Stage 3 MU, Rate Your MD, and Health Taxes
On Jeopardy they call this category Potpourri. We like to call it the Recovery Room. Here are things that have been going on that you might not have heard about or might want more information on.
We haven’t even finalized Stage 2 yet but that is not stopping the HIT Policy Committee Meaningful Use Work Group from thinking about Stage 3. David Raths’, MU Work Group to Make Initial Stage 3 Recommendations in August article for Healthcare Informatics reports possible timeline. “Stage 3 of meaningful use may seem a long way off. After all, the Stage 2 final rule has yet to be released. Yet for members of the Meaningful Use Work Group of the federal Health IT Policy Committee, deadlines are fast approaching. They are working to make initial Stage 3 MU recommendations by Aug. 1, so that a Request for Comment can by issued in November and final recommendations can be published by May 2013.”
Have you rated your doctor yet? Would you pick a doctor from peer reviews? Consumer Reports has added Doctors to their ratings. Michelle Andrews from the NPR digital network says ” more people are turning to online sites such as RateMDs.com and Angie’s List to look at what other patients have to say about a doctor’s communication skills, punctuality and other intangibles that make up the patient experience.” Read her article, Consumer Reports Extends Its Ratings To Doctors.
The National Quality Forum’s (NQF) 2012 Report to Congress, Changing Healthcare by the Numbers , highlights the growing use of NQF’s endorsed measures and the organization’s critical role bringing public- and private-sector leaders together to build national consensus on healthcare improvement and measurement strategies. View the full report, executive summary, and key case studies on the NQF site.
Healthcare IT News has also reported the NQF upholds readmissions measure in a vote by the Board of Directors. The board voted to “stick to its decision to endorse a new all-cause hospital-wide readmissions measure developed by Yale University and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) – a measure challenged by seven hospital systems.”
Route 128 technology belt around Boston is still producing its share of medical devices. The Boston Herald.com reminds everyone after the ACA decision was upheld by the supreme court, one real tax that will stay is on medical devices. The 2.3% tax in the law is scheduled to go into effect in January expecting to raise $29 billion over the next ten year. Read the full story, One REAL health tax.