Karren Verdolivo, AT&T Inc.

Miller:  Merges with Top Litigation Firm »»
Blue Shield of CA:  Plans Major Computer Upgrade »»
CalOptima:  Launches HMO for Dual Eligibles »»
Domanico:  Becomes CEO of Oregon's Legacy Health »»
ECG:  Moves Into Heartland »»
HeartMath:  Presents Workshop for Healthcare Leaders »»
Hythiam:  Expands Presence in Key Metropolitan Markets »»
Refractec:  Collaborates on 3D Patient Education Program »»

Long-Time ABL Member Ron Williams to Helm Aetna »»
Record Share Of Economy Spent on Healthcare »»
Consumers Emerge as Key to Health Records »»
EMR vs. EHR:  What's The Difference? »»
U.S. Hospital Construction Booming »»
Emergency Care Suffers Nationally; California Does Better »»
Huge Increase in Alzheimer's, Dementia Predicted »»

Governor's Budget Proposal Addresses Health Programs »»
AFL-CIO to Lobby for Employer Health Insurance »»

MooersBOOKSHELF: Popular ABL Conference speakers from the Mooers Group are now publishing Mooers BOOKSHELF as "the place where you can find out what we think is worth reading."  »»

Blue Shield of CA:  Plans Major Computer Upgrade
Blue Shield of California, where David Joyner is a senior executive, is set to revamp its aging computer system, a project expected to cost the health insurer $100 million or more by the time the multi-year upgrade is complete. Preparatory work such as cleaning up current systems and exploring the impact on business processes will be done this year. By 2007, the major portion of the upgrade work is expected to begin. Key elements will include adding more self-service functions to BSC's Internet capabilities and a business process redesign that will add more automation to BSC's back-office operations. (San Francisco Business Times, 1/0/06)

CalOptima:  Launches HMO for Dual Eligibles
On January 1, CalOPTIMA, where Richard Chambers is CEO, launched its new HMO plan called OneCare for residents dually eligible for Medicare and Medi-Cal, which will allow them to choose a primary care physician to coordinate all of their care. About 14,000 of Orange County's 55,000 dual eligibles initially enrolled in the plan. (Orange County Register, 1/5/06)

Domanico:  Becomes CEO of Oregon's Legacy Health  
Lee Domanico has left El Camino Hospital to become CEO of Legacy Health System, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit organization that operates five hospitals and additional facilities. During Lee's tenure as El Camino's CEO, since October 2000, the hospital significantly improved its financial position and gained voter approval for a bond measure to help finance the construction of a planned new, seismically-safe hospital building. It also won national awards for quality healthcare and innovation, including: >>

ECG:  Moves Into Heartland
ECG Management Consultants, Inc., where Gary Edmiston is Managing Principle, has opened a Midwest office, in St. Louis, Missouri, to complement its Seattle, Boston, San Diego and Washington, D.C. locations that provide services for hospitals, health systems, physician practices and academic medical centers. >>

HeartMath:  Presents Workshop for Healthcare Leaders
Bruce Cryer, CEO of HeartMath, invites you to attend a workshop, on February 1st in San Francisco, for healthcare leaders that will reduce stress and improve the quality of your life. Tested on five continents, HeartMath's The Power to Change Performance is a one-day program that combines research-based tools with award-winning technology to give you significant improvements in stress levels, cognitive state, well-being, and emotional balance.  Meanwhile, HeartMath is cited in the book Megatrends 2010 as an example of Megatrend #6: "The wave of conscious solutions." (Earlier, Megatrends 2000 was #1 on the NYT Best Seller list). >>

Hythiam:  Expands Presence in Key Metropolitan Markets
Hythiam, Inc., where Rick Anderson is CAO, has recently licensed a variety of new facilities to offer its PROMETA protocols designed to treat substance dependence: two Compass Health Systems behavioral health care sites in South Florida; the Neuroscience Institute of Florida, in Celebration, FL; the Las Vegas, Nevada-based Center for Addiction Medicine; the Cerritos, California Family Medical Group; and New Beginnings Treatment Centers, in Atlanta, Georgia. >>

