copy from their doctors under a new rule proposed by federal health officials. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday proposed new rules giving patients more rights to access their health information.

Speaking at a meeting on consumer health information technology, Sebelius recounted her own frustrations with a lack of communication between doctors that led to extra testing or having to refile the same forms over and over again. The proposed rule would amend the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to require that labs covered by HIPAA provide test results to patients or their personal representatives in a secure manner.

U.S. health regulators have been promoting innovation in health IT, and especially health information access and exchange, in a broader effort by President Barack Obama’s administration to update the U.S. medical records system.
In May, HHS proposed another rule allowing patients to see a list of everyone who has accessed their electronic medical records.

The HHS is accepting comments on the proposed rule for 60 days. To read the proposal, see r.reuters.com/rub73s .

Most Health Workers Use Social Media for Professional Purposes

jimkoontz — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:53:29 +0000

Sept. 12, 2011, Healthcare IT News
About 75% of workers at U.S. health care provider organizations use social media tools for professional purposes, according to a survey by Frost & Sullivan and the Institute for Health Technology Transformation, Healthcare IT News reports.
About the Survey:
For the survey, which was conducted between April and May 2011, researchers interviewed 63 individuals working at different health care provider institutions. Of the survey respondents:
• 42 worked at private or public hospitals;
• 11 worked at various patient care settings; and
• 10 worked at physician offices.
In addition:
• 33% of respondents were IT professionals;
• 13% were administrators;
• 7% were physicians; and
• 6% were other health care professionals.
Survey Findings:
Of the respondents who reported using social media for professional purposes:
• 74% said social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are the most popular types of social media used for professional reasons; and
• One-third said they are required to use social media as part of their professional duties.
According to the survey, the most popular reasons for using social media tools were related to brand awareness, business development and marketing.
The survey also found that:
• A majority of health care provider institutions have an electronic communications policy in place;
• 60% of organizations say their social media use met or exceeded institutional expectations;
• 38% of institutions use dedicated staff for their social media campaigns;
• 33% of institutions do not allow employees to access social media, mostly because of security issues and concerns about productivity; and
• 19% of institutions use external parties to manage social media communications (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 9/8).

Obama’s Labor Board Reverses Bush-Era Rule on Union Challenges

jimkoontz — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:05:45 +0000

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) — The National Labor Relations Board overturned a Bush-era ruling, making it easier to organize unions, and backed efforts by organizers to form smaller units within the health-care industry, actions sought by unions.

The rulings issued today, three days after President Barack Obama’s labor-board chairman ended her tenure, are opposed by business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. The decisions “have the high likelihood to be severely disruptive to the workplace, will hinder job creation and put jobs at risk,” Joe Trauger, vice president of human-resource policy at the Washington-based manufacturers’ group, said today in an e-mail.

The rulings are the first released by the NLRB since Chairman Wilma Liebman left the board, which mediates disputes and monitors unfair labor practices, as her term ended on Aug. 27. Under her leadership, the NLRB became a target for Republicans and businesses that say it became too pro-union.
For the complete article: http://tinyurl.com/3nlbjbr

CA ‘Jobs Gap’ Jumps to Record High

jimkoontz — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:49:35 +0000

AUG. 29, 2011
By JOHN SEILER
California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010, I devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California that the rest of America.
The Jobs Gap is calculated by subtracting the national unemployment level from California’s. Of course, the major factor affecting California’s economy is national economic policy. What the Jobs Gap calculation does is filter out the “noise” of the performance of the national economy. What’s left is the effect of California policy on state jobs.
Below is the latest yearly chart. (The 2011 number is an average through July.)
Notice the green line at the bottom. That’s the “Jobs Gap” number. It shows that, as recently as 2006, the Jobs Gap was small — just 0.3 percentage points above the national average.
For the complete article & graphics see: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2011/08/29/california-jobs-gap-jumps-to-record-high/

Employers Expect Rise in Health Costs; Many To Pass Costs to Workers

jimkoontz — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:38:29 +0000

(Daly, Modern Healthcare, 8/18).

Large U.S. employers expect their health care costs to increase by an average of 7.2% next year, according to a according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health, Modern Healthcare reports. The increase is slightly less than the 7.4% mean increase for health care costs that the companies reported for this year. However, the new figure “is on a higher base, and it still outpaces the economy’s anemic growth and business conditions,” according to NBGH President and CEO Helen Darling (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 8/18).

According to the survey, more than half of businesses plan to pass at least some of the extra costs to workers. Darling said employers are shifting away from copayments, where workers pay a fixed dollar amount for health services, and instead are charging workers a percentage of the total costs. This makes employees more aware of the total cost of health care they use, The Hill’s “Healthwatch” reports.

