The Seattle Times recent editorial Love, Protect, Immunize Kids is a strong endorsement of good science and good preventive medicine. But even though Dr. Wakefield’s 1998 study linking autism and the MMR vaccine has been discredited and retracted, concerns around the safety of vaccines continue to grow in Washington state and around the country.
Continue reading ‘Working with parents concerned about vaccines’
In recent news of Group Health’s success with the medical home, one of my favorite images was CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen sharing her own paper-based medical record with Group Health’s Dr. Eric Seaver. She lugged it from Atlanta to Factoria to make a point: Group Health, with its technology-rich medical home, is a vast improvement over how most Americans get their care.
“How does my doctor find anything in there?” she asked, pointing to the dictionary-sized folders.
“I have no idea,” Dr. Seaver said, returning to his exam-room computer with its tidy, searchable electronic health record (EHR). Just keystrokes away: all he needs to know about each patient’s medical history, prescriptions, lab results, screening schedules, and more.
Continue reading ‘EHR powers the medical home and “mega-epidemiology”’
I’m delighted to share news that I’ve been appointed to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), joining a distinguished and diverse panel of 17 executives and professionals with proven expertise in health care delivery and finance. My three-year term begins in September, and I’m already eager to get started.
MedPAC was established in 1997 to analyze access to care, cost and quality of care, and other key issues affecting Medicare and then advise Congress on payments to health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage program and providers in Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service programs. Continue reading ‘MedPAC Appointment Announced’
Much discussion and analysis of the recent federal health legislation has focused on insurance reforms and expanded coverage. Important as these are, if the true goal is to improve quality and access to care while simultaneously making it more affordable, attention must now shift to delivery system reforms. A core issue is how do we address fragmented and poorly coordinated care and instead foster integration among community providers? One idea which has drawn a lot of recent interest and is explicitly mentioned in the legislation is support for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
Group Health has announced that effective June 1 we will voluntarily extend eligibility for currently-enrolled adult dependent children until the age of 26. The new reform law requires dependent coverage be offered for unmarried and married dependents until the age of 26 for new and renewing plans beginning September 23, 2010. Group Health is taking this step early because we believe it provides the best continuity of care for our young members.
Continue reading ‘Group Health Extends Dependent Coverage to Age 26′
This week the prestigious health policy journal Health Affairs reports on the results of Group Health’s Medical Home pilot at Factoria Medical Center. In just two years, our organization has recouped its investment and achieved a 50 percent return on this patient-centered model. The Medical Home pilot produced faster-than-expected improvements where it matters most: quality of care, patient experience, and costs.
As our Medical Home model gained momentum from an initial spark of an idea in 2006 to a full-fledged pilot by 2007, its champions dug into the challenge of proving its worth. Results were so strong that in 2009, the model was rolled out to our 26 primary care clinics.
Over the last two years, Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) investigators have tracked the impact of medical home Continue reading ‘Health Affairs: Medical Home proven to boost quality, curb costs’
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