Next Things First

Installment #17:

GE CEO Jeff Immelt is scheduled to be in Washington this morning, talking up the company’s plan to spend $6 billion over six years in an effort to expand its health-care business. [WSJ Health Blog]

Obama said the government will save $22 billion annually starting in 2012 by eliminating Medicare payments to private health insurances “as a broader effort to reduce healthcare costs.” [HealthLeaders Media]

If our customers are not 100 percent satisfied with the Limeade [employee wellness] service, we will refund their most recent three months of prepaid service fees – in donut form. [Press release]

Despite widespread interest in employer-provided wellness programs, less than 40 percent of workers have access to programs that address diet, exercise, stress reduction or disease-management, according to a study released Thursday. [Baltimore Sun]

Health Records from Government Site Held for $10M Ransom [Chilmark Research]

Texas, a state with more than 250 hospitals analyzed in the study, showed an average Hospital Value Index™ score of 45.2, ranking the state in the bottom ten. [Press release]

On Tuesday, the Harris County Commissioners Court in Texas allocated $6.2 million in federal stimulus funding for a jail inmate electronic health record system… [iHealthBeat]

HCA makes more than $75M with ED coding procedure [FierceHealth Finance]

Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown profiled four lesser-known movers and shakers in the coming brawl over health care reform (as well as a fifth party, the anecdotes of regular Americans being amassed as weapons on both sides) [Covering Health]

Posted by CharlotteGee