| |
Member Newsletter
October 2007
Newt Notes
 November is Diabetes Month. I would like to encourage each of you to take the personal responsibility to assess your current health status. At a minimum you should know your Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, blood glucose, and lipids. Empowered with this data you can begin the journey of 'real change' to improve your health status.
A few years ago an important clinical trial, The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), reported very encouraging results on the impact of lifestyle changes on the prevention of type 2 diabetes. DPP was the first major clinical trial of Americans at high risk for Type 2 Diabetes to show that lifestyle changes in diet and exercise and losing a little weight can prevent or delay the disease. The trial showed that participants who made lifestyle changes reduced their risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes by 58 percent and that lifestyle intervention was effective for participants of all ages and all ethnic groups. On average, the lifestyle changes were physical activity maintained at 30 minutes per day, usually with walking or other moderate intensity exercise, and a loss of five to seven percent of body weight. So this November, think prevention; think healthy.
We are looking forward next week to holding our 4th Quarter member meeting in Naples, Florida. Our Center members will have the opportunity to hear from Gallup, Ritz-Carlton and Toyota University. We believe that by taking the Center's vision of a 21st Century, Individualized, Intelligent Health System, the transformational model Nancy Desmond and I outlined in The Art of Transformation, and combining those with the Gallup model of employee engagement, the Ritz-Carlton model of quality and customer service, and the Toyota University model of lean thinking and creating customer value, we can create a powerful new model to strengthen our efforts to transform health and healthcare. In particular, this is likely to have enormous implications for our 21st Century Hospital Project and our Healthy Workforce and Community Project.
Congratulations go to our friends at Siemens, a Center for Health Transformation Charter Member, who won a national award for their work with us on a joint op-ed published earlier this year. Siemens won PR Newswire's Platinum Award for the best editorial/op-ed. I co-authored the piece with Janet Dillione, President of Health Services at Siemens, on the value of adopting health information technology. It ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 9, 2007.
This award was not only for those in healthcare — it went across every industry. Other winners in other categories included Southwest Airlines, Goodyear, Nestlé, Ogilvy, Chrysler, and Johnson & Johnson (the latter also being members of The Center). Congratulations again to Siemens for a fabulous partnership and a well-deserved award.
Perhaps you also noted the recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, "Why We'll Never Cure Cancer" (October 27, 2007). It's an arresting headline atop a good column. Dr. Peter B. Bach argues, marshalling compelling statistics to back his case that we'll have little hope of curing cancer so long as we do such a poor job of applying the life saving knowledge we already have. His point's well taken, but the editorial's title's also dangerous. We will cure cancer. As current Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner and former National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director, Dr. Andy Von Eschenbach has explained, new technologies we are only now beginning to harness and exploit make that a near certainty. What's uncertain is how long it'll take us to develop these cures. That's an investment and management problem, and we're far too passive about it. So, yes, Dr. Bach's absolutely right that we need to do a much better job of applying what we know today. But we also need to innovate much more quickly as well.
The need for both better execution and faster innovation was also emphasized by another headline many of us discussed this month: "Staph Fatalities May Exceed AIDS Deaths" (Associated Press, October 17, 2007). This is a particularly pressing issue for our health system because about half of these 'superbug' infections are contracted in hospitals and other medical facilities. As many of you know well, our best hospitals are much better at preventing and controlling these infections than our nation's worst facilities. That should not be tolerated. But also intolerable is that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other bacteria are growing drug resistant faster than new antibiotics are coming on line. This problem could grow much, much worse. Sixty percent of staph infections are now drug resistant. From 1983-87, sixteen new antibiotics were approved by the FDA; ten were approved ten years latter from 1993-97. Only four were approved between 2003 and 2007. We're losing the race. We can't afford to make innovation an afterthought.
I want to conclude my notes for this month by mentioning a recent Amazon review of The Art of Transformation. Dr. Thomas Prewitt of Stillwater, Oklahoma writes, "Can you imagine a system which develops specific metrics that drive decision making based on constant communication, innovation, and improvement in an environment of agile, networked teams with a culture of shared purpose, engagement, and fun? Sounds like something mid-level management will describe in a memo that the consultant will talk about in a lunch meeting in two months, right? Well, Speaker Gingrich and Ms. Desmond detail how to accomplish this in your organization."
I want to thank Dr. Prewitt for his wonderful review, and I hope that it encourages more individuals and organizations to purchase a copy and transform their workplace.
back to top
Project Spotlight
 The Overcoming Alzheimer's Project
The past several months have seen two significant developments in the Center for Health Transformation's Overcoming Alzheimer's Project, and both provide opportunities for ongoing collaboration with The Center on this important work.
Alzheimer's Disease: A Megacommunity Approach to Prevention, Detection, Treatment and Care
On September 17th 2007, the Center for Health Transformation and Booz Allen Hamilton engaged nearly 80 leaders from both public and private sectors in a simulation to explore how to address the challenge associated with Alzheimer's disease. Booz Allen developed and conducted this strategic event to explore how collaboration across the megacommunity can enhance prevention, detection, treatment and care to mitigate the impact of Alzheimer's disease on patients, caregivers and society.
