02/01/2012
California officials are directing residents to a website that explains the benefits of long-term care plans and provides details on available policies. Many adults do not purchase long-term care insurance because of the cost or because they do not think they need it. HealthyCal.
01/25/2012
On Tuesday, Kaiser Permanente announced that about nine million of its members now can use mobile phones to access their electronic health information. Members with Android smartphones also can use the no-cost mobile application to email physicians, obtain lab results and order prescription refills. An iPhone version of the app is expected to be released in the coming months. Healthcare IT News et al.
01/19/2012
Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise Services division and Blue Shield of California have signed a five-year contract agreement that will give Blue Shield access to new services from HP to improve health care affordability and efficiency. In addition, HP will continue to provide Blue Shield with technology infrastructure and other support. Financial details of the contract were not disclosed. Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, Healthcare IT News.
01/13/2012
California-based Adventist Health will expand its affiliation with health IT company Cerner and roll out Cerner's electronic health record system at more than 130 outpatient clinics in four states, including at the largest California rural health clinic network. Alan Soderblom, vice president and chief information officer at Adventist Health, said the new initiative will complement the use of EHRs in the health system's hospital and home health settings and improve coordination. Kansas City Business Journal et al.
01/13/2012
UCLA's School of Public Health and Health Net have announced plans for a nationwide expansion of the health literacy social media program teen2extreme, or T2X. The initiative, which launched with the help of a $1.1 million NIH grant, aims to help adolescents better understand their health care access options. The T2X website allows teens to sign up for mobile phone text alerts and chat online with health care experts and nurses. Payers & Providers.
01/06/2012
On Thursday, HHS released an interim final rule detailing standards for the electronic transfer of funds in the health care industry. The rule was mandated by the federal health reform law. The new rule outlines the standards for the format and content of the data that a health insurer sends to its bank when it seeks to pay a claim to a health care provider electronically. The rule also requires the use of a trace number to automatically link medical bills from health care providers with payments from health plans. HHS noted that the interim final rule became effective Jan. 1, and all HIPAA-covered health insurers must comply with the regulations by Jan. 1, 2014. HHS estimated that the new standards would reduce administrative costs in the health care industry by $4.5 billion over the next 10 years. Modern Healthcare, Healthcare IT News.
01/04/2012
UC-Davis Health System has signed a memorandum of understanding with the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, for a partnership to improve access to care for its three million residents, 27% of whom live in rural settings. The partnership will concentrate on sharing data and research on telehealth, scientific and technical development, as well as on neurological disorders. Sacramento Business Journal, Modern Healthcare.
12/22/2011
Attorneys have filed a class-action lawsuit against the UCLA Health System over a security breach in September that exposed data on 16,288 patients. The suit is seeking as much as $16 million in damages. Modern Healthcare.
12/16/2011
The California Health Information Partnership and Services Organization has reached a deal with CDW Healthcare for technology services to support electronic health record adoption in California. CalHIPSO is one of 62 federally designated regional extension centers and is responsible for providing health information technology support to all of California except Los Angeles and Orange counties. Under the deal, CDW Healthcare will provide CalHIPSO's more than 6,500 members with guidance on EHR selection, installation and post-implementation training and support. CDW Healthcare also will offer its supporting hardware and software through CalHIPSO. InformationWeek, Government Health IT.
12/15/2011
During the fourth quarter of 2011, the Blue Shield of California Foundation awarded $8.9 million in health care grants. In total, the foundation awarded $27 million in grants in 2011, $5 million more than last year. The Q4 grants include $4.5 million to help counties, community clinics and other safety-net providers improve their use of electronic health records and other health information technology; $2.3 million to boost access to care by funding infrastructure to help handle augmented Medi-Cal funding for low-income Californians; and more than $2 million to target domestic violence as part of the foundation's Blue Shield Against Violence campaign. San Francisco Business Times.
12/12/2011
The Humboldt Health Alert website now lets users subscribe to have public health alerts sent directly to their computers, phones or mobile devices. The website -- which was launched five years ago by the Department of Health and Human Services' public health branch -- provides information about communicable diseases such as the flu and pertussis, updates about vaccines and vaccination clinics, notices about product recalls and alerts about local water conditions. Eureka Times-Standard.
12/06/2011
CMS has announced a final rule allowing certain qualified organizations to access its claims database. Organizations can use the claims data to develop public performance reports on physicians, hospitals and other health care providers. Modern Healthcare et al.
11/30/2011
On Nov. 21, the law firm Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood filed a class-action lawsuit against Sutter Health in a response to a stolen computer containing personal information on more than four million patients. On Nov. 16, the law firm Harris & Rubel filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of a patient against Sutter Medical Foundation and Sutter Physician Services. Both lawsuits allege that Sutter did not have adequate safeguards in place and failed to notify affected patients within 30 days of the incident. eWeek, Becker's Hospital Review.
11/29/2011
The state Department of Health Care Services' California Partnership for Long-Term Care has launched a new website -- RUReadyCA.org -- to help California residents prepare for their individual long-term health care needs. The website comes in response to new research showing that two-thirds of California seniors will need long-term care, but few have prepared for it. The site provides users with various situations and options to address their needs. Sacramento Business Journal.
11/23/2011
In a study involving 160 California women, researchers from UC-San Diego and California State University-San Marcos found that Text4baby -- a text message service that sends health advice to pregnant women -- is highly effective at encouraging women to talk to their doctors, remember appointments and take other healthy steps. The study found that nearly 75% of the women learned through Text4baby about medical warning signs in their pregnancies that they previously had not been aware of. The study also found that more than 70% of women said they were prompted by the text messages to discuss certain topics with their physicians. HHS is studying ways to evaluate the program's efficacy at a national level. Fierce Healthcare.