Healthcare IT

Healthcare.Gov Fiasco Shows the Problems in Federal IT

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TMS-Statler&Waldorf-BalconyBoxI’m writing this post as a rant. I am tired of hearing people who have never worked in Federal IT try and come forward with ideas about what was wrong about the way Healthcare.gov was developed. I have one statement for all of you who think you could have done better.

You would have ALL failed miserably.

Federal IT is broken. Hell, all of Federal contracting is broken from what I’ve seen, but I want to focus on the IT side for now.

Before I get started, a quick reminder of my background. My first Federal project was back in the late 90s as the tech lead for the Secretary of the Air Force’s correspondence tracking system. Over the years, I have worked on a multitude of projects and managed many more while I was the Director of Technology Solutions for Washington Consulting . I’ve responded to many proposals and run Federal IT projects through the wide variety of hurdles that they face.

I can tell you right now, I am impressed that Healthcare.gov even boots up.

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Solving Revenue Cycle Management with Documentum

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Right now, I am sitting at a confluence of events. Not earth-shattering events like those impacting the Muslim and Arab worlds right now, but a confluence nonetheless.  In my last post, I talked about why it might be worth investing in a partnership with EMC right now, given the right circumstances. That has happened and today my company announced a new solution for Health IT, the afore-mentioned Revenue Cycle Management, built on EMC’s Documentum xCP platform.

So how did this come to pass? Let’s look back over the past year.

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HIMSS 2010: Aneesh Chopra, U.S. CTO, Talks about Health IT

Aneesh Chopra is talking so why wouldn’t I attend?  Need I say any more?  Even before he starts, you can tell he is an energetic speaker.

  • Innovations in Health IT would be good for the economy.
  • We are coming from “There’s a form for that.” to “There’s an app for that.”  Government reality doesn’t reflect public reality.
  • The US is 15th in Higher Education, 22nd in E-Government, and 40th on the Innovation Trends.  This was out of 40 countries.  The US had 2.7% growth.  Obama wants to return to number 1 by 2020. (Reasonable, but challenging)  Continue reading →

HIMSS 2010: Lessons Learned from Developing a Premier Global EHR

Here to hear Capt Michael Weiner talk about the Defense Health Information Management System (DHIMS) and the lessons that the DOD have learned.  I have a personal interest as I grew-up in the military health system and my parents and a large number of family members are in it now.  I haven’t been posting a lot of notes as I’ve just been absorbing, but this session should has lots of good information.

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HIMSS 2010: The Transformative Role of Health IT in the States

So I missed the keynote due to a conference call that was not to be missed.  I also realized that coffee is going to be a battle in lines.  Luckily I had heard those rumors and planned ahead and brought chocolate covered espresso beans.

To kick things off, I’m going to listen to the Governor of Vermont, Jim Douglas.  He is going to be talking about how HIE (Health Information Exchange) is important for the States in their interactions with the Federal Government.  Let’s see what I can learn.

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