Zulfiqar Rana, MD, MPH, FACP

Can you spot the name?

From Beetle Bailey

PatientKeeper CEO Paul Brient comments on the ACO draft regulations and discusses the interaction between ACO activities and Meaningful Use requirements for health information technology…

http://www.patientkeeper.com/news_events/newsitem.html?id=415

The Wall Street Journal has a good summary of the situation in Don’t Come Back, Hospitals Say. Among the programs featured:

• An animated “virtual discharge advocate” named Louise who helps explain home care to departing patients
• Transition coaches who call patients 2 or 3 days after discharge
• Project RED (for Re-Engineered Discharge), which provides individualized instruction starting well before the patient leaves the hospital

Early results suggest these approaches can reduce readmissions by 20 to 30 percent, which is a shockingly high figure considering how basic such steps are…

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HealthBusinessBlog/~3/OY7mg_8jepE/

These physicians, who treat patients outside the emergency room, are seeking to reverse the “weekend effect,” or higher rates of death and complications.

http://feeds.kaiserhealthnews.org/~r/khn/~3/IH_NyyyY59M/nocturnist.aspx

The latest devices – from heart valves and defibrillators to artificial knees and hips – are usually significantly more expensive than older devices, and the intense marketing surrounding the introduction of new devices has become a major driver of rising health care costs.

http://feeds.kaiserhealthnews.org/~r/khn/~3/bengTWZgcL8/medical-device-costs-fiscal-times.aspx

A report by McKinsey & Co. concluded that at least 30 percent of employers will stop offering health insurance in 2014. The projection is based on a survey of more than 1,300 businesses of various sizes and industries.

http://feeds.kaiserhealthnews.org/~r/khn/~3/ELLNvDgpO-g/mckinsey-employer-study.aspx

The cause still remains elusive!

From AP:

Study: Link of virus chronic fatigue false alarm

** Early-warning diabetes test hope **
Experts believe a simple blood test could spot diabetes up to 10 years before the first symptoms of the disease occur. < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12803909 >