Latest California Healthline Stories
Providers Set To Reap Cash from IT Incentive Program
California has a new interim coordinator for health information technology. Linette Scott stepped in for Jonah Frohlich, who resigned as deputy secretary of health IT at the California Health and Human Services Agency to take a job in the San Francisco law office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.
Scott presided over her first stakeholder meeting last week at an opportune time. CMS had just opened up registration for financial incentives for electronic health record implementation.
“This effort is much broader than just an IT project,” Scott said. “This is a way to improve health of all Californians.”
Telemedicine in California Becoming Tele-Reality
Telemedicine may seem futuristic, but it’s not. Not anymore.
“The good news is, at CTN [the California Telehealth Network], we have actually activated sites,” CTN Executive Director Eric Brown said. “Which is huge. This is really huge for us.”
Brown said approximately 25 sites have activated their connections since Dec. 1, and that’s just the run-up to a much bigger launch.
‘Baby Cams’ Link Parents, Newborns in Intensive Care
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital is one of the first in Northern California to use new technology to link parents with their newborns in the intensive care unit when they can’t be there to hold them in person.
California Up for Big Federal IT Grant for Exchange
The feds want to give a bushelful of health care grant dollars to California, and state officials definitely want to accept. The question is, can they meet the Dec. 23 application deadline?
Earl Ferguson of the Southern Sierra Telehealth Network on Using Technology To Improve Care
Earl Ferguson, director of the Southern Sierra Telehealth Network, spoke with California Healthline about how telemedicine tools can help people in rural areas obtain access to primary care providers and specialists.
Time Is Now for Electronic Health Records
Carmela Castellano-Garcia had a good idea of what she was going to see in the California Primary Care Association’s annual survey of clinics.
But she was a bit surprised at the degree of participation among California clinics that responded to the survey, in terms of implementing electronic health records.
“About 21% of them have already implemented EHRs,” CPCA president Castellano-Garcia said. “And of the rest, about 70% said they expect to do it in 2011.”
Cal eConnect, Beacon Communities Set IT Pace in California
Part Two of a two-part issue brief on federal stimulus funding for health information technology in California focuses on health information exchange, the Beacon Community Program, broadband, telehealth and investments in federally qualified health centers.
HITECH’s Health IT Investments in California
Part One of this two-part issue brief looks at how federal stimulus funding has been allocated in California for several health IT initiatives, including Medicare and Medi-Cal “meaningful use” incentive programs, regional extension centers and health IT work force training.
If E-Prescribing’s So Great, Why Is It So Difficult?
Some people might think that since California has such a big head start on the rest of the nation in some arenas of health care reform, that it would also be taking a lead role in launching a program for e-prescribing — the electronic communication of prescriptions between physicians and pharmacists.
But those people would be wrong.
“California is 45th in the nation,” Ned Hanson, director of formulary management at Health Net Pharmaceutical Services, said. “We’ve been looking at anywhere from 8 to 10 percent adoption.”
Health Care Futurist Questions U.S. Health IT Strategy
In an interview with California Healthline, health care futurist Jeff Goldsmith said information technology adoption has lagged in the health care industry because there’s no definable return on investment and questioned whether the “meaningful use” incentive program will be successful in improving the rate of adoption.