Health Reform Is No Reform Without A Public Option

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Health reform is no reform without a public option

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It is hard for me as a citizen and entrepreneur for most of the last 20 years where I have worked for myself to understand how the the men and women in congress can consider a bill without a public option. Leaving this power in the hands of private insurance is not fair to the public. They have had decades to do the right thing and we know that their primary motivation is to create the most profits possible. Their goals are at odds with the task they have in front of them. Please, our government needs to provide this for our country. Why do we have to continue to wait to see if the insurance companies are going to do the right thing with accountability measures going on into the future. We already know their motivations which are not ever going to change and they are NOT in the best interests of "the people" We need a plan with the best interest of the people at the heart of it. Then let the insurance companies compete with that. Somehow, "people" with the interests of "the people" have to able to set the standard and those "people" don't work for the insurance companies! We need guaranteed coverage...where the insurance company can't * Deny coverage based on a preexisting condition. * Drop or weaken coverage when you get sick. * Place cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. In my opinion, any reform package without a public option is a failure by our congress and I personally will be thinking about that when I vote or support anyone for a long time to come! Benne Marie Brandt

ODL's - Observations of Daily Living

Observations of Daily Living (ODLs)

ODLs provide a new and different system of communication between patients and their physicians. As providers strive to improve their quality of care they will look to the proven benefits of this new communication system which are showing astounding results.

The consumer/patient should look for this new functionality in the mobile applications market such as iPhone and Android Phones in existing products such as motionPHR or possibly even as standalone or independent products.

They are also offered now on several web-apps on the internet in health related sites.

3 Responses to “The space between “clinical” and “fitness””

In response to the article by mobiHealthNews ...The following provided well informed insights into the current issues....

1. Tom Moore Says:
   July 30th, 2009 at 11:50 am

   It may be true that the ultimate end play is the consumer, but won’t it take a company like Apple, GE, or Philips to market to the end consumer? What chance does a start-up have of reaching the end consumer? They simply don’t have the marketing mechanisms or supply-chain management capabilities. The start-ups have to chase clinical dollars because the buyer is defined (much like a pharmaceutical sales force knows its target: the doctor and the insurance companies) - otherwise, there is no adoption method.

2. Isaac Ezell Says:
   July 31st, 2009 at 7:43 am

   I double Tom’s thoughts. Honestly, it is difficult to see how companies could take these products to market right now. I don’t think that consumer demand is there yet, and huge investments in product development may all be lost quickly if demand for the product is not realized. Too risky.

   I would be interested to hear what others think would be successful products in this space.

3. Marie Brandt Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
   July 31st, 2009 at 8:00 am

   I am a representative of the exact scenario that Tom Moore has portrayed.

   How is the small company supposed to reach the end consumer and provide them with the knowledge that our little motionPHR application is available.

   I am founder of a startup, 20+ years in computer science, wireless and software development in cloud computing and 6+ years in Medical Informatics. Our company is very in tune with the ARRA and the opportunities offered but have not found dollars that we felt were an “opportunity” worth pursuing for our own company. In fact I am a member of the HITSP and a volunteer participate on the Care Management and Health Records committee, which is funded by the government. To state the obvious, the ARRA and government are very much behind PHRs and we at CSI, my company, now have two PHR products available on the iPhone (motionPHR and motionPHR Lite) iTunes market. We are marketing our little hearts out with web2.0 social media, blogging, press releases http://tinyurl.com/mgtnsc. Our bigger challenge is marketing and a lack of funding or a revenue stream. We are strictly bootstrapping and we know we have a long road ahead.

   As much as our government is helping providing “help” to promote healthcare reform, with much emphasis on wellness and prevention, the “help” definitely isn’t coming in the form of help to small business. Please don’t tell me about the opportunity to borrow money for small business…. I would much rather bootstrap that dig myself a hole! So, I still totally believe in our recovery package and I also believe that it won’t help me directly, but I have hopes for the message that it is sending our citizens and that the wellness and prevention is a subtle, very subtle message to drive them to buy our product.

   We, with motionPHR are looking hopefully to get picked up on somebodies radar to get reviewed or an article written. We have a great app, especially for the chronically ill, to help keep themselves to achieve better health. We have one customer with AIDS that has shared with us how much our medications category and reminders has helped him. Almost every customer we have connected with, the medication component has been key. Also tracking information for multiple family members in the same app, we have backups and encryption. Our product road map is focused on ODL’s and on specific types of the illness where we believe people are or can be motivated to help themselves and it’s proven that their participation in their own health can made a difference.

   On the topic of pursuing our market, we hope to connect with a company that has the same target markets demographics that we have, as you mentioned a Pharmacautacal company would be ideal. We have a number of strategies, but getting that initial momentum that brings so much value, is the first step. We know we have a great product, but the marketing and budget restraints are huge challenges.

   Since we are really ahead of the curve in getting a product that is viable, stable, secure, encrypted, with backups, which is CCR compliant out on the market, we believe there is opportunity to build key relationships.

   Thanks for the post, if your interested in smartphone medical apps, check out motionPHR.com, we also support the Android platform!

PHR, Everyone Needs One

RT@BenneMarie posted on FederalNewsRadio.com

What is a PHR?

BMBCSI

PHR, Personal Health Record is still an acronym that is not widely known, so I believe that our government's idea for website addressing PHR's, why we need them and the guidelines for the vendors to follow so that we have secure, interoperable and standardized data that is useful to the patient and to the medical community is a great thing. These are all really important points and I look forward to seeing the site. As a member of the vendor community producing a PHR specifically for the smartphone market we believe that educating the public on the importance of tracking your health information and being compliant with your physicians instructions with respect to your health problems and conditions is key to improving the overall health of family's. Improving our health ultimately reduces our health care costs thus the emphasis from the government on wellness and prevention that you will see as a theme throughout the promotion of the PHR's. motionPHR is the PHR that Communication Software, Inc. (CSI) released in April 2009 and myMedBox is an abbreviated PHR released to the Google Phone in March, 2009. Both products are built to the CCR standards and next steps are to connect to Microsoft HealthVault. We believe that it is the patient's choice if they want to connect to an on-line PHR which may have direct access to other systems including the EMR's of their physicians. CSI's products encrypt the patient information and provide secure backup's that only the patient can access. The patient has complete control of the health data they track and control of who they want to share it with. Security and privacy of patient health data is a cornerstone of the successful utilization of PHR and we look forward to the guidelines for vendor compliance to assist bringing credibility and awareness of the importance of the PHR to our communities. For more information on the company or products contact Marie Brandt 541-306-4891 with Communication Software, Inc.