Health Law

HITECH Act part of stimulus package headed to President's desk: Steady, boys!

Posted on February 15, 2009
Some of us have now had a moment or two to read parts of the stimulus bill. One of the many stimuli included is the HITECH act, a $19 billion electronic health records funding provision. This sort of action by...

Transforming Healthcare Summit in Boston February 26

Posted on February 09, 2009
I hope to see local readers February 26 at the Transforming Healthcare Summit. On the program: Jim Roosevelt (Tufts Health Plan), Charlie Baker (Harvard Pilgrim Health Care), John Glaser (Partners Healthcare), Jonathan Bush (Athena Health) and more. Check out the...

Live tweeting Health 3.0 for Health Plans and Retail Clinic conferences

Posted on January 29, 2009
A tale of two conferences (in Las Vegas, no less) and twitter. I posted my presentation slides and a link to my live tweeting of a conference on retail health clinics yesterday. I also attended a conference this week focused...

David Harlow speaks at retail clinic conference

Posted on January 27, 2009
I am at the Retail Based Health Clinics Congress in Las Vegas. I tweeted yesterday's proceedings (tomorrow's should be available at the same link) -- that is, except for my own presentation, which is posted below for your viewing pleasure....

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Health Wonk Review is up at Disease Management Care Blog

Posted on January 22, 2009
Jaan Sidorov hosts a post-inaugural Health Wonk Review. Trying to keep the party going, he's paired each wonk's post with a popular song. Somehow, he linked mine with a Madonna tune. No matter. Enjoy the posts. Enjoy the tunes.David HarlowThe...

Marketing Your Legal Practice Using Social Media

Posted on January 21, 2009
At an open meeting of the Law Practice Management Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association this afternoon, I gave a presentation on social media as a set of tools for marketing a legal practice, focusing on blogging, twitter, LinkedIn and...

Pan-Mass Challenge 2009: The training and fundraising begin

Posted on January 20, 2009
While it may be hard to believe given the amount of snow on the ground right now, I've just registered to ride this summer in the 30th Pan-Mass Challenge. It's the granddaddy of all athletic fundraisers, and last year (my...

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Tufts Medical Center reach agreement

Posted on January 19, 2009
Drawing a line in the sand seems to be working.Thanks in large part to the current environment (I'm referring to the chill brought on by the recent Boston Globe spotlight series), Tufts Medical Center has apparently improved its position and...

Is American Well the disruptive innovation to unseat retail based health clinics?

Posted on January 13, 2009
To paraphrase Mark Twain, are rumors of the death of the retail based health clinic highly exaggerated? There have been widely-reported dips in retail clinic growth, and growth has not kept pace with optimistic projections from an earlier, happier time...

The Massachusetts provider-payor ultimatum: deja vu all over again

Posted on January 06, 2009
Today's Boston Globe reports that Tufts Medical Center will not accept Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts insurance after the end of this month, saying the rates and contract offered would yield continuing losses. The Blues say it's a negotiating...

Twitter for lawyers

Posted on January 02, 2009
Today's post is a simulcast of a column I wrote on the uses of Twitter as a legal marketing tool (with live links to useful resources), published in the Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers Journal December/January issue. Lawyers in the Boston...

No ambulance diversion rule takes effect in Massachusetts

Posted on January 01, 2009
Massachusetts' no diversion rule took effect today. This is a change long prepared for, but not likely felt immediately in area hospitals -- after all, New Year's Day is not a big day for elective surgeries and hospital discharges, and...

Partners Healthcare, competition, regulation, and the redeeming virtues of robust quality and cost data

Posted on December 22, 2008
The Boston Globe Spotlight Team had another installment of its Partners Healthcare saga in Sunday's paper. The general gist: Partners horning in on community hospitals in their home commmunities, Jack Connors (board chair at Partners) extolling the virtues of the...

Partners Healthcare, competition, regulation, and the redeeming virtues of robust quality and cost data

Posted on December 22, 2008
The Boston Globe Spotlight Team had another installment of its Partners Healthcare saga in Sunday's paper. The general gist: Partners horning in on community hospitals in their home commmunities, Jack Connors (board chair at Partners) extolling the virtues of the...

Jacob Hacker makes the case for public plan choice in national health reform

Posted on December 17, 2008
Jacob Hacker, at UC Berkeley, who has previously laid out the Medicare-for-all (plus some employer-based insurance) concepts that have been at the core of several Democratic presidential candidates' health reform plans (including the President-elect's), released a paper today demonstrating the...

