healthsignals new york

New contributor

We have a new contributor, Tom Hilliard, over at www.signalhealth.com. He describes himself as "a former health care policy wonk, former political hack, former labor consultant for health care unions, former Washington DC political activist."

He's already published a couple of well-written, thought-provoking posts. Come on over and take a look.

And for those of you who've never visited www.signalhealth.com, though inspired by this site, it offers much, much more.

Medicaid cap followup 3

The Medicaid cap is not just a financial change, it portends an operational change. This is personally symbolized by the return to government service of Brian Wing.

Brian's the former Commissioner of Social Services and then after re-organization, OTDA. He left a while back to work in the private sector.

Brian's returned and has joined the Health Department, specifically the Office of Medicaid Management and his charge is to figure out how to move the Medicaid functions currently administered by localities to the State. This is the administrative/operational change that needs to accompany the cap on local financial responsibility.

That's a change long overdue. The first policy paper I ever had published, Barriers to Medicaid Reform, emphasized the dispersion of policy and administrative responsibility for Medicaid between different State agencies and different levels of government. That was in 1976. Well, we're finally making progress.

Brian's job will not be fun and it's won't be headlines sexy. But it will be important. Best wishes and welcome back.

Our condolences

Our colleague and friend Paul Sorum's wife Christie died earlier this week. Christie was the Dean of Faculty at Union College.

Each year, Christie and Paul hosted at their home the final session of  the Capital District Medical Decision Making Group. She was an energetic, interesting and fun person to be around.

Our sympathies to Paul, their daughter and family.

Craig Duncan joins us as a Contributor

When Craig Duncan began, he was running a 16 bed nursing home. When he retired, he had built it into Northeast Health with an intense commitment to integrating care, especially for those with chronic illnesses. He's been one of the leaders in expanding the use of information technology to improve care, increase efficiciencies, and, even better, integrate and transform care.

Craig is joining us as a Contributor at signalhealth.com and I look forward to his observations on a wide range of issues. We could tease by calling him an elder statesman, but he's got way too much energy for that. We'll post his bio shortly.

To get the conversation going, Craig's agreed to an online interview. I'll post some questions and he'll respond with his own postings.

Craig, thanks for joining us and welcome. Here are some questions to get started:

1. What are the most significant changes you've seen in health care since you started?
2. What concerns you most about where the health care system is now or where it's heading?
3. What in today's environment or on the immediate horizon do you think offers us the best opportunities for significant improvements in patient care or system efficiencies?

Thanks. We look forward to reading your perspectives on these and many other issues.

A new online physician voice

Many of you met Dr. Paul Sorum here or here as an advocate for single-payer. Paul's not only a physician. He's also a historian with great expertise on the French medical system.

Paul now has his own blog at www.signalhealth.com and his first post is EMTALA Blues.

Welcome Paul!

On MLK day

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane."

                                                                            Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Craig heads to the beach

Craig Duncan has retired.  He started at the Eddy when it had 16 nursing home beds. He ended with this, two hospitals, nursing homes, rehab, adult day services, home healthcare, PACE, respite, assisted living, disease management, the whole shootin' match.

Craig is one of those people who hired really good people and then gave them all the credit. Always curious, always learning, always teaching, always pushing the boundaries, he was always a pleasure to work with. We were taking bets at his retirement party how long it will be until he's on to another project. Of course, his wife had distinctly different ideas and her own list of projects.

He also took care to ensure an orderly transition process and he's been succeeded by another sharp guy, Jim Reed, MD.

Craig's already agreed to an interview here. We'll give him a chance to catch his breath and to start on his wife's list.

NYS hospital official moves to hospital association

This news is a couple weeks old now, but worth mentioning anyway. Fred Heigel, who's been Director of the NYS Health Department's Bureau of Hospital and Primary Care Services is going to HANYS. Fred will become VP for Health System Redesign and Regulatory Affairs.

Fred's been solid and hardly a pushover regulator. He's been particularly good managing NYPORTS, New York's system of hospital adverse event reporting.

Nothing about Fred personally, but is movement from the regulatory agency to the association for the regulated regular?

Ben Chu heads to CA

Ben Chu, MD, who for the past several years has headed up the New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation (HHC) will become President of Kaiser's Southern California Region.

Ben was Associate Dean and VP for Clinical Affairs at NYU and NYU Medical Center. He then went to Columbia, where he worked with Harlem Hospital and then to HHC.

He's a capable guy and most everyone gets along with him. I met him years ago when he was at NYU, but didn't get to know him until we worked together on Bill Bradley's Presidential campaign. He's got a sophisticated sense of what's going on around him, but my primary impression is that he's a good guy.

Kaiser chose well.

Doctor & county legislator, Paul DiGiovanni, Part 4

We've been interviewing Paul DiGiovanni about his dual roles, physician and county legislator. (Here is the first posting. Here's the second. Here's the third. Today's is the final installment.