Refractec:  Collaborates on 3D Patient Education Program
Refractec, Inc., where Mitch Campbell is CEO, has teamed with interactive design and multimedia development firm Eyemaginations, Inc. to create a specialized presbyopia patient education animation program for distribution to more than 800 ophthalmologists across the U.S. It features Refractec's NearVision CK, the only non-laser treatment for near vision loss associated with presbyopia. >> 

Ron Williams to Helm Aetna
Aetna Inc. announced John Rowe will step down as CEO next month and will be succeeded by Aetna's President, Ronald Williams (a former long-time ABL Member). Rowe has often said his most important move in Aetna's turnaround was hiring Williams in March 2001, three months into his own tenure. Before heading to Hartford, CT, Ron was Group President of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., where he honed a reputation as a deft cost cutter and one of the industry's most skilled managers. At Aetna, Ron has carried out many of the initiatives that helped restore profitability, such as overhauling the corporation's technology systems to better identify areas of cost and weak profit. (Wall Street Journal, 1/5/06) 

Record Share Of Economy Spent on Healthcare
Rising healthcare costs now consume 16% of the nation's economic output -- the highest proportion ever, the federal government said. The nation's healthcare bill continued to grow substantially faster than inflation and wages, increasing by almost 8% in 2004. Political, medical and economic leaders and experts have long warned that healthcare cost trends will gradually overwhelm the economy. The overall cost of healthcare doubled from 1993 to 2004, reports CMS. In 2004, the nation spent almost $140 billion more for healthcare than the year before. In 1997, healthcare accounted for 13.6% of GDP. The healthcare increase of 7.9% in 2004 was almost three times the overall national inflation rate, which was 2.7%. However, pharmaceutical drugs increased by less than 10% for the first time in more than a decade. Defenders of increased drug spending have often argued that those added costs would keep people healthier and reduce the amount spent on hospitals and doctors. The 2004 stats told a different story, though, with an increase in doctor costs of 9% from 2003 and an increase in hospital costs of 8.6%. The report's authors said the jumps appeared to be associated with higher Medicare reimbursement rates for some doctors and, anecdotally, to an upswing in construction of new hospitals. A report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality compiled data from dozens of sources collected by the federal government and others to create 179 quality measures, including 46 "core" measures. Researchers concluded that the overall quality of care in 2005 had improved at a rate of 2.8% from 2003. That was the same increase as the year before, and many measures showed no improvement or even decreases. (Washington Post, 1/10/06)

Consumers Emerge as Key to Health Records
Among 440 health information technology professionals who responded to a HIMSS survey, 31% cited lack of consumer awareness as the largest obstacle to personal health record use, followed by privacy concerns, 17%; cost and "consumers don't think it's necessary," both at 13%; security issues, 11%; and "other" or "don't know," 15%. " Without the engagement of physicians and hospitals, consumers will not see the value of PHRs, won't trust that their medical information is secure, and won't be aware that such products even exist," said Edward Fotsch, MD, CEO of Medem, a provider of physician-patient communication services. When consumers were surveyed, 80% found value in having anytime-anywhere access to healthcare information; 73% - being able to get test results on the Internet; 70% - being able to check or refill prescriptions; 63% - scheduling tests or appointments; 58% - e-mails with their caregivers; 52% - maintaining an immunization record; and 40% - being able to check for errors in their medical records. (Modern Healthcare's HITS, 1/22/05)

EMR vs. EHR:  What's The Difference?
Electronic Health Records "are what the nation aspires to and what President Bush calls for," but Electronic Medical Records are mostly what we have right now, said Pat Wise, RN, a retired U.S. Army colonel and HIMSS' VP of EHR initiatives. An EHR is made up of two components: a personal health record that includes patient-inputted information on symptoms or disease-management data; and an EMR or EMR summary. An EMR is owned by the healthcare provider, Wise said. "You don't want every little bit or byte they have on you. You want summary data, and that summary becomes part of your EHR." An EMR can contain episodic information from a local hospital stay as well as a visit to an ER in another state. An EHR is a cradle-to-the-grave summary record that may not contain all the information collected over a lifetime of receiving healthcare, but can contain pointers to where more information can be found. Wise said the federal government erred when it granted a $7.5 million contract to the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology to evaluate certification criteria for electronic health records. "In all actuality, they're certifying vendors' ambulatory-care EMR products, because there is no real EHR yet, so now the marketplace is totally confused." (Modern Healthcare’s HITS, 12/29/05)

