Runtastic, Aetna and iTriage

In my previous post, I had mentioned how technology is becoming more and more important in providing a more informative experience to patients. More than ever users can take their health into their own hands through their smartphone. Apps are becoming more popular in use for those who are taking steps in maintaining or starting a healthier lifestyle. Yet many questions come to light about these apps, especially since apps can be created by anyone as long as they know how to program. The main question is: Does the app really work? 

Personally, I rely on one of these apps and I find it to be very useful. I can track my running speeds, distances and my progress. As someone who is training for a marathon I find this to be helpful in planning out my training. The app I use is runtastic; it records your progress and even lets you know how far you are along while you are running. Runtastic also is connected to a community dedicated to an active lifestyle, so if a user would like to discuss concerns or questions with other active people it is an option.

Above is what the interface of runtastic looks like, it can help someone map out their run or even give them motivation for their next run. There is even a ghost run feature where you can compete with one of your previous runs. Runtastic is one of the best apps to track running which is one of the best activities because it is preventative for so many health issues.  

Health care companies

Aetna is one of the healthcare companies that is looking into the future by making available apps to its insurance customers. Aetna’s CEO Bertolini understands that it is difficult for healthcare companies to make drastic changes after operating the same way for so many years. Aetna has created apps that have given users their health information at the palm of their hand allowing them to make informed decisions. Bertolini also understands that our healthcare system should be geared towards maintaining health rather than acting during an illness. Aetna is working on about 200 health products that are projected to bring in revenue of $1.5 billion in the next year. Aetna has acquired healthagen, a start up company that has created the app iTriage.

iTriage can…

• Emergency rooms
• Doctors
• Diseases
• Keep track of the medications
• Personal Information

Aetna planned on adding more information for consumers; that focuses on providing financial information to them. By integrating their medical information; patients will be able to calculate out of pocket costs between an in network provider and an out of network provider.

To find more information check out:

https://www.runtastic.com

iTriage

Apps in healthcare

Does that app?

Moving forward with Health Informatics

Most Americans will now have access to health care insurance and insurance companies will work harder than ever to meet demands of insurers. Insurers will want to be able to access their information online which is a popular and easy form of communication that people love to use. With hospitals and clinics having more patients than before, there needs to be a way to alleviate all the future paperwork. Health Informatics is the answer and we will be seeing it very soon in our hospitals and clinics. Associations and companies are projecting that there will be an increase in Health Informatics jobs in the years ahead.

Some job titles that will be seeing an increase are:

•  Records Technicians
• Medical Assistants
• Patient Navigators

Many of these titles do not need very much higher education and may just need a certification in order to do the job. However the pay in these jobs is pretty good given their educational requirements which range between $24,000 and $45,000 depending on the location of the job and experience. 

Why is this so important?

With so many jobs projected to be available there needs to be enough people to meet the demands of the future patients. A lack of workers will mean a slowing down in the Health IT industry, hospitals, clinics and the American health care system itself.

Using Apps

App creators are realizing that people are becoming much more interested in health care apps that focus on fitness and can help them stay on track with doctors’ appointments,  health instructions and health overall. Apps like MyFitnessPal are becoming popular among health enthusiasts that help the user become more connected to their information. 

Apps are helping users keep up to date in information such as:

• Calorie counting
• Doctors nearby
• Symptoms
• Hotlines
• Conditions
• Nearby Facilities
• Inquiries to Doctors

With all the possibilities we have, it looks like it is endless. What do you think about the direction we are moving in and how can we help?

More information can be found at:

 ACA. health IT changing job landscape

Report lists best healthcare app for consumers

AMIA looks to healthcare workforce of the future

EHR Cost Data

Healthcare.gov and what it says about health informatics in the United States

Americans are now joined together by health care and many are still concerned about the website itself. While many are still upset and demanding a fix, we should take a step back and analyze what this says about the United States government and our current Health Informatics status. As we know, the United States government unsuccessfully launched the healthcare.gov website that was poorly designed and executed. This caused more than a rift towards the Obama Administration and led for the private sector to step in and salvage the site for American Citizens. So what has happened to our innovation? From what I have seen, it seems that private sector has been able to provide Americans with more tangible items that would help them in critical times. Health care is one of the most critical services that Americans will be able to access through our federal government. We cannot afford to have crashes become the norm or a possibility.  

A positive in the entire healthcare.gov fiasco has been Obama’s responses and quick turnaround time in providing solutions.  Obama has spoken regarding the issues promising to fix all issues as soon as possible. Today the White House reported that the Marketplace has been consistent all week with very little issues. This is a big step for the general population. This still should make us uneasy because of past claims to make the Marketplace as easy as Amazon.com orders. Perhaps the White House has over estimated itself. 

