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T-M-Partners chooses InterSystems Ensemble for its CMS Quality Manager healthcare application

InterSystems Corporation today announced that Technology Medical Partners (T-M-Partners) has selected the InterSystems Ensemble® rapid integration and development platform for its CMS Quality Manager healthcare application. The first of many healthcare technology solutions under development by T-M-Partners, CMS Quality Manager is designed to vastly improve the data abstraction and administrative processes of reporting core measures to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS).

22 Sep 2009

IASIS Healthcare implements the Medicity Novo Grid solution to exchange health information electronically

Medicity, Inc. today announced that IASIS Healthcare went live with the Medicity Novo Grid solution in two (Florida and Utah) of its six regions. The solution enables IASIS to exchange health information electronically with providers connected on the Grid – whether the providers use an electronic health record (EHR) or operate a paper-based practice.

22 Sep 2009

Congress urged to delay pending Medicaid cuts

A diverse coalition of health care industry groups has sent an urgent letter to the bipartisan leadership in Congress seeking to delay pending Medicaid cuts and to enact a more equitable formula to reimburse pharmacies for dispensing generic drugs to Medicaid beneficiaries.

22 Sep 2009

Seniors worry about Democratic proposals as well as so-called myths spread by opponents

In response to Democratic health reform proposals, seniors are attending town halls, writing letters to lawmakers, showing support for the GOP in polls, and "giving their legislators a piece of their mind that a way of life is slipping away," The Washington Times reports.

21 Sep 2009

GOP lawmakers opposed to reform reflect on their own experiences

Two Republican lawmakers with extensive personal interactions with the health care system warn of the dangers in health overhaul.

21 Sep 2009

Full Senate Finance Committee to take up health reform

The full Senate Finance Committee takes up health care legislation this week and there are already a slew of amendments that would significantly alter the proposal from the chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

21 Sep 2009

Today's selection of opinions and editorials

Obama's Nontax Tax Wall Street Journal It turns out the President thinks a health-care tax is not a tax if he thinks the tax is for your own good (9/21).

21 Sep 2009

Medicare round up: News coverage of cost issues and leadership gap

"The national average for Medicare spending on such patients was $46,412, including outpatient care," the Times reports. "But in Los Angeles County, the average cost was nearly double that, $84,179, according to a Los Angeles Times review of Dartmouth data. In seeking to explain why, some researchers have concluded that doctors in areas such as Los Angeles, with more hospitals and other resources, are more likely to have patients admitted, order tests and schedule visits, largely because they can."

21 Sep 2009

Mayo Clinic may prove to be a difficult model to replicate

The Mayo Clinic looms out of the prairie here like the mecca it has become, a world-renowned medical complex that is often cited by President Obama. ... Few dispute the prowess of Mayo, which brings in $9 billion in revenue a year and hosts 250 surgeries a day. But a battle is underway among health-care experts and lawmakers over whether its success can be so easily replicated.

21 Sep 2009

Obama lobbies the public, fellow Dems and one GOP senator

In his Sunday talk show appearance, President Obama conceded that he has not been "breaking through" on the health care debate, the Chicago Tribune reports. "I think there have been times where I have said, 'I've got to step up my game in terms of talking to the American people about issues like health care,'" he said, after reporters asked whether he'd lost control of the debate.

21 Sep 2009

Blessing Hospital integrates AtStaff’s ClairVia Patient Acuity system with its EMR

By integrating AtStaff’s ClairVia® Patient Acuity system with its electronic medical record (EMR), Blessing Hospital of Quincy, Ill., is driving patient acuity and staffing workload directly and automatically from its existing clinical documentation -- a significant advancement in evidenced-based, outcomes-driven care.

21 Sep 2009

Phytel releases new version of its web-based Proactive Patient Outreach Solution

Phytel, the leading provider of information technology that empowers physician-led health improvement, today announced that version 5 of its web-based Proactive Patient Outreach Solution has been released and fully deployed to all of its customers.

21 Sep 2009

First Edition: September 21, 2009

Today's headlines indicate that President Obama's weekend media blitz will set the stage for this week's health policy action.

21 Sep 2009

The 2009 National Pharmacy Study ranks Prescription Solutions second among mail order pharmacies

Prescription Solutions, a leading pharmacy benefits management (PBM) organization and a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) company, today announced that it received the highest rankings for customer service and cost competitiveness factors among mail order pharmacies in the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 National Pharmacy StudySM.

21 Sep 2009

Widespread misinformation about Obama's healthcare proposals

A new Harris Poll finds that large numbers of people either believe damaging misinformation about the health care proposals being discussed in Washington or are not sure what to believe. The polls also shows that almost half of all adults continue to support what they see as President Obama’s health care reform proposals, significantly but not substantially more than oppose them.

21 Sep 2009

Clothes for women who undergo a mastectomy

One in eight U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, and currently slightly more than half, 56 percent, undergo mastectomy. Few fashion options exist for those who don’t seek reconstructive surgery or postpone it until after their treatment and recovery — a condition the clothier Wear Ease (www.WearEase.com) seeks to remedy.

21 Sep 2009

RAM Technologies' health care suite helps health plans to reduce expenses

Today's economic conditions coupled with the anticipated impacts of health insurance reform are forcing health plans to find ways to reduce expenses. RAM Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of software applications for health care payers, enables health plans to reduce expenses with the cost saving features of their health care administrative solution suite HEALTHsuite(R) and eHealthsuite(TM).

21 Sep 2009