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When Dr. Lee Sacks was in a private practice with two other family physicians, he said, they were so busy with time-consuming insurance paperwork that it was difficult to keep up with trends in patient care.

Most Americans receive their care from practices of fewer than five doctors.

As the top administrative physician at the largest provider of medical care in Chicago, Sacks is lending resources to the more than 3,200 independent doctors, largely in small practices, affiliated with Advocate Health Care in hopes of improving quality of care.

If doctors in small practices don’t get funds and support to equip their offices with the latest technology and quality data, Sacks said, there will be little hope for President Barack Obama and Congress to effectively implement health-care reform that is high-quality and cost-effective.

“Some of that is coaching and training, and some of that is infrastructure, data and feedback.”

Advocate says its efforts to help individual doctors and those in smaller practices are paying off. Over the past two years, Sacks said, smaller practices that once scored in the 60th or 70th percentile on measurements of quality are routinely in the 90th percentile, much like large practices.

Ways to improve quality of care and patient outcomes can be as simple as paying for doctors and their staff to attend a daylong workshop or providing physicians with e-prescribing technology, which reduces errors. These are among Advocate’s efforts to improve patient care, which Sacks thinks could work more broadly across the country.

Under the stimulus package approved by Congress and signed by Obama in February, doctors will receive more than $40,000 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over a five-year period beginning in 2011 for the electronic conversion of medical records.

“Physicians are faced with an unprecedented offer from the federal government to essentially pay them to automate their practices and provide better care for patients with electronic records,” said Glen Tullman, chief executive of Allscripts Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc[.], the nation’s largest publicly traded electronic health record firm. “Advocate is offering them a relatively easy first step that’s both a simple solution to a key public safety issue and an on-ramp to the complete electronic health record.”

Sacks expects hospitals to be called on to reduce costs, improve patient outcomes and reduce errors.

“We know we have to do more with less,” he said. “I can’t imagine that additional money is going to be enough to offset the additional coverage.”

Technorati Tags: patient rights

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WASHINGTON — The push for universal electronic health records, a long-simmering issue in the healthcare debate, is gaining fresh momentum with the new administration and Congress, but privacy concerns continue to confound policymakers.

President Obama has set a goal of digitizing every American’s health record by 2014, and he included $19 billion to that end in the economic stimulus package.

But the question remains, how do health IT providers ensure that patients remain in control of their most sensitive personal data in a digital healthcare regime?

At the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference today, a panel of experts took up that question, acknowledging that it doesn’t really have an answer at this point.

“This is one of those issues that has been going round and round and round for years,” said Joel Slackman, managing director at the BlueCross BlueShield Association.

But in the case of the stimulus money, that debate is going to be cut short.

“The time in which things have to be done is incredibly compressed,” Slackman said.

The IT provisions in the stimulus bill amended the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, broadening its scope to cover tech firms offering personal health portals.

“I don’t know if we’ve gotten there yet,” Torres said.

The advent of the Web-based personal healthcare portal was greeted with significant privacy concerns.

“At Microsoft we decided very early on with our HealthVault product that consumers should control what goes in, who sees it going out,” Torres said.

Torres said that patients can control the information that is entered into their files, as well as which doctor gets to see it.

The appropriate granularity of these controls is one of the thorniest issues facing policy-makers as they set privacy rules for e-health records.

“Consent is the 800-pound gorilla for medical privacy,” said Ashley Katz, executive director of the advocacy group Patient Privacy Rights.

The prospect of bringing IT firms into the business of managing medical records can also introduce a significant challenge in ensuring compliance with a bewildering complex of state laws.

“You don’t even know that a law’s conflicting until it smacks you in the face, sometimes,” Slackman said.

Technorati Tags: patient advocacy, patient privacy, patient rights

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by Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

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Adriana Boden was a healthy 33-year-old woman until one day in March 2007 when she felt like an explosion went off in her head. Although she went to her doctor immediately, it would take nearly a year of doctor visits, diagnoses of everything from migraine headaches to encephalitis, unnecessary drugs and treatments before a physician finally figured out what was wrong with her.

It was a relatively simple test – one that Boden, through her own research, suggested and was eventually ordered by a physician who listened to her – that led to her diagnosis of epilepsy.

Boden, a sales manager at Google Inc. in Mountain View, wants to take what she’s learned and use her technological know-how to help other patients better navigate the fragmented health care system.

Along with San Francisco dentist and author Julia Hallisy, she founded a nonprofit organization and Web site called the Empowered Healthcare Community, which will officially premiere at a conference in San Francisco on May 16.

Many Americans – even those with insurance and access to care – are frustrated by the U.S. health care delivery system.

Boden said there were many things she wished she had known at the onset of her illness that could have helped or shortened her search for a diagnosis and cure.

She formed the organization in part because most of the patient advocacy and networking groups she found were specific to certain diseases or didn’t offer her the kind of help she needed.

“I want to give people confidence and help them find the courage to help themselves,” she said.

Hallisy, the group’s co-founder, spent virtually her daughter’s entire life – from the time she was diagnosed with cancer at five months until her death in 2000 at age 10 – pursuing the treatment her daughter needed.

Hallisy last year published “The Empowered Patient” to give patients practical tips about their rights and safety issues.

“Our goal for the organization is to give patients an unprecedented level of information they don’t have access to,” she said.

Boden’s physician, Palo Alto internist Darren Phelan, said patients and doctors need to work together now more than ever due to the information age.

