| SydaSoft Practice Management software is a sponsor at the Medical Quack. SydaSoft also offers billing services if you would rather not handle in house. You can find their full product list here and compare to see which might be the best fit for your practice. “If you are an established billing service, SydaMED can help expand your business and enhance your profitability. As a billing service, you need to have greater flexibility in order to maximize the potential of your business. You need to bill for many types of specialties. For example, you most likely need software the can handle general medical, chiropractic, UB-92, DME, and so on.
If you are a start-up billing service in need of comprehensive training on software and billing daily operations, we recommend getting full-scale training from ClaimTek Systems. ClaimTek can provide you with a comprehensive package that includes software, training, marketing and support program. ClaimTek programs teach you how to perform medical billing, market to medical providers, and get support on every step of setting up your business. For more information, visit www.claimtek.com. “ Claim Tek can also teach you everything you need to know about medical billing and set up your own business. Below is a recent testimonial with a client that is billing and managing 18 providers and received her training and instructions from Claim Tek Systems. As always I ask readers to spend some time and take a look at the products my valued sponsors and advertisers have listed. SydaSoft Medical Billing and Practice Management Software Again the flagship product, SydaMED has many add on modules to include integrating with Quick Books, Outlook and so on. Be sure to look at the numerous state-of-the-art features, such as image scanning (insurance cards, picture IDs, x-rays, etc.), fast "jump-to" screens that let you go from one type of work to another quickly and effortlessly, and emailing from within the program. BD
I don’t know if this is in network or out of network and the reason I mention this is that it sound similar to the old Ingenix out of network algorithms that were used and then declared low-balled and led to the AMA lawsuit against the company for short paying doctors for 15 years. At any rate the basis sounds the same with some “killer algorithms” here miscalculating what the patients owed and were over charged from both Optum Health and Oxford. If you remember back it was Oxford that for years fought a court case and it ended up in the Supreme court to make the final decision that doctors could group to litigate with insurers.  We have this going on and then yet this woman was paid by United to the sound of $175,000 to fix a hammer toe so we have odd calculating algorithms models here it sounds like that could use some checking for accuracy. BD
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, USA, June 23, 2014 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Maul Firm, P.C. is investigating claims on behalf of health insurance participants relating to UnitedHealthCare’s coordination of benefits with Medicare. Participants with potential claims are advised to contact Anthony F. Maul, Esq. at afmaul@maulfirm.com or (646) 263-5780. The investigation concerns allegations that UnitedHealthCare systematically under-reimburses its Medicare-eligible members by manipulating insurance benefit calculations. Potential claimants include Medicare-eligible patients who were insured by UnitedHealthCare (including by subsidiaries Oxford or OptumHealth), and who made out-of-pocket co-payments for health care services. http://world.einnews.com/pr_news/210711116/maul-firm-investigates-claims-relating-to-unitedhealthcare-s-coordination-of-benefits-with-medicare
This company just had it’s IPO and became public not too long ago and as you can read they hold data on 85% of the world’s prescriptions which means of course they sell a lot of data too. When you look at the IMS executives, very little in clinical backgrounds compared to capital and other related backgrounds. The last couple of years they have bought up other companies to include a CRM company and software as a service and social network analytics company to engage consumers. IMS Health sells data and reports to all the top 100 worldwide global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as consulting firms, advertising agencies, government bodies and financial firms. IMS said it processes data from more 45 billion healthcare transactions annually (more than six for each human on earth on average) and collects information from more than 780,000 different streams of data worldwide. In addition they company has approximately 400 million comprehensive, longitudinal, anonymous patient records and the main geographic area for storage is located in New Jersey. Now that such companies are growing by leaps and bounds, we really need laws to license all of them so we know who they are and what kind of data they sell and to who, as there’s no transparency here at all. When your data becomes flawed and you have to do all the legwork to fix it while big corporations make billions selling you data, it would be nice to have “some” reference for consumers and that would be establishing a license as it’s like the wild west out there. Having all this data leads to one other side effect other than research and that’s money, big money and much of time when data is sold, you get scored on something. This is out of hand in the US as it’s all about money and not making you healthier. We have watched that over the last few years and companies are getting richer under “scoring” and sometimes used flawed data to score and evaluate you. Insurers love that portion of their business intelligence with their risk assessments. What we are asking for a consumers as a trail to search back and find who’s selling our data and what kind is not unreasonable but until there are laws nobody will do a thing. So here this data and let’s say an insurer queries it with your Visa and MasterCard data that they buy? Now after reading this does anyone wonder why inequality is now growing at an accelerated pace? The wealthy don’t have to deal with this so they are pretty much untouched. The US spends more on “healthcare and data selling” than any other country and I think data selling is getting healthier as we can’t say the same for us. This is the reality for the rest of us, run and hide as anyone can take data and analytics and create any kind of story they want with any type of context and we all know that so again as these big data warehouses get bigger and bigger something better be done to regulate. In 60 Minutes story on data sellers the FTC just sat up and said “we’ve lost control” so how does that make you feel, probably not too good.
