November 2010 - The Medical Quack .... by Barbara Duck

Healthcare Reform Survey Finds That 74% of Physicians Will Retire, Work Part-time, Or Seek Other Alternatives

Only a little over a quarter of the doctors surveyed (2400) said they would run business as usual. Cash only practices could be established and of course the very good reasons for that move would be to get rid of the awful insurance and Medicare...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 10:36 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, My Commentaries, health insurance, CMS, Algorithms, Profits, healthcare reform, private practice, Affordable Care, single payer

X-spine Announces New FDA Product Approval for Spinal Fusion–Minimally Invasive

Everybody knows someone with back problems and/or injuries and now technology has so many different solutions from implants to devices that also reduce pain. With some of the systems with X-Spine the procedure is done with a very small incision...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 9:56 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, Surgery, FDA, Implants, Back Surgery, incision, minimally invasive procedures, spine injuries, X-Spine, plates

China Slashes Roche, Bristol-Myers, Pfizer, Lilly, Novartis, Takeda and More Pharma Companies to Save Money

What novel idea and wonder why we haven’t tried something like that here in the US <grin>. China is set to be the second largest world consumer of pharmaceuticals in the upcoming years. The reductions in pricing are stated to be between...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 9:30 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Pharma/FDA News, Medicine, drugs, Pharmaceuticals, China, Medications, price

Goldman Code-Theft Trial Begins–Did The Stolen Code Have The Potential to Create Algorithms for High Frequency Trading

If you read here at the Medical Quack often enough you have to see that word, “algorithms” stare you in the face every time you visit here and it is there for good reason. My efforts here are to simply acquaint the layman with a bit of what happens...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 8:14 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Insurance, Other Items of Interest, My Commentaries, Business Intelligence, Code, Wall Street, FBI, Algorithms, Smart people, Goldman Sachs, white collar crime, Sergei Aleynikov, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Zero Hedge

SEEDIE Begins Process of Certifying EHR Vendor Salespeople (Humor)

I like these folks and their satire is getting closer to the truth all the time! I do agree with a lot of this though with the complicated and unfriendly systems we have built and I can say that as I created an EMR years ago, code from the ground...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 3:52 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Other Items of Interest, Need a Laugh, Medical Records, EHR, Humor, Spoof, Certification, Meaningful Use, billing, Extormity, Seedie, ONC, Upcoding

SoCal Hospital Workers Plan to Stage a 24 Hour Walk Out Later This Week–Breakdown of Negotiations With HCA For Profit Owner- Its Not Money But Rather Working Conditions

As I am reading the content here, this breakdown and potential strike issue is about “working conditions” and not benefits and money. Hospital Corporation of America is the one of the largest “for profit” hospital chains in the US. This has...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 2:51 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Other Items of Interest, My Commentaries, healthcare, Hospitals, California, Doctors, Patients, Non Profit, Errors, HCA, nurses, medical care, for profit, strikes, Hospital Corporation of America, working conditions

Lenovo Touch Screen M90Z Computer Give-A-Way-Enter At the Medical Quack On December 5th-9th

This will be your chance to to win a brand new Lenovo Touch Screen M90Z touch screen computer. The contest comes in 2 parts, one for an individual to win and secondly a nomination for a charity or non profit company to win a set of 5 Lenovo touch...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 1:00 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Technology, Other Items of Interest, My Commentaries, Medical Quack, Speech Recognition, Computer, Windows 7, evaluation, : Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z

Cardinal Health Acquires Zuellig Pharma in China–Their Largest Pharmaceutical Importer

This is a major acquisition and just less than a couple weeks ago Cardinal purchased Kinray in New York for 1.3 billion who is a leading pharmaceutical distributor that services over 2000 independent drug stores. The press release continues to state...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 1:47 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, drugs, Medical Devices, Pharma, clinical trials, Cardinal Healthcare, acquisitions and mergers, pharmaceutial sales, Zuellig Pharma

Along With the Clouds Comes Water Cooled Servers- They are Green and Coming Back

This is a little off the normal topics here but I found it interesting that the example here, Citibank is “bringing the plumber back” as the title states with moving back to water cooled servers instead of air. Virtualization and use of internal...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 10:49 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Technology, Other Items of Interest, Computers, Virtualization, Servers, Water, Cloud, air, heat, cooling

California Fines Health Insurance Carriers for Underpayment and Delay of Claims-Should Fine Congress for the Medicare Delay In June-Having to Resubmit Claims There Too

Pay and continue to pass go certainly seems to be the rules of the game today. All the major health insurers in California took at hit it seems and it all comes back to getting the data system aligned. They get stuck in cyber space when they...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 8:42 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, My Commentaries, medicare, health insurance, Congress, California, Medical Claims, Senate, Fines, Budget, Algorithms, healthcare reform, House, Doctor pay cuts

Spray On Stem Cells for Treating Burns and Open Wounds–Regenerative Medicine

This is a neat story and technology. According to the video the mixture looks like Jello and is sprayed on. The woman patient is a diabetic with a foot wound that will not heal and with using her own stem cells, it’s fix and and win. The patient...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 6:22 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Pharma/FDA News, Research and Development, Stem Cells, Clinic, Regenerative Medicine, skin, burns, spray on, wounds

UnitedHealthcare Begins Pharmacy Saver for Medicare Plan Members January 1st-Better Record Tracking for Compliance at $2.00 For Generic Drugs or Existing Co-Pay

Here we go again, half off of the $4.00 prescriptions already offered by Kroger, Walmart and others. This may not sound like a big deal if you are already paying $4.00 but your data and prescription refill information is like gold and part of the...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 5:25 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, My Commentaries, Pay for Performance, Safeway, doctor, Primary Care, Layoffs, Outsourcing, Algorithms, Express Scripts, Ingenix, pharmacists, Kroger, wellness, transactions, analysis, UnitedHealthare, P4P

Nuance Introduces PowerScribe(R) 360, a Radiology Reporting and Communications Platform

Earlier today I had also posted about 2 other acquisitions that have been incorporated into the Nuance group of companies. Nuance Launches Speech-Enabled Medical Transcription Outsourced Solutions via OSI and Encompass Company Acquisitions Nuance...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 3:55 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, healthcare, Medical Records, Nuance, Dragon Naturally Speaking, Dictation, Speech Recognition, Voice recognition, RadWhere, PowerScribe 360

Samsung Galaxy 7 Inch Screen Tablet To Rival the IPad? (Video)

Five years ago when I said tablets were going to be mainstream, everyone thought I was some kind of a goober, well look where we are today. The Galaxy has a 7 inch screen compared to the 9 inch screen of the Ipad and has a camera, something missing...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 2:14 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Tablet PCs, Medically Related, Technology, Other Items of Interest, healthcare, Verizon, Tablet, Samsung, Reader, Best Buy, IPad, Flash, devcies, Androic, Galaxy

Nuance Launches Speech-Enabled Medical Transcription Outsourced Solutions via OSI and Encompass Company Acquisitions

Both companies mentioned below are acquisitions from Nuance and you can view each page and see that both are now a part of the company. Both offer solutions without the needs for additional software installation that work with existing software...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 11:06 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Outsource, Nuance, Dictation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Outsourcing Solutsion, transcrpition, Encompass Medical Transcription