Primary care doctors in the United States feel overworked and nearly half plan to either cut back on how many patients they see or quit medicine entirely, according to a survey released by the Physicians’ Foundation. And 60% of 12,000 general practice physicians surveyed said they would not recommend medicine as a career, the survey found.
A committee of nine Arlington, TX, physicians and officials from JPS Health Network is recommending that the Diagnostic & Surgery Hospital in Arlington be expanded into a full-service hospital. Tarrant County commissioners are expected to hear the committee's report later in November. At issue will be whether tax dollars should be used to expand the Arlington facility and whether John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth is at capacity.
University of Iowa Hospitals has fired one employee and suspended seven others after accusing them of inappropriately looking at patients' private information. The incidents were uncovered during a routine review of computer access to confidential information, officials said. "This breach of confidentiality is totally unacceptable and very disappointing," said Chief Executive Officer Ken Kates in a statement.
Attorney General Mike Cox and a group of consumer advocates have asked the Michigan Legislature to drop plans for its upcoming lame duck session to give the go-ahead to a restructuring of insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield. Cox and representatives of AARP and the Consumers Union said Blue Cross proposals pending in the Legislature would remove government oversight, increase costs for consumers buying individual policies, and deny coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions. Blue Cross officials have been pressing for changes for more than a year, claiming the company is experiencing unsustainable losses in the individual market.
If you thought all your hard work and extra hours in at the office would pay off with a bigger paycheck and a fat bonus, you may be in for a nasty surprise. The mess in the economy has reached the technology sector, forcing many organizations to take steps to remain financially viable.
For weeks now, employers in the financial and housing sectors have been restricting bonuses, offering minimal raises, and imposing hiring freezes (not to mention the layoffs) in an attempt to rein in costs, while those in the IT field have enjoyed relative stability. Unfortunately it seems those days have ended, even within health information technology, which typically enjoys an extra layer of protection against hard times.
"The days of special treatment for the IT function are over. Ten years ago about half of organizations had a formal program to provide premium pay for IT. Today it is less than 10%," says David Van De Voort, a principal and information technology workforce strategist at Mercer.
Computerworld's 22nd annual Salary Survey of 6,801 U.S. IT workers shows that salaries in 2008 increased an average of about 3.5%, compared to a 3.7% average increase reported in 2007. Meanwhile, bonuses for IT professionals were nearly flat at a paltry 0.2% increase in 2008, compared with 3.4% in 2007. According to the survey, the average salary of a healthcare CIO is about $150,000. The biennial HIMSS Compensation Survey puts the average salary for senior management at $160,000, with 80% of survey respondents saying they received a salary increase over the past two years of an average of about 5% each year.
Of course, given the current economic circumstances, it's doubtful that number will be as high when HIMSS publishes its next survey in 2010, and while the HIT profession does enjoy a certain amount of security, it would be a mistake to think it is immune from the same salary caps and hiring freezes that others in the IT world are facing.
Already this month the number of hospital systems announcing plans to lay off non-clinical employees (including systems services) and employ hiring freezes has ballooned into the dozens. Lest you think I'm engaging in a bit of hyperbole, type the words "hospital" and "layoff" into Google. Hospitals from every corner of the country are shedding workers: Hawaii, California, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and New York, to name a few. And it's not just hospitals. The tech companies who supply hospitals are also being hit hard.
According to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement firm that tracks layoff announcements, the technology sector has already lost 140,000 jobs in 2008 and is on track to lose another 40,000 jobs by the end of the year. In one of the most dramatic examples of how the sector is being hit, Sun Microsystems—a major provider of information technology for providers and payers—announced that it would lay off 5,000 to 6,000 workers, more than 15% of its total workforce, over the next year.
The best thing any IT worker (executive or otherwise) can do right now is become an integral piece of every part of the organization, says Van De Voort. "The days of the purely tech staff are numbered. It's the IT person who is able to work with business side to realize opportunities and solve problems that is going to last," he says.
And CIOs, the good news is that this is a "buyer's market." If you have been looking for an opportunity to perform some upgrades on your team, now is the time, says Van De Voort. "There is going to be a whole lot of good talent out on the street. It's a tough thing to say, but this is the time to remove everyone questionable, and trade up to a higher level of talent," he says.
