reader "rwcheck" publishes a commentary pro-blue cross rate hike in response to saginaw news editorial; who is this rwcheck person? and does their rhetoric line up with the other advocacy groups out there?

rates will undoubtedly go up, it's just a question of how; several interesting PR names here like "David Waymire — a spokesman for the Michigan Association of Health Plans and Put Michigan People First, a coalition of insurers, seniors and the disabled "

The release-of-information (ROI) process is time-consuming, paper-intensive, and highly regulated. Most healthcare provider organizations outsource the process. Many have chosen HealthPort.

Innovative ROI technology combined with quality services and trusted expertise yields a proven solution for hospitals, clinics, and physician practices. Over 7,600 healthcare organizations use HealthPort Release-of-Information (HealthPort ROI) technology, services, or both. You can outsource the entire function or just a few tasks.

The results of all laboratory tests, X-rays, other diagnostic studies, and medical treatment you have received while you are hospitalized or treated as an outpatient are documented. Also included are physician reports from examinations, surgery, treatment and medications, and observations by nurses and other members of your health care team. This information is combined to make up your medical record.

If you have any questions regarding copies of your medical records, please contact the Release of Information Unit at 734-936-5490.

using sms in malawi to improve compliance for healthcare and to decrease cost of information gathering travel

This course provides an overview of key issues confronting modern organizations, with an emphasis on healthcare organizations but attention to supplier, customer, and other partnering organizations. The issues will be studied from several perspectives to familiarize students preparing for work in health care organizations with a working understanding of both organizational dynamics and approaches to understanding them. Students completing the course should understand fundamentals of how organizations are formed, governed, designed, and improved. They will also learn how workers and organizations related to each other, and how organizations relate to their environment and other organizations.

In 2003, however, the Michigan Health and Hospital Association asked Pronovost to try out three of his checklists in Michigan’s I.C.U.s. It would be a huge undertaking. Not only would he have to get the state’s hospitals to use the checklists; he would also have to measure whether doing so made a genuine difference. But at last Pronovost had a chance to establish whether his checklist idea really worked.

Mark Bartlett, CFO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, said Monday that Blue Cross is headed for financial disaster and possible loss of its membership in the national BlueCross BlueShield Association unless the state Legislature modifies the individual health insurance market this year.

In a 45-minute telephone press conference, Bartlett and Andrew Hetzel, vice president of corporate communications, said Blue Cross has submitted more than 300 pages of financial documents to Michigan Attorney General Michael Cox that supports its case for quick legislative action.

The Center for Cell Phone Applications in Healthcare (C-PAHC) is Medical Records Institute's platform for studying and advocating the development and adoption of cell phone technologies for use in healthcare.

C-PAHC is a membership-based organization that envisions the development of a wide range of healthcare applications for mobile phones, smart phones, and PDAs and investigates current and developing technologies and how they will impact the healthcare industry.

This week, DiabetesMine caught up with Keith Toussaint, Senior Program Manager with Microsoft HealthVault, for a perspective from inside the Microsoft dynasty.

The Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments (DUETs) has been established in the UK to publish uncertainties that cannot currently be answered by referring to reliable up-to-date systematic reviews of existing research evidence

Symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. People may feel very sick and vomit many times a day. Most people improve within one or two days. However, sometimes people become dehydrated and need medical attention.

jim's company is better insured than most.

just had my 10 yr tetanus booster, bookmarking this page so that I can throw out the piece of paper I got

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore sits down with Democracy Now! ahead of the release of his new film SiCKO. The film is a seething indictment of the US healthcare system. It focuses not on the more than 40 million people who don't have healthc

The study had three behavioral goals: stop smoking, reduce dietary sodium levels to less than 100 mEq/L per day, and increase physical activity by at least 10,000 pedometer steps a week.

HealthMedia, is creating a revolution in health care. Through its internet-based health care solutions it is helping both men and women take better care of them selves, whether they are at risk for a chronic condition or already have one. The three object

How HealthMedia is Using the Internet to Revolutionize Health Care 2007
Speaker: Ted Daco, CEO of HealthMedia, Ann Arbor. Special LeadersConnect Lunch in honor of Men's Health Week.

community support groups for patient health information

crunches through pubmed to find the expertise; compare, for a moment, with social search.

Are private plans inherently more efficient than government? There is more than a little room for doubt. In a brilliant new book by Rick Mayes of the University of Richmond and the Urban Institute’s Bob Berenson, the success of Medicare’s prospective

medicare facing (another) crisis

Health policy, funding, insurance, managed care, infrastructure, IT, the uninsured, economics and trends re same are all fair game. We avoid things clinical in nature; Nick Genes’ excellent Grand Rounds (which was the inspiration for HWR) covers that ar

Health Wonk Review is a biweekly compendium of the best of the health policy blogs. More than two dozen health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology, and managed care bloggers participate by contributing their best recent blog postings to a roving

Dr. Jody J. Anderson is a Chiropractor who completed his undergraduate studies at The University of Western Ontario, King’s College and earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree at New York Chiropractic College.

Can animals - like canaries in coal mines - warn humans about chemical, infectious, and physical environmental hazards?

Dr Jennifer Mazzola Sortor, O.D., M.S., F.A.A.O graduated from the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University College of Optometry.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Do prescription drug ads make people think they’re sick when they’re not, or create “disease” out of thin air? Does the “empowered patient” movement mean that doctors have lost some of their professional clout when it come

long quote from peter rost includes absurd high cost of COBRA (been there done that paid the premiums ouch)

pfizer whistleblower pharmablogger, lots of t-shirts for sale "question authority"

Georgia hospital network uses commericial wifi provider for in-hospital access

Enoch points to this map (updated weekly) of where the flu is currently active in the US.

most people search the net for health information, but many have bad filters to figure out the quality of the information.

m-care sale to blue cross proposed

united healthcare member site

#1 story is widespread loss of paper medical records in Katrina, via Enoch Choi