http://www.businessofhealth.net Teaching business aspects of the health profession. Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:09:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en by Dr. Tim O'Shea We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased. The doors of our perception are carefully and ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/08/the-doors-of-perception-why-americans-will-believe-almost-anything/ A new study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association is rocking the hospital world--which has begun to adopt RFID for a wide range of device and patient-tracking functions--by suggesting that such tagging can wreak havoc with critical-care equipment. Researchers in Amsterdam concluded that electromagnetic interference ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/jama-study-rocks-hospital-rfid-users/ AT&T, Microsoft and Compuware subsidiary Covisint have announced plans to create a nationwide health information exchange which expands on a smaller network already in place state-wide in Tennessee. In Tennessee, the MidSouth eHealth Alliance and the Governor's eHealth Council had already been running an electronic health network for doctors across ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/att-covisint-and-microsoft-plan-to-expand-health-network-nationwide/ I'm very skeptical that non-profit healthcare information exchanges or RHIOs can sustain themselves. In fact, I've argued vigorously that such entities are unlikely to keep their doors open, given that no one seems to have found a financial model that works for everyone involved. Neither government projects, not-for-profits nor partnerships ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/private-vendors-may-be-the-hie-solution/ MU researcher calls for incentives to increase numbers of primary care practitioners COLUMBIA, Mo.- By 2025, the wait to see a doctor could get a lot longer if the current number of students training to be primary care physicians doesn't increase soon, according to a new University of Missouri study. Jack ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/us-could-face-shortage-of-44000-primary-care-physicians-by-2025/ Thirteen states require private insurers to cover mandated autism treatments. Pennsylvania is poised to be the fourteenth to offer such coverage. Today the state's private insurers denied coverage for autism treatments, including speech therapy and applied behavioral analysis. The carriers claim that such treatments lack measurable achievements and that a ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/private-insurers-in-pa-fight-mandated-coverage-for-autism/ The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says it wants to shutter America's nursing homes in order to save them. The foundation has already started to fund the construction of Green Houses, small environmentally friendly homes that store 10 to 12 seniors currently living in large, more conventional nursing facilities. The philanthropy, ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/philanthropy-challenges-nursing-homes-to-improve-facilities/ Carriers and patients are at odds over what treatments and procedures are medically appropriate, and why access is denied in some cases and not in others. Patients in California are finding themselves in the precarious position of having to fight for access to services they assumed were covered. The state ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/ca-providers-carriers-spar-with-patients-over-access/ While some communities wonder if they can afford to build just one proton beam cancer center, providers have proposed roughly five such centers in Michigan. Final rulings on state certificate of need applications later this year will determine just how many centers may be approved. Two rival providers--William Beaumont Hospitals and ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/mi-mulls-160m-proton-beam-cancer-centers/ A new patient safety bill signed into law yesterday by New York Governor David Paterson will require that the names of doctors charged with misconduct be made public. Infection control was a key piece of the bill because of the case of Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, a doctor whose failure to ... http://www.businessofhealth.net/2008/06/ny-bill-to-name-doctors-charged-with-misconduct/