But, Van De Voort notes, don't forget to recognize and reward your current top performers. "It doesn't have to be financial. Give visible promotions for those who are highly meritorious so everyone sees that individuals of quality are advancing, even when times are tough."
Though you may not receive the bonus you expected or the salary increase you hoped for in the near future, you can bet your hard work is being noticed. As employers reevaluate the size of their IT departments with an eye toward cutting costs, they will pay particular attention to those on both ends of the spectrum, and with U.S. unemployment rates forecast to reach a 25-year high in the next year at nearly 8%, perhaps just having a job can be reward enough for now.
Kathryn Mackenzie is technology editor of HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at kmackenzie@healthleadersmedia.com.
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NeuroNexus Technologies and Philips Research have announced that they have signed a joint research agreement to develop next-generation deep brain stimulation devices with the ambition to improve the treatment of neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. The two companies aim to show the technical feasibility of highly programmable and MRI-safe deep brain stimulation devices, according to a release. Their initial research will aim to meet the functional requirements of a deep brain stimulation device for the treatment of Parkinson?s disease.
Consumer Health World's Health 3.0 Summit is scheduled for December 8-10 in Arlington, VA. The summit will address today's pressing issues, including social networking technologies, enlightened consumerism, and globalization.
Personal health records could save $21 billion annually and could result in an annual net value of $19 billon based on a 10-year rollout and a usage rate of 80% of the U.S. population, according to a study from the Boston-based Center for Information Technology Leadership. CITL also found that the benefits and annual savings far outweigh the costs of implementing the PHR architectures.
Google has set up a new flu tracker initiative in partnership with the CDC that monitors flu outbreaks around the country by tracking users' searches relating to the illness. The data is then sent to the CDC to help ensure that vaccines get to the most-needed areas.
The initiative, however, is raising concerns among advocacy groups that Google could be breaching privacy laws by gathering individual users' search data.
Another mid-sized U.S. employer is fed up enough with the soaring cost of healthcare to seek an international alternative. In January, Serigraph, Inc., a self-insured Wisconsin-based specialty printer, will begin offering trips to India for employees who need joint replacement, upper and lower back fusion, and other elective surgeries.
If employees choose to receive care at JCI-accredited Apollo Hospitals Group facilities in Bangalore or New Delhi, Serigraph will waive the deductible and coinsurance. Not only is Serigraph willing to pick up 100% of the medical costs, but it will also cover travel expenses for the patient and a companion.
Like a lot of employers these days, Serigraph isn't hiding its frustration with the U.S. healthcare system. Linda Buntrock, senior vice president of human resources at Serigraph, told the Star Tribune's Chen May Lee, "This is a challenge to the U.S. medical system to say, 'What's wrong with this picture, guys?' "
Do you think she's followed the recent coverage in the Wall Street Journal about Scarborough, ME-based supermarket Hannaford Bros. Co. getting counter offers from U.S. providers after it offered medical travel benefits?
"It will be interesting to see the competition for customers in the market for medical services and how many employees in our medium-sized company take advantage of this opportunity once we have the program in place," says Buntrock.
Serigraph's benefits provider, Indianapolis-based WellPoint, Inc., put together the "pilot program" that it says could result in thousands of dollars in savings per patient.
"More and more employer clients have been asking about access to foreign providers as a means of reducing their claim expenditures," Samuel Nussbaum, MD, WellPoint's chief medical officer, says in a prepared statement. "Medical tourism is a promising option for improving access to affordable, quality healthcare."
Indeed, U.S. employers are taking a hard look at what they are spending on healthcare, and as the New York Times noted yesterday, hundreds of companies across the country are moving employees into high-deductable health plans. When given the choice, employees have yet to embrace these consumer-driven plans, but soon many are going to find no other option.
While companies try to get employees to take more responsibility for their healthcare costs, they very well could adopt the tactics of Serigraph and Hannaford by adding medical travel benefits.
By providing another benefit to help workers stretch their healthcare dollars, these companies have little to lose by making the pitch. If the employees choose the medical travel option, they stand to save themselves and the company significantly. And, perhaps Serigraph will see a similar reaction to the threat of the medical travel benefit that Hannaford's has.
So far the returns by these early adopters are only going to push more companies toward adding medical travel options. After all, considering the status quo, what do they have to lose?
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