Tag: Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

After 12 months of recession, whither health reform?

Dec 3, 2008• 1

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

We’re in a recession; actually, we’ve been in one for the past year, but no official agency decided to tell us. Perhaps "they" wanted to wait until after the November ’08 Presidential election?

The declaration of recession is the official news from The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), whose mind-numbingly-titled press release, Determination of the December 2007 Peak in Economic Activity, provides the following important details:

* The Business Cycle Dating Committee of NBER met by conference call on 11/28 to discuss whether the U.S. economy was in recession.

* The group figured out that the U.S. economy "peaked" in December 2007.

* They calculated that the 12/07 peak ended the economic expansion that started in November 2001, lasting 73 months.

* The previous expansion in the 1990s lasted 120 months (that would include, but not be limited to, The Clinton Era).

* Other measures of a declining economy — including personal income less transfer payments, real manufacturing and wholesale-retail trade sales, industrial production, and employment estimates based on the U.S. household survey — also peaked some time in the past 13 months.

Hospitals hit by economic downturn

Nov 24, 2008• 2

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Forty percent of American hospitals have seen drops in inpatient admissions, according to the American Hospital Association.

In the AHA’s survey, Report on the Economic Crisis: Initial Impact on Hospitals, it’s clear that hospitals are already experiencing the effects of the economic downturn.

CEOs are considering several cost-cutting tactics in dealing with this financial crisis:

56% of CEOs are postponing renovations or plans to increase capacity
45% are delaying purchase of clinical technology or equipment
39% are postponing investments in new information technology.

Moody’s predicts winners & losers in Obama health reform

Nov 18, 2008

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Moody’s, the credit rating agency, offers their post-election impressions in their special comment, "U.S. Healthcare Industry: Credit Implications of the U.S. Election."

Barack Obama’s campaign roughed out principles for health reform across three issue areas:

Access and affordable health care
Cost reduction
Public health

Moody’s took these as lenses over the state of health care in the U.S. to predict how these principles could play out in an Obama administration.

Promoting access to health care in the U.S. could be a positive for hospitals and medical device manufacturers, whose sheer volumes of patients would increase and uncompensated care and bad debt be reduced. On the downside, though, addressing cost containment through reducing reimbursement would be a negative for hospital finances. The net of lower payments coupled with higher volumes remains to be seen. Still, Moody’s says that the overall impact on hospitals, providers and clinical services will be generally credit positive.

Telehealth right here right now

Nov 14, 2008• 1

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

A very smart doctor told me, "there’s been a realization that the exam room is wherever the patient is."

That simple, elegant and insightful remark was offered by Dr. Jay Sanders, one of the godfathers of telehealth. I quote him here from my report published this week by the California Health Care Foundation. It’s called Right Here Right Now: Ten Telehealth Pioneers Make It Work.

This report is coupled with another by Forrester, Delivering Care Anytime, Anywhere: Telehealth Alters the Medical Ecosystem. My colleagues at Forrester, Carlton Doty and Katie Thompson, have assembled a very current look into the state of telehealth and drivers for the future.

Forrester defines "telehealth" as, "The use of telecommunications and information technologies in any area of health care, including medical intervention, prevention, care management, education, administrative tasks, and even health advocacy….It is a broader term than ‘telemedicine.’"

Entering the era of participatory medicine

Oct 28, 2008• 2

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

I’ve returned from a week of Health 2.0 immersion on the west coast. The top-line finding: we’ve entered the period we can call Participatory Medicine. For some, like the pioneering Gilles Friedman of ACOR, this is nothing new. Other people have never heard of it. It’s global. It’s local. It’s a movement and a verb, as I pointed out thirteen months ago following the inaugural Health 2.0 conference. H20logo_2

Here are some reflections…

On Tuesday, I appeared on a panel on Health 2.0 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco for KQED public radio, sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation. The Club’s motto by founder Edward Adams is, "We only propose to find truth and turn it loose in the world." My fellow panelists resemble that remark! They were the inspiring Amy Tenderich, founder and blogger of Diabetes Mine; and the ebullient, motivating and insightful Dr. Ted Eytan, now with Kaiser Permanente. We riffed on the roots of H2.0, the risks and benefits of people sharing health information and opinions online, and prospects for the future. Amy and Ted were stellar and shared their special perspectives as patient and doctor, respectively. When the podcast online is available, I will point you to it.