DANBURY, Conn., Jun 24, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- IMS Health IMS -3.01% , a leading global provider of information and technology services to the healthcare and life sciences industries, today announced its intention to acquire certain Cegedim information solutions and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) businesses for €385 million (approximately $520 million) in cash. Cegedim is a global technology and services company specializing in healthcare. The proposed transaction includes Cegedim’s CRM solutions that help life sciences clients in 80 countries drive sales effectiveness, optimize marketing programs across multiple channels and mitigate regulatory compliance risks; OneKey Reference Database that provides insights on 13.7 million healthcare professionals across the globe; and information solutions that use primary market research. In 2013, these businesses collectively generated revenue of €424 million (approximately $573 million) and adjusted EBITDA of €64 million (approximately $86 million). The acquired businesses will bring to IMS Health a team of more than 4,500 talented professionals with deep information and technology skills in areas that include software development, data warehousing, mobile applications and business intelligence tools, as well as analytics and implementation services. IMS Health expects to finance this acquisition through a mix of cash on hand and existing credit facilities, with no material impact on its leverage ratio. Customers include pharmaceutical, consumer health and medical device manufacturers and distributors, providers, payers, government agencies, policymakers, researchers and the financial community. As a global leader in protecting individual patient privacy, IMS Health uses anonymous healthcare data to deliver critical, real-world disease and treatment insights. These insights help biotech and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers, government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders to identify unmet treatment needs and understand the effectiveness and value of pharmaceutical products in improving overall health outcomes. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ims-health-to-acquire-cegedims-information-solutions-and-crm-businesses-2014-06-24
From reading the press release today this was a day in which both sides made their presentations relative to patent violations claimed by MMRGlobal, aka MyMedicalRecord.com. MMR Global has already settled with Walgreens and  you can read at the link below about the new PHR in a box to be sold on Drugstore.com and I believe in retail stores. Below are the back links relative to the patent settlements with both Walgreens and Cerner. Quest, Jardogs, Allscripts and WebMD (two divisions) are still being litigated and today’s court appearance was for just that, each side making their case. It mentioned Bob Lorsch, CEO of MMRGlobal talking about his own use of their company PHR, which goes back a few months and I just happened to have covered back then at the link below. Nothing like having the CEO use his own products by all means. In addition, Lorsch also talked about being a cancer survivor in 2005 and that was his motivation to created the PHR, MyMedicalRecords.com. Some of the patent dates I know from what I have written before do go back to 2007 I know and perhaps even earlier, I’m not exactly sure. Recently the website for MyMedicalRecords.com has been updated to accommodate recent changes and expansion as the PHR in a box program begins. “The most recent NOA represents MMR's first Clinical Trials patent and includes 18 claims directed to methods and systems that provide for self-reporting being used to create Electronic Health Records for purposes including Clinical Trials. Additionally, MMR has received issued patents and has pending applications in 11 other countries or regional authorities of commercial interest including Australia, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Europe” The case continues on August 19th before the judge unless of course all perhaps settle before that, but stay tuned. BD
LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 23, 2014) - MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF), through its wholly owned subsidiary MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (collectively, "MMR"), appeared Wednesday, June 18 in the United States District Court, Central District of California, where plaintiff MyMedicalRecords, Inc., and defendant(s) Quest Diagnostics, Inc., Empty Jar, LLC f/k/a Jardogs, LLC, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., WebMD Health Corp. and WebMD Health Services Group, appeared before the Honorable Otis D. Wright  , II to provide both the plaintiff's and the defendants' tutorial of the technology at issue in the cases. MMR focused its technology tutorial on the invention including a demonstration of the technology as available on MyMedicalRecords.com. The tutorials were designed to assist the Court in understanding the nature and operation of the invention covered by the two MMR Personal Health Record patents at issue in the litigation, specifically, U.S. Patent Nos. 8,301,466 and 8,498,883. The tutorials were part of the Markman proceedings designed to interpret disputes in patent claim language. The Markman process also includes the filing of opening, opposition and reply claim construction briefs which will be the subject of a scheduled August 19th, 2014 Markman hearing before Judge Wright. Attorneys for MMR made the presentation with MMR Chief Executive Officer and patent inventor Robert H. Lorsch. During the presentation, MMR showed the Court samples of its new MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record Kit which was created for sale at retail following the signing of patent license and retail sales agreements with retailers representing more than 40 million customers starting this summer. The Company also plans on announcing licensing and settlement agreements with PHR and EMR vendors prior to an upcoming new business trip to Australia next week. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1941713&highlight=
