Meeting of interest
Hosted by Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Krey/Zeigel Room of the Mesa State College Student Center
Grand Junction
Colo. Health Care Reform:
What's the Employer Response?
We'll
update employers on health care reform efforts and capture their
responses to proposed changes. The Business Health Forum will lead the
discussion.
Join us to review legislative proposals and
recommendations from a blue ribbon commission on health care, and give
us your feedback to take back to the Capitol. The latest survey
technology will capture your opinions - and those of your peers - for
on-the-spot sharing and discussion.
Register for the event online or by calling 970-242-3214.
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The Business Health Forum is funded by several foundations, including The Colorado Health Foundation.
Stay tuned for info.. about upcoming business health care forums in your community.
To learn more about the Forum, contact Renee' Mowers at rmowers@bizhealthforum.org or call 303-866-9658.
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Greetings!
As
health insurance premiums continue to soar and Colorado examines
wide-scale health care reform, there has never been a more important
time for the business community to engage in the debate. The Forum is a
new project to help you connect the dots and weigh in on solutions.
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Center for improving health value begins work
Colorado's Center for Improving Value in Health Care, created by an
executive order by Gov. Bill Ritter earlier this year, has formed a
steering committee and hired a national consultant to help guide its
formation.
According to an article in The Commonwealth Fund
newsletter, the center will identify and develop cost control and
quality improvement strategies. It will bring together businesses,
consumers, health care providers, insurers, and state agencies to
develop long-term strategies for ensuring better value for the $30
billion spent on health care in Colorado each year.
Funding of
$51,000 for the initial planning phase has been secured from The
Colorado Trust and approved by the governor's office. The state has
hired national health care consulting firm John Snow Inc., based in
Boston with a Denver office, to help create the center.
Current
steering committee members include the Colorado Business Group On
Health and other groups already working on quality improvement and cost
containment. John Snow Inc. will research statewide quality forums in
other states, identify best practices and make recommendations for the
structure and scope of the center. The Commonwealth Fund
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Top health care news
In hospitals, simple reminders reduce deadly infections
Timeouts
to wash hands and put on hairnets, a simple checklist to ensure that
such seemingly obvious precautions are done, and advertising campaigns
directed at everyone from the most senior doctors to the poorest of
patients have been credited with drastically reducing the number of
serious infections at New York City's public hospitals.
Since
2005, central-line bloodstream infections, which stem from bacteria
invading a catheter leading to the heart and can often be fatal, have
fallen 55 percent in adult intensive care units at the city's 11 public
hospitals, according to statistics released last week.
Ventilator-associated pneumonia, caused by bacteria in breathing tubes
and which also can be fatal, declined by 78 percent.
Before the
hospital system began cracking down on them in late 2005, preventable
infections were considered part of the collateral damage of advanced
lifesaving techniques. In fact, there had been a perverse financial
upside to hospital-based infections, since they filled beds that might
otherwise be empty.
But changes in government reimbursements
have driven New York's public hospitals, which serve the city's poorest
patients, to tackle the problem. As part of a pay-for-performance plan,
the federal government and many private insurers are planning to stop
reimbursing hospitals for harm caused to patients by certain
preventable errors. New York Times
Google offers personal health records on the Web
Google began offering online personal health records to the public on Monday.
The service, Google Health, at www.google.com/health, is the latest
entrant in the growing field of companies offering personal health
records on the Web. The companies all hope to capitalize eventually on
the trend of increasingly seeking health information online, and the
potential of Internet tools to help consumers manage their own health
care and medical spending.
In a two-month trial this year, the
Cleveland Clinic found that its patients were eager to use the Google
health records. The pilot project, limited to 1,600 patients, was
quickly oversubscribed, said C. Martin Harris, the Cleveland Clinic's
chief information officer.
The ability of patients to send
information, in particular, can be helpful to clinic doctors, Dr.
Harris said. For example, if a person sees specialists outside the
clinic and receives a drug prescription from an outside doctor, it
raises the risk of harmful drug interactions. "Until now, if a patient
doesn't remember to tell me," he said, "I don't know about drugs
prescribed outside the Cleveland Clinic system." New York Times
Nonprofit Association hosts May 28 meeting on health reform
Join Bill Lindsay, chair of the 208 Commission, for a discussion on
health care reform. He will speak about the state of health care in
Colorado, the commission's recommendations to address shortfalls in
accessibility, implications of the Governor's Building Blocks for
Health Care Reform, next steps for nonprofits to consider and what you
can do to make a difference.
The event, at the Doubletree Hotel Denver, is hosted by the Colorado Nonprofit Association. Click here for more information and to register.
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