Health technology need not go to backburner during economic downturn

Oct 22, 2008• 5

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

In the past several months, there’s been some wringing of hands and some
82pxglassofwater pronouncements of glasses-half-empty concerning health reform and technology innovation.

For us glass-half-full types, here’s something to consider…

Roughly 15,000 physicians in the state of Michigan began to electronically link up this week. The new online service has been developed by Covisint, whose roots are in the automotive industry. Covisint’s client is the Michigan State Medical Society, which looks to the new MSMS Connect network to enable the state’s 15,000 doctors to do e-prescribing, secure messaging, and practice management online. You can learn more about the project here. Covisint is a subsidiary of Compuware.

The service will be live to all on January 1st and will be free to all practicing physicians in the state of Michigan.

W(h)ither thy health benefits?

Oct 13, 2008

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

The headlines read that CFOs are having trouble accessing credit.

What will that mean for health benefits?

A survey of American CFOs and comptrollers from Grant Thornton has found that over half of CFOs have seen credit costs increase. 2/3 find credit harder to come-by than in 2007.

One in two CFOs think the U.S. economy will remain the same over the next 6 months.

The No. 1 pricing pressure concern is employee benefits — 55% are most concerned about benefits, including health and pensions.

In the short term — six months out — 23% of employers expect their headcount to decrease.

Jane’s Hot Points: Getting credit flowing is Job 1 for the Treasury Secretary (separate from stock market woes). Even with the possible infusion of cash into the U.S. market (with similar moves by European and G7 banks under consideration), the credit crisis won’t be reversed immediately. CFOs anticipate the pricing pressures plaguing their daily businesses will persist for at least six months.

As health benefit designs return to their drawing boards, we can expect two impacts: (1) some employers forced to drop the health benefit; and (2), further erosion of the benefit, in the form of insureds bearing more costs.

That is, if the employee happens to land in the 77% who will be lucky enough to keep his

Economic stress — bad for your health

Oct 8, 2008• 3

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Stress due to the economic downturn is causing more of us to be irritable, angry, sleepless, and self-medicating through food.

And stress in the workplace is costing business $300 billion a year, according to the American Psychological Association (APA), due to the loss of productivity, absenteeism, turnover and increased medical costs.

The APA completed its survey, Stress in America, in August 2008 — more than a month ago, well before yesterday’s biggest stock market fall in 4 years.

The APA warns that the levels of stress felt by Americans due to the financial downturn can wreak significant havoc on health. 46% of Americans are now worried about providing for their families’ basic needs. One can imagine this number will be much higher based on the past few weeks’ financial events.

Will tighter credit slow medical technology innovation?

Oct 1, 2008• 4

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Medical technology is one of the most innovative sectors in the U.S. economy. The market is fueled by aging populations, expanding chronic conditions, and a forecasted growth in demand for companion diagnostics to use in concert with personalized, targeted therapies.

In its detailed update, Pulse of the industry: US medical technology report 2008, Ernst & Young describes the industry, its opportunities and challenges.

In summary: U.S. med-tech still leads the world, but the larger economy could compromise both the U.S. lead in the sector as well as health innovations.

Health reform prospects in the wake of Black Sunday

Sep 23, 2008• 20

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation," said John McCain to a reporter in an interview in Contingencies magazine. The article is titled: "Better Care at Lower Cost for Every American."

This isn’t a Photo-shopped, made-up comment. See page 30 of the publication, the last paragraph in the left hand-column which continues into the right side.

Contingencies is the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. These are those sober professionals who, according to their mission statement, "put a price tag on risk." They do that through evaluating the likelihood of future events, and, in their words, "designing creative ways to reduce the likelihood of undesirable events."