Midnite Madness

I woke at 2 AM earlier today with a panicky feeling about what I may have been missing in Internet explorer and/or Firefox.  Spent that past two days recovering and installing a Vista 32 program on my vintageToshiba Satellite A215 laptop.  My son said the laptop was ‘dead’.  I found an excellent and cheap aftermarket multi-purpose power brick and adapters to fit almost any portable device ($ 9.00 on Amazon  Also went online to Toshiba to order a ‘recovery disk  ($29.95)  Fired it up...all went well.  Runs pretty fast, although it became very hot and shut down. Investigation revealed the cooling fan was not spinning. The problem was dirt in the heat dissipation sink  and stuck fan bearing fr om dried out lubricant.  I was happy to not have to tear the laptop down to replace the fan needlessly.

Back to my anxiety of last night.  For the first time in many years I used a non Chrome browser. I tried Internet Explorer (ver 7.0) first, then Firefox.  ehh !?  Neither of them ran well.  Much of the problem I believe is that the newer programs and add ons are not very backward compatible with Vista 32. and a great many add ons, plug ins would not run or appear at all. Back to Chrome….

Other than the lag in the cloud at times, the “snap” crashes  it serves my purposes well.  For those of you who have sworn off IE or Firefox I agree.  My  assessment is definitely biased because I am using such an older version of Windows.  I noted that the boot times for Vista seemed to be much quicker on this old laptop with the clean install.

Next step is to replace the HDD with an SSD. After using my chrome book now for several years, the Toshiba feels very very heavy...portable comptuer...my ass...it is all relative.

Chrome however will not run several web conferencing tools, nor zoom.info.

When I tire of this activity I will buy a new iMAC 5 K.  

I can now sleep better knowing what the ‘new Windows and Firefox look like.  Vista 32 would not allow me to upgrade  IE past ver 7.0 . either.  It is 6 AM, and time to start the day….I am going back to sleep. The sun is rising in the east, and the owls are hooting.

Our backyard alarm clock

Riverside CA looking North 7A.M.

EHR adoption rises Meaningful Use Declines

Continued growth of physician office EHR use

Whatever the reasons behind these responses from SERMO members, physician office EHR adoption is on the rise. An ongoing study by SK&A indicates a ten-percent increase in physician office adoption of EHR technology between 2013 and 2014. What’s more, it provides a breakdown of the top-five EHR vendors nationally and regionally.

At the national level, Epic Systems controls 30 percent of the market followed by eClinicialWorks (22%), Allscripts (19%), Practice Fusion (16%), and NextGen Healthcare (13%).

The regional differences are quite small

A closer look by region shows a close competition between Epic Systems and eClinicalWorks for EHR selection by physician offices.

The former dominates the West, Midwest, and East regions of the United States. The latter holds sway in the South and New England regions. Here’s a region-by-region breakdown:

Interestingly, where neither is first both companies drop to the third or fourth spots. Considering that both companies specialize in working with health systems and hospitals, their domination of various markets may indicate the ownership of physician practices and use of that health system’s or hospital’s EHR technology.

Despite the increased implementation and use of EHR technology by physician offices, their physicians have a ways to go in order to keep pace with the evolution of the EHR Incentive Programs.

Tagged EHR Adoption, Meaningful Use, Medicare Payment Adjustments, Physician EHR Adoption, Physician EHR Use, Stage 2 Meaningful Use

Related Resources:

• Making the Most of Meaningful Use: Why Choosing the Right EHR Matters
• Tips to a Successful Approach to EHR Implementation
• EHR Replacement Guide: Best Practices
• Webcast: Boost Your Bottom Line
• Stage 2 Meaningful Use: Best Practices for Providers Webcast

Spectrum Health shuts down, reabsorbs digital health startup Ideomed

mHealth developers face several challenges for users and developers.

Interest in these applications is weak. Statistics reveal that 60% of the population have downloaded at least one mobile health application.  How long and how often they access the program is another story.

Whle the consumer market is potentially infinite, in real life things are quite different. Most of these apps are available free of charge or for a small fee. A few have monthly or annual  fees.

The Chrome store and iTunes (iOS) provide easy access to purchasing mHealth applications for desktops and also tablets.

Business sustainability is an issue in terms of acquisition and/or usage. Developers face ongoing expense in software applicaions with upgrades, new versions and staying current with preferred practice patterns for monitoring metrics such as weight, BMI, blood pressure,pulse rate and for monitoring blood chemistries as the technology advances.




Wearable devices are becoming more commonplace  and recent sensory and biochemical markets can be measured with these devices using non invasive skin sensors. The future for wearable sensors may also be combined with embeddable chips accessed by RFID devices, much like personal ID used for animals and  people. Technology also exists that precludes wearing an external device constantly Acquisition is possible just by walking near an RFID antenna embedded in the wall of a home or office. The potential uses are enormous, not just for measuring metrics, and also reminders for appointments, prescripton renewals.

The promises of nano-technology have already contributed to the development of drug delivery systems capable of going where 'no drug  has gone before'.

Spectrum Health faced these challenges of sustainability with their subsidiary Ideomed, a mobile health application. Their decision was to discontinue their mobile health applications associated with their health plan.

Emergency Regulations proposed for Covered California Is It ? Jones Releases Emergency Rule Over Narrow Provider Networks

Are you one of the hundreds of thousands who accepted the incompetent design of 'The Affordable Care Act ?  You are not alone.

It has taken more than one year of operation for state health officials to recognize this current disaster. 

The affordable care act has delivered an empty promise, deception, and a boiler plate plan that gives  you a health insurance card...Good luck after that.

Sick patients require help and assistance. Those who are well and especially those who have an acute or chronic illness have many challenges in life, should not and cannot negotiate the web sites, and even when they do, much of it is incomprehensible.  

Haste in signing up due to arbitrary guidelines and enrollment dates add additional challenges for those still uninsured, and those who have discovered just how terrible their new plans are presents challenges for most.

Help may be on the way now that State Commissioner for Health Insurance, Dave Jones is responding to complaints from California Consumers.  Jones is the head of the California Managed Care programs.





California State Health Commissioner, Dave Jones

On Monday, the California Department of Insurance issued an emergency regulation that aims to address narrow provider networks in the state and improve residents' access to care, Capital Public Radio's "KXJZ News" reports. 

According to the state Department of Managed Health Care, several insurers, including Anthem, have violated state law by misleading consumers about the size of their provider networks  State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones (D) said DOI has "received complaints from consumers across the state about long waiting times, about inaccurate directories of providers, about being charged out-of-network costs when there isn't an in-network provider. The list goes on and on and on" 

Details of Emergency Regulation

The emergency regulation requires insurers to:

• Adhere to new standards for appointment wait times (DOI release, 1/5);
• Offer an adequate number of physicians, clinics and hospitals to patients who live in certain areas;
• Provide an accurate list of in-network providers ("KXJZ News," Capital Public Radio, 1/5);
• Provide out-of-network care options for the same price as in-network care when the number of in-network providers is insufficient; and
• Report to DOI information about their networks and any changes.

The emergency regulation will go into effect after it has been reviewed by the Office of Administrative Law. According to a release, emergency regulations often go into effect more quickly than standard regulations (DOI release, 1/5).

According to Jones, he can bar insurers that do not comply with the regulation from selling insurance in the state next year