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Two Las Vegas entrepreneurs — one a doctor, one a former gaming company executive — are embracing technology in two distinctly different quests to promote good health. And each is capitalizing on something that Las Vegas has led the way on for decades: hospitality...Constantine George, chief medical officer of the concierge practice Epitomedical, this year launched Vedius, a smartphone app that combines personalized clinical care with the kind of customer service for which Las Vegas is known...“Patients first,” George said. “They’re the center of our universe, medically speaking. Just like the hotel industry here, (where) it’s about the tourists, all about people coming to town and having a good time and wanting to come back over and over. The same concept should be applied to health care.”...Tim Stanley, a former gaming and technology executive...launched Carepoynt, a web-based health care rewards program with 15,000 members nationwide that recently began adding Las Vegas partners...“I think helping reward the right behaviors is good for our health,” Stanley said. “There are many things we can do preventatively that significantly (reduce) the ravages of time — disease, things like that. Diabetes, heart disease — these things are not completely preventable but significantly.”

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Nicole Grassano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

The All of Us initiative, which will be launched on May 6, aims to compile detailed health profiles of 1 million Americans, with a special focus on communities historically underrepresented in biomedical research...The program, which began as a pilot last year, is the most ambitious attempt yet to compile health and behavioral data, as well as genetic sequencing, from a representative sample of the American population. It will collect electronic health records, survey data, and even information from its participants’ wearable fitness devices – with the goal of helping scientists better understand how to craft personalized treatments, seen by many as the future of biomedicine...

Accountable care demands that data crunching these days be agile to enable quick pivots in strategy...With rising drug costs, value-based care, changes in reimbursement rules and more demanding consumers, there's no shortage of things that can change in a year. That means hospital IT departments need to employ quicker, more agile analytics that enable them to pivot in response to fast-changing conditions...And that’s why Dana Darger...director of pharmacy at Rapid City (South Dakota) Regional Hospital...said healthcare organizations need to think more like stores when it comes to issues of dollars and cents..."Hospitals have never behaved with what I'll call a retail mindset,” Darger said. “Retail stores can tell you what they make on everything."...As healthcare moves inexorably toward value-based reimbursement, entities are going to need to analyze data more quickly and make those retail-type business decisions..."If you look traditionally at the way pharmacy works, pharmacists tend to look at the world as expense-driven," said Darger. "They base things on what drugs cost, rather than what the margin is..."A lot of times, people are trying to get the data to say what they want it to say. You have to figure out how to let the data tell the story so you can make changes based on it."

Legislation backed by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores to help address the opioid abuse epidemic was passed today by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill – the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act (H.R. 3528) – would require electronic prescribing for Schedule II through V controlled substances prescriptions covered under Medicare Part D to help prevent fraud, abuse and waste...Leveraging the benefits of electronic prescribing to help address the opioid abuse epidemic is one of the priority policy recommendations of NACDS, based on the experiences of pharmacists on the front lines of healthcare delivery.”...The concept of the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act maintains strong public support. In a January 2018 national survey conducted by Morning Consult...76% supported rules that all prescriptions must be handled electronically, rather than by paper or fax, as a way to help address the opioid abuse epidemic...The Senate companion legislation of the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act is S. 2460, introduced by Sens. Michael Bennet (D, Colo.) and Dean Heller (R, Nev.)...would need to be passed...prior to its proceeding to President Trump for consideration and signature...

Laura Joszt, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.