The Act would offer professional development Services to rural providers

The U.S. Senate on a 97-0 vote has approved the Expanding Capacity for Health Outcomes Act to expand Project ECHO, a step to offer professional development services and other support to healthcare rural providers in remote and underserved regions.

Project ECHO is modeled after a step at the institute of University of New Mexico that connects rural patients to rural providers through telemedicine. Project ECHO previously concentrated on care for patients with hepatitis C.

Under the legislation, which moves to the U.S. House that has a companion bill, Project ECHO now will extend across the rural areas of nation to serve a wide variety of healthcare requirements. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) sponsored the bill.

Project ECHO will utilize videoconferencing technology to link specialists with rural primary care providers or rural providers. Weekly “teleECHO clinics” will combine didactic teaching (ways to better manage work) with mentoring and case-based learning, in accordance to a statement from Hatch.

These clinics, or lectures, could cover such areas as treatments for several diseases, offering behavioral health treatment in rural areas, and making improvements in public health interventions like HIV and tuberculosis.

The aim, in accordance to Hatch, is to increase expert knowledge among rural providers while giving a network of assistance, helping the provider retention rate, decreasing isolation and offering more access to specialists.

The legislation needs the Department of Health and Human Services to assess if Project ECHO improves the quality of care, and calls for the Government Accountability Office to assess increased efficiencies and cost savings via the program.

“We are now one step closer to supporting new ways to train health providers and deliver health care,” Sen. Schatz stated in a statement. “Technology is modifying and changing the way medical professionals connect with each other and their sufferers. Our bill capitalizes on this technology to give health experts in hard-to-reach areas the specialized training they need and assist them to reach more patients.

 

Health insurance exchange not the solutions of New Mexico

While several who’ve never been capable to afford insurance are now capable to do so because of the Affordable Care Act, it is very clear to most persons that the private insurance exchanges – a huge component of ACA to solve the issue of the uninsured – is in critical trouble. A bailout by the state or federal government isn’t a reasonable option.

The great news is there is a Plan B.

Our complicated private insurance system is expensive. Contributors have to deal with various policies with several coverage, deductibles and co-pays. Dividing up the small population of state among several insurance companies leads to minor risk pools and high prices. So, it makes sense for the state to self-insure and set up our own health policy that operates just like a co-op, gives freedom of choice of contributor, involving across state-lines, and which gives a comprehensive set of services. 2 independent solutions of New Mexico researches have indicated that such a plan will mitigate rising health care prices by hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, within 5 years.

The Health Security Act is a viable, well-crafted, and financially sound alternative. The ACA permits for this type of alternative via its waiver for state innovation provision.

In the state of New Mexico, the insurance exchange enrollment continues to remain far below sustainable levels. Private insurers providing policies on the exchange claim they can’t make a profit without increasing premiums and other out-of-pocket prices, and, in addition, continuing to decrease the number of physicians in their networks. The low enrollment numbers, they claim, have resulted in those with larger health threats signing up under the exchange. In addition to appeals for double-digit increases in premiums, insurers are no longer providing PPO policies on the exchange, which enable even those willing to pay extra to choose out-of-network contributors.

A latest issue of the Albuquerque Journal ran a story on Presbyterian’s decision to drop out of the New Mexico health insurance exchange due to the unacceptable profit levels. Likewise, in the last year Blue Cross Blue Shield withdrew from the state exchange when regulators refused their appeal for a 52% hike. Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) has since came back to the exchange, but is now claiming a 93% premium increase.

Medicaid now covers 40% of New Mexico residents, with added prices to the state, resulting in cuts in amounts to physicians and hospitals. The affect of this recent Department of Human Services decision will be to decrease the number of contributors willing to accept Medicaid. It might also result in cost shifting – raising the cost of care for those patients not on Medicaid to compensate for the lower amounts.

And, of course, pharmaceutical costs continue to increase in double-digit percentages.

Gas and oil revenue has been meager and tax cuts approved in last legislative session have negatively impacted state revenues. The strapped budget of state has resulted in the series of declared austerity measures at the institutions of larger learning and public school districts.

Rising health care prices will sustain to compete with other significant state requirements. Something requires to be done to deal this situation. The Legislature convenes on the day of Jan. 17, and the Health Security Act, which will be launched at that time, gives a well-thought-out alternative to the ongoing issues of health expenditures and access.

The support for the Health Security Act is there. 34 counties and municipalities from Santa Fe to Roswell have endorsed it. Over 145 diverse New Mexico agencies need to see it approved. A solutions of New Mexico in support of the plan was approved at the state League of United Latin American Citizens convention previous month.

Now it is time for the legislators to get completely on board to make this solutions of New Mexico happen. Now is the period to make the voices heard on this problem.

Hospital EHR Adoption of Basic Networks Tops 83 percent, CEHRT 96 percent

Most hospitals are utilizing the certified EHR technology, but certain types of hospitals still lag behind in EHR adoption and use.

Certified EHR technology is in place at most hospitals with basic EHR technology adoption also reaching an all-time high, in accordance to new data issued by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

The latest data brief made present on the HealthIT.gov Dashboard puts the percentage of hospitals with CEHRT at 96% in the year 2015, down nearly a full percentage point from 2014's figure of 96.9%. Hospital adoption of basic EHR technology, meanwhile, rose from 75.5 percent in 2014 to 83.8 percent in 2015. All told, since 2008 hospital adoption of the latter rose by nearly nine times, from 9.4 percent to the current figure.

Leading the way in adoption were Maryland (95%), Nevada (94%), Washington (94%), Wyoming (94%), Massachusetts (93%), Virginia (93%), Utah (93%), Arkansas (90%), and New Mexico (90%).

This ONC data once again needs clarification as to the different between the types of EHR technology. A handy chart accompanying the data brief shows how basic EHR with clinician notes stacks up to comprehensive EHR. Other than supporting advanced directions, the former does everything the latter does for electronic clinical information.