The Marketplace is the first example of the American population’s first view into informatics. There is a possibility that this is all too new for us and we are just getting adjusted. The other possibility may be that American innovation has fallen behind. If we go back to my first post or if you have been keeping up with the news during the hearing that was regarding the Healthcare.gov mishap, we have facts that show how the government’s health department blatantly ignored the technical side of the Affordable Healthcare Act and was focused mainly on the policy making side. It could be time to finally let go of all the bureaucracy to avoid these situations.   

What do you think? Are we slowly losing our innovation in the American government or just learning the ropes of American healthcare?

For more information visit:

Innovation 

Hiring private companies for healthcare.gov 

Patience and oversight 

Increased volume healthcare.gov 

Stability all week White House reports 

Obama's Nov. 30 Deadline 

 

What is the healthcare exchange?

As time draws nearer and nearer for millions of Americans to get signed up for a health care plan, this leaves many confused on what to do. Especially since the online system has been down this whole time and millions of Americans rely on the ease of the internet to sign up. Each state is able to pick from a number of options in what it will decide to do in to have its citizens sign up. According to the Affordable Care Act an exchange must be available by each state. There are a few things a state can decide to do and they are as follows

• A state can have its own exchange.
• A state can choose to not have an exchange and allow the residents of each state to buy from the federal exchange.
• The last option is a mix of both, where the state and the federal government share responsibility in managing the exchange for said state.  

 Public exchanges will be the most popular of the exchanges because it will be the most accessible for the American public. To help those shopping for insurance understand the differences of insurance made available to them; the plans will be categorized by Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze.


This might leave people who are new to health care especially the young to still be unsure of which one to pick.


Platinum plans will have a higher premium which means it will be a higher cost overall but will have lower out of pocket costs. This plan might be best for someone who regular goes to the doctor and may be more at risk to have a hospital visit.

Gold and Silver plans will have a more moderate cost and a more moderate out of pocket cost. Bronze plans will have a low premium and a higher out of pocket cost. This plan might be best for someone who may have an emergency fund set up and is of good health.

Private exchanges will be available too. These will not be run by the government but instead the private sector. The private exchanges are up and running unlike the public exchange which is still being fixed.

What is important to know is that in the state of Virginia, we will be having our exchange handled by the federal government. While Maryland and DC have state based marketplaces.

All in all, we have the ability to pick from our federal marketplace once it is up and running or choose from the private sector. BB&T will be offering health care insurance to individuals and businesses. Incentives will be offered for those who buy health care from federal exchange. There will be "essential health benefits" that will provide wellness and preventive services, covered hospital stays, prescription drugs to name a few.

More information on exchanges, private sector exchanges and how states are handling their exchanges can be found below:

BB&T joins the private sector exchange
Health Insurance can be found in the private sector too
Aetna- Exchanges explained
Exchanges by state

Mismanagement of healthcare.gov

The animosity of health care has not let down, we are still currently facing major issues. The most recent issue that is making headlines is the failure of the United States health care exchange website. The failure has made the already disgruntled public even more disgruntled. The failure of healthcare.gov is frustrating; many people were left to be confused and angry because the site was not fully functioning meaning they could not even apply for health care. Eventually so many people were upset that this brought the attention of national media and this even prompted Barack Obama to have a televised speech about the failure of the website. 

Now the question many are asking is...who was in charge and how can we fix this? This took a little research and maybe a half hour watching CNN to help me understand what was at stake here. I learned that Kathleen Sebilius the Health and Human Services Secretary was basically the person who was overseeing the production of healthcare.gov. This is going to cost the American people a cost of $118 million on the website and $56 million for other IT to help keep the website running. This information was made public during a congressional meeting that questioned why such issues were occurring healthcare.gov. 

The severity of this issue has lead to an apology by Sebilius and Vice President Joe Biden. Sebelius stated that she had made a "mistake" when she advised President Obama that healthcare.gov was ready to go. Her argument was that in the midst of this entire unknown we are trying to put together it would inevitably lead to issues. In regards, to the health care website there are ONLY issues. This could issue could have been prevented to make matters worse. According to CNN.com, the main contractor of the healthcare.gov project, CGI Federal warned that the website was not ready to go online about a month before its opening on October 1st. CGI warned of security issues and stated that they did not have sufficient ability to fully test the site. Major parts of the website were completed but the site crashed on an end to end test according to a CNN report. 

All in all, there a multitude of issues that are present but only one thing continues to remain and that is that we still do not have a website to rely on. It seems that it will be difficult to process all this information as we run out of time to sign up for health care. If you go on the healthcare.gov website it states that we will have to enroll by the deadline of March 31, 2014. In addition, there are security problems which leave the public's most sensitive information at risk. President Obama pledges to fix this issue as soon as possible and reports on theverge.com state that engineers from Google and Red Hat have been assigned to work on these issues. 

Below I have linked the articles that provide more in depth information about healthcare.gov issues.

Warning to Obama about Website issues
Congressional Meeting with Sebilius
Red Hat and Google to help speed up healthcare.gov recovery
Healthcare.gov