U.S. Hospital Construction Booming
The U.S. is "in the middle of the biggest hospital-construction boom" in more than 50 years. The hospital industry has spent almost $100 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars in the past five years on new facilities, a 47% increase from the previous five years, with spending likely to reach a record $23.7 billion in 2005, according to the Census Bureau. According to USA Today, the "money is being spent on more luxurious buildings packed with advanced equipment," with a focus on profitable treatments, such as heart surgery and neonatal care, that are reimbursed at higher rates by private health insurers and Medicare. In addition, hospitals have begun to move from inner cities to the suburbs, a trend that "threatens to reduce medical care for the poor," USA Today reports. (USA Today, 1/3/06)

Emergency Care Suffers Nationally; California Does Better
Emergency medical care in the U.S. received an overall C- grade in the first national state-by-state analysis, conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians, however California received the highest overall grade, with a B+. The measures were divided into four categories: Access to emergency care; Quality and patient safety; Medical liability environment; and Public health and injury prevention. More than half of states received below-average grades. Contributing factors include: The number of EDs in the U.S. has decreased by 14% since 1993, as the number of emergency patients has increased. The number of uninsured patients who use EDs for primary care has increased. Hospitals have less ability to transfer emergency patients to hospital beds since U.S. hospitals closed 103,000 medical-surgical beds and 7,800 intensive-care beds in the 1990s. (USA Today, 1/10/06; American Hospital Association)

Huge Increase in Alzheimer's, Dementia Predicted
An international group of 12 experts estimates that 24.3 million people worldwide have dementia today, with 4.6 million new cases every year. The number of people with dementia will double every 20 years, to 81.1 million by 2040, they predict. In developed countries such as the U.S., the number of cases will double by 2040, but will more than triple in India, China and other countries in south Asia and the western Pacific, the experts wrote. The prediction is "very much in line" with the forecast made two years ago for the U.S. by the Alzheimer's Association. The international experts (and the U.S. Alzheimer's Association) are recommending public health measures that focus on reducing risk factors for cerebral blood vessel damage, such as high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and cholesterol. (HealthDay News, 12/15/05)

Governor's Budget Proposal Addresses Health Programs
Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed a $125.6-billion FY2006-07 budget that includes a $1.2 billion (4%) spending increase for health and human services programs, including: *$72 million to enroll uninsured children in Healthy Families and Medi-Cal; *$100 million to help pay for health care for the new enrollees in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families; *5% scheduled payment rate reduction for physicians treating Medi-Cal patients; *$19 million to hire 147 people to inspect nursing homes, hospitals and other health care facilities and enforce state laws; and *$47 million for new disaster response programs to help the state and local governments prepare for disease outbreaks, terrorist attacks and natural disasters. Most of the increased funding "reflects rapid inflation in existing healthcare services," rather than new programs. (Sacramento Bee, L.A. Times, Modesto Bee, 1/11/06)
AFL-CIO to Lobby for Employer Health Insurance
AFL-CIO has announced an effort to pursue legislation in 31 states that would require large corporations to spend a percentage of their payroll on employee health insurance. Most of the bills would require that the largest private employers in a state devote 8% to 11% of their payroll to health insurance or contribute a fee to a state insurance fund. (Bloomberg/South Florida Sun Sentinel, 1/6/06)  Meanwhile, a majority of businesses that provide retiree health benefits will accept government subsidies for continuing to provide retiree drug coverage at least as good as Medicare’s new drug benefit, according to a survey of 300 of the nation’s largest private-sector employers. Among those firms that will accept the subsidy in 2006, 82% say that they are “very" or “somewhat" likely to accept it again in 2007. Looking ahead to 2010, 50% say they are likely to maintain coverage and accept the subsidy, while 22% say they are unlikely to do so, and 28% say they do not know. (Healthcare Daily Data Byte, 12/28/05)