Hospital Health Care

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing a 47 percent cut by 2010 of the fees paid to physicians in non-hospital cardiac catheterization labs.  This would bring current reimbursement several hundred dollars below the cost of a standard cath procedure.  It is estimated that there will follow closures of these outpatient labs throughout the country.

These closures would create long waits and have a dramatic increase in Medicare beneficiaries patient out-of-pocket costs.  Patients will be forced back into crowded hospital healthcare settings where the costs will be higher.

The Tenet Healthcare Corporation will offer patients at its hospitals the option of paying their bills online.   Dallas based Tenet, which opperates 53 hospitals in 12 states, has deployed Online Bill Pay from the Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp, following a successful piolot implementation erlier this year.

NCR Online Bill Pay is an sutomated bill payment application that enables patients to inquire about the status of their accounts and pay outstanding balances using a secure Web-based platform.  Patients complete an enrollment form from the hospital’s website.  Once enrolled, users can update profiles, make payments, set up recurring payment plans, access a glossary of billing terms and view frequently asked billing questions.

Google entered the personal medical data management field in May 2008 by launching a product called Google Health.  This service promises a place to safely store personal medical information and to access forums, disease and condition information, and wellness programs.  Although there are may health care portals for consumers to choose from, Microsoft and Google are looking to link data that is already being stored by health care providers, eliminating the need for consumers to input the bulk of information themselves.  There are recent deals with Walgreens and Longs drugstore chains.

There is possible talk with data sharing with insurers such as Aetna.  There are however privacy concerns by some critics.

There is a new website called ZocDoc.com which allows patients to locate and schedule appointments (even same day) with NYC physicians.  This site was started in the fall of 2007 with a listing of about 15 dentist.  In February several dozen internist were added from Manhattan and Brooklyn and now list more than 100 physicians.  Within the next few months the expectation is to grow the roster to include specialists such as dermatologists.  The website conducts background checks on physicians and posts patient reviews.  The site is free for patients but charges physicians a transaction fee for new patient appointments booked through the site.