The elderly man from Oman who was receiving a cardiac catheterization was the third international patient that Dr. Patel and I had seen in the past hour. Before him, there were two others: a Kenyan woman with a heart dysrhythmia and an Arab man with colon cancer. These were just three of over 450,000 patients who travel to India from more than 130 countries annually to receive often complex care from specialty hospitals such as Apollo, where I did a medical observership this past November. The World Health Organization generally defines medical tourism—or medical value travel (MVT)—as travel across international borders to receive some form of medical treatment.
News that Kaiser Permanente plans to launch its own medical school is drawing cheers from local sources familiar with medical education and the changing health care industry. "A healthcare system like Kaiser is on the cutting edge of health care delivery and will change the future of medical education with a focus toward good practice, patient focus, and high outcomes with high quality," said Dr. Michael Wilkes, a professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine. In a surprise move, Kaiser said Thursday morning it plans to open a nonprofit "national school of medicine" in an undisclosed Southern California location in 2019.
Despite facing mounting evidence federal officials were overpaying some Medicare health plans by tens of millions of dollars a year, the government dialed back efforts to recover as much of the money as possible, newly released records show. The privately run Medicare Advantage plans offer seniors an alternative to traditional Medicare and in recent years have signed up more than 17 million members, about a third of people eligible for Medicare. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services records reveal that officials there as early as 2008 identified a group of privately run Medicare Advantage health plans they suspected of ripping off the government, even calling them highfliers.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has given Michigan a waiver for its Healthy Michigan plan, allowing nearly 600,000 low-income residents to continue with health care coverage. "We are pleased that we have an agreement with Michigan that will allow nearly 600,000 low-income citizens to continue to have access to quality health services. This agreement is consistent with Michigan's proposal and ensures important beneficiary protections guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act," said Ben Wakana, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The state board charged with overseeing health care costs will take a closer look at a proposal for growth of Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization, saying it could raise the cost of care in the state. The Health Policy Commission voted on Wednesday to analyze BIDCO's planned contract affiliations with New England Baptist Hospital, physicians affiliated with the Baptist and MetroWest Medical Center. The agreements would give the state's second-largest accountable care organization — a group that negotiates with insurers — even more market power. The reviews, which will last about half a year, put a temporary hold on the affiliations, and could allow the attorney general to bar them outright if the board finds reason to believe the deals will increase the cost of care the providers charge.
In mid-July, on Johnson & Johnson's second-quarter earnings call for 2015, Group Worldwide Chairman Sandi Peterson outlined some of the critical IT initiatives that would help the $74 billion company compete — and win — in the rapidly evolving world of digital healthcare. Included in her remarks was a simple statement: "We are at a tipping point where technology is becoming the medium through which healthcare can become a more effective and efficient system." That might be an understatement, given the drastic changes we've seen in recent years. But for CIOs in the healthcare ecosystem, it's a clear nod to one of their best opportunities to drive change and create new value for their businesses.