You may not hear about this a lot but it’s a big move as consumers are getting tired of being marketed and sold. I spent many years in sales and also time as a developer and of course I have respect for both but today the methodologies of “chasing” consumers down is growing old. We don’t want to be chased and “scored” so we end up with more data errors to fix, it makes work for us.  We don’t like it anymore. I have no problem with ads that show items relative to something I am reading as that’s been going on forever and that’s smart selling and a sale is much better when the functionality uses “attraction” rather than what we have today, massive data hunts to find potential customers. I have a phone that rings with automated computer messages that doesn’t quit. There’s not a day that goes by without at least a couple of these and the no call list doesn’t work work anymore. The origins of where the calls originate is deceitful as well as you can’t tell what the call is about until you answer the phone. As soon as you respond the algorithm kicks in and starts hammering you. This is obnoxious and most now have had these and they get ignored so why keep doing it? The calls are either random dials or from a data base someone purchased. If you are talking to your insurance company call center, then you get a bunch of algorithms analyzing your voice to sell to some behavioral analytics organization. I have an inbox that’s full of junk solicitations and even when I used the unsubscribe, it doesn’t work on some of them. I realize that we all live with junk mail and being a blogger I’m going to get more of it than perhaps the average consumer as well, but the volume definitely has kicked up and again I do the same thing with my spam filter as best I can. It’s getting old. I have done marketing and there are some who do it right out there and send an email allowing one to “subscribe” if they want and that’s ok as I can ignore it or choose to be added without being forced fed. We suffer from a government that fails to recognize a lot of this and thus so it just keeps rolling. As a matter of fact, the White House communication bot is starting to resemble this and people realize any more they don’t get any action or responses and fewer are taking time to add themselves to a list as almost email you get anymore from the White House wants you to type in your name, etc. to support something and I’m sure it goes to create a new data base the White House can use to help determine what people are thinking, it’s the same process we see all over the web it’s not different at all and when nothing is done, people quit and move on as they realize this is just another site taking in data. As a matter of fact, the site has even used what I call “junk science” numbers when trying to support climate control and put numbers out there without science just as a way to keep people to join in, and when you can see right through this it will end up hurting the campaign when one feels their intelligence is being insulted. We’re not that stupid. So again when no results or attention is given, people wise up and figure out that this is yet one more site gathering information about us in some form or another. Our Consumer Financial Protection Agency is being run by what I call a loose cannon as well as he’s functioning the same way that other executives do in the fact that they think they need to run out and create a data base..getting it..same stuff again. I’m beginning to think that all want to be an under achiever version of the NSA (grin). So far the agency has done a few things but so far it’s all been low hanging fruit that does not require understanding or use of much technology which is better than nothing but very limited indeed when you look to the futures as he will be obsessed with collection of data and not know what direction he will even go with it…a good time to check out some of the videos at the Killer Algorithm page for more clarification on how some of this works. I do like technology and software as I would not have been a developer myself and when I get “true” efficiencies and it ems that help me with life and doing my work, I like it, but sadly that’s not what’s out there as a whole today. Sure we still have good stuff coming out but there’s also the bottom feeder elements that just want to buy and sell data for easy money. This is where I get off the boat and try to inform others as to what to look for and when to be a skeptic for sure. As bad as the data selling has become, it’s affecting all parts of the economy and consumers with consumers getting the worse end of it. It’s funny as I read the marketing news articles all the time saying apps and wearables are going to take over. Well they won’t until there’s some trust developed here and that’s the problem. If people are continuously scored and that data is sold, then we don’t trust and especially more so when we don’t know who’s doing the scoring or what data and type of query they are using. I thought some of the early monitoring apps and devices were interesting until I saw what was going on and there are still some devices and apps