Darling said shifting from copayments to the coinsurance model is “a more subtle way to increase what the consumer pays.” She said that eventually only governments and unions likely will offer fixed copayments (Baker, “Healthwatch,” The Hill, 8/18).

Darling said the federal health reform law has contributed to rising costs. She attributed one full percentage point of the increase to a provision allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26. She said, “I think that most employers didn’t think that (the requirement) was a good idea,” noting that individuals with jobs and substantial benefits can stay on their parents’ insurance to avoid more cost-sharing (CQ HealthBeat, 8/18).

According to Darling, the financial strain of the ongoing increases in health care costs has created “an unsustainable model for our country” (Modern Healthcare, 8/18).

CNAs, home health aides in huge demand, but struggles ahead, experts warn

jimkoontz — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:12:37 +0000

August 18 2011 – Jenn Riggle
Certified nursing assistants and home health aides will continue to be in huge demand, but a lack of training and low pay could mean a labor crisis for nursing facilities, home health agencies and even hospitals, according to a joint report from Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post.
More than 3.2 million people work in direct care, and the number of jobs in the field is expected to skyrocket over the next seven years, according to PHI, an advocacy group for direct caregivers. But pressuring the labor pool are these facts: Personal health aides make an average salary of just $12,300, while nursing, psychiatric and home health aides earn an average of $19,000 annually. Almost a third of all direct-care workers are uninsured, and close to half rely on some form of public assistance for their families, be it food stamps or Medicaid.
Training requirements for these healthcare workers vary across the states, as do regulations for background checks and whether aides may administer medications, all circumstances, some advocates say that could put patients in peril. With programs such as Money Follows the Person pushing for seniors to receiving Medicaid to remain at home, experts warn that more investment in personnel will be necessary to do it properly.
“My fear, my deep concern, is that in this quick switch [to provide care at home], there is the potential for care to get worse and for the direct-care workers’ job to get harder, with less support and training,” Peggy Powell, national director of curriculum and workforce development at PHI, told Kaiser Health News.

New KLAS Market Report Covers CPOE

jimkoontz — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:38:22 +0000

Joseph Goedert
HDM Breaking News, August 9, 2011
The electronic health records meaningful use program has significantly increased adoption of computerized physician order entry systems, with Cerner Corp. and Epic Systems Corp. leading the way, according to a new market report from vendor research firm KLAS Enterprises.
Before MU, an average of 87 hospitals a year went live with CPOE but that average is now 233, according to KLAS. Cerner has more hospitals live on CPOE than any of the 10 other vendors in the study. Both Cerner and Epic have doubled their live CPOE sites since 2009 and both have an average of more than 80% of orders being entered via CPOE at their client sites.
McKesson is making progress with Horizon and Paragon CPOE installations but seeing adoption rates of entering orders at much lower levels than the two vendor leaders. Meditech and Siemens also are seeing implementation gains. Vendors losing momentum, according to KLAS, include Allscripts (Eclipsys), GE Healthcare and QuadraMed.
Among community hospital vendors, Computer Programs and Systems Inc. is the leader with 67 installed sites while others “are struggling to roll out the functionality,” according to the firm.
For the report, “CPOE 2011: The ARRA Effect,” KLAS collected data from virtually every U.S. hospital known to have gone live with CPOE in 2009-2010. The report is available for purchase at klasresearch.com/reports.

Retirement, health insurance commonly targeted

jimkoontz — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:26:07 +0000

By Eric Yoder
If the special congressional budget-cutting committee to be created by the debt ceiling bill turns its sights on federal employee benefits, as employee organizations are concerned that it will, history suggests that the retirement and health insurance programs could be the primary targets.

Former U.S. senator Alan Simpson, left, and former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles on Capitol Hill on July 13 (ALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The two big-ticket programs have been examined repeatedly for potential changes to reduce government spending that meanwhile would reduce the value of those benefits for employees and retirees.
The debt ceiling agreement calls for creation of a “super committee” of 12 lawmakers, evenly split between the political parties, to find savings in government spending beyond those achieved by a series of caps on agency budgets. It would make recommendations by Nov. 23, with congressional voting by Dec. 23.
For the complete article: http://tinyurl.com/3j49p4l

Career Climb Scholarship Applications Available Online

jimkoontz — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:23:50 +0000

Long term care workers – the deadline for the QCHF Career Climb Scholarship is fast approaching. Be sure to visit the QCHF Website and download your application. You can find the forms at: http://tinyurl.com/3dsb4fkLast year’s winners shared more than $25,000! Don’t miss this opportunity.