Doctors, he said, have a tendency to get stuck in the patterns they know.

“You can search on the Internet and find a study that will support or refute a lot of things,” he said.

The conference is open to the public and registration is $80.

Have a health advocate.

No news is not necessarily good news.

A second – or third or fourth – opinion is appropriate at any time during your treatment, not just in the early stages of diagnosis.

Be aware that federal law guarantees patients access to their medical records.

Always check your medications for drug interactions.

If you need surgery, find out information about your hospital at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services site at hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

If you are having surgery, ask your hospital to use the World Health Organization surgical checklist.

Technorati Tags: health, health care, patient advocacy, patient rights

There are many things to consider when caring for an elderly loved one. Now that people are living well and living longer, elder healthcare has become very important. This relatively new area of healthcare and provider services is often referred to as elder care. It encompasses a wide variety of issues which include: choosing an appropriate physician or physicians to care for an aging patient, setting up home care is possible, and making decisions about moving the patient from his or her home to a residential care setting. Persons age 65 and older are the fastest growing segment of America’s population. Many in this population are living a healthy, active, independent life do to lifestyle choices such as preventive care and seeing a chiropractor. The fastest growing segment of my patient population is seniors. As a Tampa Chiropractor, I realize how important it is to educate patients, however, as more and more people reach their 80s and 90s, the number of people who need assistance with daily living is increasing, as are the responsibilities of those who are providing the care. The statistics on elder healthcare may surprise you.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging, the elder population, (those age 65 and older), numbered more than 35 million Americans in recent reports. Since people are living longer, these numbers are constantly increasing and not expected to dip any time soon.

Also reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging, the number of elders increased 12 percent since 1990, , compared to a 13.3 percent increase of the population under 65 during the same time period. Today, persons who reach age 65 have an average life expectancy of an additional 17.9 years. This calculates out to 19.2 years more for women, and 16.3 more for men than what was estimated in the year 1900.

In 1900, the average life expectancy was 49.2 years, whereas today, it is 76.9. As you can see, this has dramatically increased. While this is greatly attributed to the advances in modern medicine, it is also in part because people are taking an active stance in their own lives knowing their patient rights, and taking better care of themselves. Today we see all types of fitness programs from senior balance training programs at the YMCA to home based yoga exercise programs using props such as yoga blocks and chairs for stability. Still, it is crucial to plan for the time when a great health insurance plan will mean good care and improved quality of life.

One of the biggest problems facing many seniors today is their inability to afford medication. Since many people over 65 take medication on a regular basis, most often more than one type simultaneously, it has become necessary in recent years to address this issue. Many healthcare plans won’t cover various medications, while others cover only a small part. This often means choosing the medications, or in some cases medication, the individual can afford, and which one or ones he or she can do without. This can be met with negative results, since it is presumed the person wouldn’t be taking the medication if it wasn’t necessary. There are, however, companies who have begun addressing this problem by offering prescription plans and insurance targeted for the elderly.

While there are many important aspects of elder healthcare to consider, there are steps that are being taken to help make it easier and more affordable. Legislature is addressing some of these issues and trying to come up with solutions to suit a variety of needs. Perhaps one day, seniors can look forward to retirement without having to worry about how they’ll pay for it.

Technorati Tags: patient rights, senior fitness, senior healthcare

Technorati Tags: medical billing, medicard, patient advocacy, patient rights

Cerebral palsy is a brain disorder that affects the motor skills of a person. This affliction is usually acquired before, during, and after birth and will tend to stay for the rest of their life. There are treatments and therapy available to make cerebral palsy patient’s lives more normal. It is a necessary to know your patient rights.

Cerebral Palsy can alter the lives of children and their family. If you have a child with Cerebral Palsy, it can drastically change the way you live your life forever. Most families don’t have the financial capability to cover the cost of treatment and therapies for their child who has Cerebral Palsy. For this, you can consult a Cerebral Palsy Attorney to get the compensation you need and in some cases, get you discounts on medications and treatments in the hospital.

You can join Cerebral Palsy Associations for additional help, but these organizations can only do so much. There are many patient issues. They often have so many Cerebral Palsy patients that are in need of financial support that they tend to make you wait for your turn.

They can investigate if your child has acquired the condition because of mishandling them during birth, causing brain damage so they can file a lawsuit against the doctor or the hospital. If you want the proper compensation, you can obtain it by hiring a Cerebral Palsy lawyer.

If you think that there has been birth or delivery mistakes that may have caused the child’s condition, you should immediately contact a Cerebral Palsy attorney in order to get you the right compensation.

These kinds of lawsuits can really provide you with more than enough money for the treatment and medication for your child who has Cerebral Palsy.

Another great thing about Cerebral Palsy attorneys is that you won’t have to pay them a dime until they get you your compensation.

Mishandling a child during birth is a very common cause of Cerebral Palsy. So, you should not erase this on the list of possible causes and you can really make the doctor or the hospital pay for what they are responsible for.

You can also hire a Cerebral Palsy Attorney to let the hospital give you a cheaper treatment fee for your child. This can really benefit you because Cerebral Palsy therapy is often a long term therapy and can really cost a lot of money.

Always remember that Cerebral Palsy treatment can be expensive. You can always seek help from Cerebral Palsy attorneys to get you the proper compensation and also get you a cheap treatment for your child with Cerebral Palsy.

Technorati Tags: Cerebral Palsy, patient issues, patient rights