that are good that don’t eat up your data for sale too. Actually I try to give those who don’t sell data coverage as best I can here. I try to balance myself with both of what I read on the web and I realize there’ some hype mixed in there and then I go out and talk to folks in the real world and surprisingly enough, there’s a big difference most of the time. I’m not finding people falling all over themselves to monitor their activity and using mobile apps, just the opposite, they are running from it. I have people asking me all the time about “staying under the radar” and what’s the best way to do it. Of course that’s a broad question but many ask about specific apps and services, and I tell the truths as best I know it as that’s what I should do. Anyway, marketers for consumer apps and devices should maybe give this some thought, and not only from the marketing side but also the design as all models and a proof of concept don’t work, as people don’t work that way, we are not algorithms. I can see folks when they get their heads buried in their concept and wanting to sell software and make money being a bit over taking with their thoughts and that happens, but go talk to the guy on the street once in a while and that helps bring you back to earth as the last thing most consumers want is something else they have to worry about with privacy and then also making sure they have time to interact with the data. We end up in many circles coming down to the reality that this is all about money as a consumer should not have to behave like an algorithm or function like a “proof of concept” model that some developer has in their head, but that’s where we are at a lot of the time. When the pressure is on from wellness coaches and employers with either penalties or money to participate we run as we know the real reason is all about money. WebMD with their portal and Penn State tried that one out and it didn’t work. It wasn’t the fact that they had to force everyone to get healthy but it was more about having an adequate amount of data to sell. It would have never played out the way it did if that were not the behind the scenes goal. I saw right through it as I’m an old query monster and I get every bit of it as I visualize data trails and queries, still, even though I don’t developer anymore and that will probably never go away. Now WebMD has a platform out there to collect data…hmmmm…well you are on your own there as I don’t trust it anymore than the Mayo Apple app that takes your information in but it can’t come out, like the old roach motel slang, “data checks in but it can’t check out”. Of course we know that Mayo supplies Optum Labs all kinds of medical reco rd data to scour through and then charge device and drug companies fees to dig through it to see if they find information relative to the products they produce. Mayo is doing this as they need the money looking as fast declining revenue streams and a drop in philanthropy efforts. “The plan requires nonunion employees, like professors and clerical staff members, to visit their doctors for a checkup, undergo several biometric tests and submit to an extensive online health risk questionnaire that asks, among other questions, whether they have recently had problems with a co-worker, a supervisor or a divorce. If they don’t fill out the form, $100 a month will be deducted from their pay for noncompliance. Employees who do participate will receive detailed feedback on how to address their health issues. What’s more, they argued, the online questionnaire required them to give intimate information about their medical history, finances, marital status and job-related stress to an outside company, WebMD Health Services, a health management firm that operates separately from the popular consumer site, WebMD.com.” So like it or not that’s the truth on what’s going with more running for the exits than going for the wearables and devices recording data and it will stay that way until something is done to pass a law to require all data sellers to buy a license and keep an updated page on a Federal site on what kind of data they sell and to who as well as pay an excise tax on it. When it comes to running for the exits, I’m right there with everyone else, and I like good intelligent data and how it can help with decisions and makes me smarter so when you have a data person like me running to the exits, well maybe it’s time for a reality check here and work on developing trust as nothing will change until this is done. Again, being I’m an old query monster that visualizes data and it’s use in business easily I’m probably at the front of the line as I can see in my head what’s going on so my fear is probably even greater as it’s crystal clear for me to see. Some people are just born with that knack and when I learned to code it accelerated that knack in my brain and thus I speak from a viewpoint of honest and extreme logic and that’s what you get a the Medical Quack. BD