The simulation included representatives of key industries, advocacy organizations, federal agencies, and patients and their caregivers. Outcomes focused on:
- Understanding stakeholders' priorities and concerns
- Identifying integrated priorities across the megacommunity
- Defining processes for how the megacommunity should move forward
Booz Allen Hamilton is now developing a report for The Center's members. The white paper will detail key findings and explain how the Alzheimer's megacommunity will continue its collaboration beyond the Summit.
To receive a copy of this report or to learn how your organization can participate in future collaboration, please contact Robert Egge at (202) 375-2001 or regge@gingrichgroup.com.
back to top
Transforming Example
By offering HIPAA-compliant transactions and other functionality at no charge to providers, Availity has streamlined administrative workflow, reduced costs, and ultimately improved the patient experience.
Physicians, hospitals, and other health care constituents who once had to access separate systems, phone numbers, or use other manual means to transact with multiple payers, can now log on to the Availity® Health Information Network, a secure web portal, to conduct routine administrative, financial, and clinical functions.
The goal was to create a multi-payer, multi-provider solution that would remove administrative inefficiencies, streamline provider workflow, and accelerate the exchange of information between health plans and health care professionals. Moreover, to offer access to all health care providers, it had to leverage the Internet as a secure, neutral, HIPAA-compliant transaction exchange — at no or minimal cost to providers. Because health care is best managed locally, the ultimate goal of Availity was to strengthen the community by bringing health plans and health care professionals together in select regions to better serve the health care needs of those regions.
Availity supports the HIPAA transaction set—claim submissions, claim status inquiries, remittance, eligibility and benefits inquiries, and authorization and referral submissions and inquiries. Availity also supports real-time claim adjudication for those payers with back-end systems that support it. This means if the claim passes through all edit files successfully, it can adjudicate and return information to the health care provider, such as amount paid, in seconds. This real-time connectivity between Availity and health care stakeholders has revolutionized the manner in which electronic administrative transactions are performed. Additionally, integration of these transactions with practice management and hospital information systems enables real-time population of accounts receivables and patient records.
In May 2006, Availity formally entered the clinical space by launching the Availity® Care ProfileSM, an electronic health record sourced from claims and other information sources. That same year, the CareCalcSM service was also launched, which helps determine a patient's financial responsibility in real-time. Responses are based on member benefits, provider contractual allowances, deductibles and benefit maximum accumulators at the time of inquiry.
In 2007, the company entered the financial space by launching the CareReadSM service, which allows health care providers to swipe a patient's magnetic stripe-enabled member ID card through a three track-enabled card reader connected to the computer and read the information contained on the card. Availity has plans to support financial transactions, such as debit and credit charges, with the CareRead service.
These services were launched to support Availity's basic health plan transactions and offer a true one-stop shop" for a myriad of health care transactions. Availity plans to offer other value-added services as the market demands and is positioned to effectively utilize them.
By offering HIPAA-compliant transactions and other functionality at no charge to providers, Availity has streamlined administrative workflow, reduced costs, and ultimately improved the patient experience. When the Availity Health Information Network was first introduced into the health care market in September 2001, very few physician offices had internet access, and almost none had experience using internet-based applications. From the ground-up, the Availity Health Information Network has been designed to benefit all health care providers, including physician offices, from single providers to multi-specialty practices; hospitals and integrated delivery networks; pharmacies; laboratories; and ancillary providers.
To Learn More »
back to top
|
|
CHT in the News
October 22, 2007
Center for Health Transformation and Healthways Seek "Excellence" in Healthcare
Read More
October 22, 2007
GOP Talks healthcare at Georgia conference - WSB-TV
The Center's Founder Newt Gingrich attends the Republican Governors Association weekend retreat.
Read More
October 22, 2007
Gingrich's causes can be profitable - The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Read More
October 18, 2007
Jindal's health care plan a national model
The Center's Founder Newt Gingrich discusses Congressman Bobby Jindal's healthcare reform plan.
Read More
October 18, 2007
Nique & Newt's Full Court Press on Diabetes - AccessNorthGa.com
Gordon Sawyer highlights The Center's Founder Newt Gingrich and NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins's "Full Court Press on Diabetes"
Read More
October 18, 2007
HC Innovations Announces National Clinical Advisory Board - ADN News Network
The Center's Project Director Jim Frogue is named to the National Clinical Advisory Board.
Read More
October 17, 2007
Siemens Medical Solutions wins national PR award for op-ed co-written The Center founder Newt Gingrich
Siemens Medical Solutions wins a PR News Platinum PR Award for the Gingrich/Dillione Op-Ed "Getting the Healthcare Field Wired"
Read More
October 15, 2007
Employer-based health care is terminal - St. Petersburg Times
Read More
October 15, 2007
Conservatives and Medicaid
The Center's Project Director Jim Frogue discusses conservatives' role in Medicaid transformation.
Read More
October 15, 2007
One Cheer for Doctor Hillary: Right Problems, Wrong Solutions
The Center's Founder Newt Gingrich and Project Director David Merritt comment on the major components of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's health-reform plan.
Read More
October 11, 2007
A Bipartisan Approach
In Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel's new book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America, the authors highlight Newt Gingrich and Hillary Clinton's proposal for the adoption of HIT.
Read More
October 2, 2007
The Center's Founder Newt Gingrich Rules Out Presidential Bid
Commitment to Health Transformation and The Center's Contributes to Decision
Read More
|
|