Jacob Hacker makes the case for public plan choice in national health reform

Posted on December 17, 2008
Jacob Hacker, at UC Berkeley, who has previously laid out the Medicare-for-all (plus some employer-based insurance) concepts that have been at the core of several Democratic presidential candidates' health reform plans (including the President-elect's), released a paper today demonstrating the...

HIPAA faces the music: New OCR Guidance on the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Electronic Exchange of Health Information

Posted on December 16, 2008
HIPAA guidance for the world that followed HIPAA (finally): HIEs, PHRs, etc., and how they may be brought under the big tent of HIPAA.OCR release from late yesterday:The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR)...

Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council: Quality and cost transparency or veils?

Posted on December 15, 2008
One of the much-ballyhooed (and predictably delayed and diluted) innovations of the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform and universal access law is the development of an online resource providing cost and quality data in a consumer-friendly format. MyHealthCareOptions debuted last...

Just the wonks, ma'am

Posted on December 11, 2008
Vince Kuraitis, channeling Joe Friday, brings us the latest edition of Health Wonk Review at his e-CareManagement Blog. Somehow, the HealthBlawger was corralled with "the usual suspects and hippies." But I know my rights . . . .David HarlowThe Harlow...

Grand Rounds is up at Sharp Brains

Posted on December 10, 2008
Call it crowdsourcing, transparency, or whatever else you like, but the Obama transition team has been hard at work opening the door to the policymaking process. Sharp Brains lends a hand this week, with a Q&A-format edition of Grand Rounds....

Stay Smart Stay Healthy: Humana's adventures in YouTube for the short of attention span

Posted on December 09, 2008
Humana purports to cut through all the jargon and traditional media with a new series of faux naif video clips on YouTube accessible through the managed care giant's Stay Smart Stay Healthy web site, which tells us:In the old world,...

Blawg Review of the Ancient Mariner

Posted on December 08, 2008
Since his last outing as host of Blawg Review, Colin Samuels, of Infamy or Praise, has had, shall we say, an albatross around his neck: three towering achievements based on a literary trilogy, and the need to persevere despite Dante's...

Caritas Christi $100m infusion from Ascension Health on hold

Posted on December 05, 2008
Caritas Christi, the Boston-area Catholic health system, has been through the wringer and was looking forward to some capital improvements to be financed by issuing bonds. $100m of the bonds were to be acquired by Ascension Health -- one of...

UnitedHealthcare: Stranger than fiction

Posted on December 05, 2008
Uninsurance insurance. Yep, that's the latest arrow in the quiver of health care insurance giant UnitedHealthcare. As it loses covered lives thanks to layoffs of folks insured through employer-sponsored plans, UHC is looking to pick up a few bucks by...

Constabulary notes from all over

Posted on December 05, 2008
The ever-vigilant law enforcement community meets the health care system:Item: Massachusetts state trooper pulls over woman in labor; asks "what's under your jacket?" while writing ticket for driving in breakdown lane en route to hospital.Item: New Hampshire state trooper pulls...

Interoperable EHRs: elusive grail or within our grasp?

Posted on December 03, 2008
The indefatigable John Halamka makes a convincing case that "interoperability is implementable today with harmonized standards, appropriate security, and a service oriented architecture using the internet," and that the only thing barring the way to a fully interoperable national EHR...

Convergence of Health 2.0 and medical home?

Posted on December 01, 2008
Two items that entered my consciousness this morning: group medical appointments as a manifestation of the medical home and order-your-own labs as a manifestation of Health 2.0. At 700-plus-doctor Atrius Health here in the Boston area, CEO Gene Lindsey still...

Engage With Grace

Posted on November 26, 2008
As patients, as family members, as friends, as health care providers, we have all faced end-of-life issues at one time or another, and we will face them again. And again. This weekend, the "Engage With Grace" message is being broadcast...

Health 2.0 roundtable webcast on Read Write Web; HealthBlawg on twitter

Posted on November 25, 2008
Listen in on some Health 2.0 luminaries chatting at Read Write Web. The live podcast was yesterday afternoon. Tip of the hat to Scott Shreve (twitter: @scottshreve) and Unity Stoakes (twitter: @unitystoakes). Scott, and Unity's colleague Steven Krein, were two...

Grand Rounds is up at Canadian Medicine

Posted on November 25, 2008
Check out this week's edition of Grand Rounds, hosted by Sam Solomon at Canadian Medicine.David HarlowThe Harlow Group LLCHealth Care Law and Consulting

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.