Remember HP and their big 50k person layoff announcement? Well that’s an option here. Sure companies do lay off and restructure but when you look at stock buy back programs in the masses as we have done primarily to bolster up the stock price, you can’t help but see that’s an issue here and what number of people, facilities, etc. of course is not known. Who knows they could choose both the tax inversion and cuts costs too, and we won’t know until it is announced. Of course if cost cutting is done, there go some jobs. The projections from Walgreens are not high enough to satisfy investors as they are a couple billion a year below what the original projection was so again dangerous to rely on models too heavily. Banks are getting out of the commodities business as transactions in that side of trading are getting to be a bit scary as actual mining facilities have been closed by some trades, and so this is where things out of the virtual world come and hurt the real world out there and with this Walgreens discussion we are looking something similar. Maybe they will have to sell more data as they already make between 1 and 2 billion a year, just selling data. Now that’s huge and why I always talk about excise taxing data sellers, as add in banks, other businesses and you have one hell of a pot of gold to tax. Cashing in big with data…and here’s yet one more area with data selling with medical record data for research. We don’t of course know the amount but there was also a recent settlement relative to software with MMRGlobal and Walgreens. Who knows maybe Walgreens is going to make some money from suing other drugs stores too, like CVS and RiteAid, more at the link below on that topic. But never mind all of this, it’s all about patient care (grin), not the shareholders? I know and understand share holder interests very well but this is getting a bit out of hand as we saw what HP did and who’s next besides Walgreens? Again with using the in store clinics, as I looked at recently, you can see the open routes there for collecting and selling our data too. Walgreens already did some cost cutting a while back in moving their employees over to a private insurance exchange managed by a risk assessment/investor relations firm. Personally I don’t trust any of their software as I know too much from writing this blog that they will figure out any way to make a buck with it so no Walgreens PHR either and of course the phone is “off” whenever I visit one of their stores, which is not very often at all. So there you have it, pressure on the CEO to bring that money in for the shareholders, and well if they have to make drastic cuts and people lose jobs, well it’s the middle class folks as big profit methodologies are calling. It’s not what I want to hear. BD Here’s the report from Barclays if you want to read it…just hit the full screen button at the bottom… Barclays on Walgreen - Investors in the Driver's Seat; Upgrading to Overweight
With their jobs on the line, Walgreen Co. CEO Greg Wasson and his lieutenants are considering drastic moves to boost investor returns at the Deerfield-based drugstore chain. A report last week by influential Wall Street analyst Meredith Adler of Barclays Capital Inc. says the possibilities include, but go well beyond, the controversial proposal to cut Walgreen's tax bill by reincorporating abroad, a move management initially dismissed but has recently indicated a willingness to consider. Also on the table, Ms. Adler says, are deep cost cuts and heavy borrowing to finance share buybacks. In her long, detailed report (scroll down to see it), Ms. Adler says Walgreen brass faces a potential revolt by dissatisfied shareholders. And she illuminates rising tensions over who will control Walgreen as it transforms from a U.S. chain into a vertically integrated global player through the acquisition of European drug retailer and wholesaler Alliance Boots GmbH. According to Ms. Adler, many investors question the ability of current Walgreen management to run such an operation and believe Alliance Boots leaders would do better. Ms. Adler prescribes painful treatment for a century-old company steeped in paternalistic traditions—I don't see how Walgreen can reduce overhead by $750 million without significant job cuts. But I interpret her report as a set of non-negotiable demands from investors. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140621/ISSUE10/306219988/big-changes-in-store-at-walgreen
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not seen any job efforts as everyone is busy selling data and it’s getting worse and the quality of care is going down in the US and nobody is happy, doctors or patients and even some of the most brilliant motivators from the patient side seem to be pretty quiet of late too, so I see a message there too. The message is ugly and we see it in the news every day with everything not about humans, but about money. We’re just one more bot in the wall you could say.
worry about. This was a smaller company and half of what was invested for the employees never got there and we have a lawsuit now as the company went bankrupt. There was a false front on the company looking like they were growing and thriving, but not so, books cooked. BD
t efforts of both Microsoft and GE and it would make sense they are affiliated with Orion as well. 
product will be available immediately. Below is the prior FDA approval. 
The rub here is the fee and as the article states on a small bill, it’s not a big deal but when thousand of dollars are involved it begins to add up. When using a credit card the transaction is processed like any other credit card transaction and the fees can be as high as 5 percent so that adds up.
she gave a while back. It’s there along with 3 other videos I consider important and material that reflects what’s happening in “the real world” as we get caught up on a lot of rhetoric on the web that is maybe how we would “like” the world to be but again we have both virtual and real world values competing with each other today, as I call it 
selling for some of that. I said made this post yesterday and now has impact over here too as people will run from all of this as data gets used out of context and it’s becoming more flawed every day, so to the exit doors we go and maybe that might be the whole idea to keep costs down after all, you think? 
