August 2010

No Newspaper Growth Expected Before 2013

Declines in newspaper spending are expected to slow this year, with the market eventually stabilizing by 2013 and growth beginning in 2014. But with spending of only $36.76 billion in that year, newspapers will not come close to the $66.37 billion in peak spending the industry saw in 2005, according to the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast 2004-2014.

The private equity firm specializing in the business information and services, education, media and business and marketing services industries foresees retail, classified and national advertisers continuing to shift spending to digital platforms "to target audiences and improve return on investment" as print circulations decline, reflecting younger consumers' migration to new electronic media. Noting newspapers' pursuit of alliances to expand into those new media, as well as changing business models that involve charging fees for online content, the report goes on to state that "weekly newspapers are no longer insulated from the migration of users and advertisers to the Web." VSS expects total newspaper spending to fall this year by 9.5%, to $37.79 billion, driven by declines in dailies of 10.6% (to $30.2 billion), in weeklies of 7.1% and digital platforms of 1.1%.

CMS sets funding rules for Medicaid Health IT projects

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published its final guidance to state Medicaid directors on what they can expect from the federal government in terms of funding support for their health IT activities, clearing the way for them to start-up programs for the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records.

In a letter published Aug. 17, CMS laid out three minimum requirements that states have to meet in order to qualify for a 90 percent federal financial participation (FFP) match for any state administrative expenses tied to EHR activities. States are already guaranteed a 100 percent FFP for incentive payments to eligible Medicaid providers to adopt and meaningfully use EHRs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

ONC finds many states use similar program data

A number of states use health and social program eligibility and enrollment data that are similar enough that they could be a foundation for sharing information by electronic health insurance exchanges, according to an analysis by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Certain pieces of information that states collect, such as name, address and gender, are close enough in definition and format that they could be easily unified as common data elements, said Dr. Doug Fridsma, acting director of ONC's office of standards and interoperability. Common data elements and technical standards are needed to share information across health and human service programs to support the development of state insurance exchanges in 2014, a requirement of this year's health reform legislation. Under the law, the exchanges must electronically direct individuals to Medicaid services, high risk pools and other public and private health plans as millions more Americans become eligible for health insurance. But the task will require a significant amount of back-end engineering by states to link the relevant databases. The federal government is trying to assist them by leading a push for common eligibility and enrollment data standards.

Health IT: Big Costs, Big Savings

Consulting firm McKinsey has identified three characteristics of successful health information technology rollouts that will allow capable users of electronic health records to capture $40 billion in annual savings.

To realize the greatest return on investment, hospitals must rethink approaches to governance and change management; radically simplify IT architecture; and take a methodical approach to the planning and execution of large-scale IT rollouts. The cost to implement new health IT at U.S. hospitals will average $80,000 to $100,000 per bed or $120 billion nationwide, estimates McKinsey. Federal incentives will offset 15 to 20 percent of those costs, making the timely recovery of IT investments imperative. When implementation is done well, the productivity and resource savings often pay back the initial IT investment within two to four years while also producing better health outcomes for patients.

If German Homes Can Now Opt Out Of Google, Then How About People?

Google made their "opt out of street view" service live in Germany August 17, giving select Germans until September 15 to exclude their properties from being mapped when the Street View service launches.

The function will be available for a limited time in the 20 cities that are mentioned which includes Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg and then extend to all cities covered as Google Maps Germany rolls out. Allowing private citizens to mass opt out of certain Google search functions is unprecedented until now. Why not give people the option to opt out of search entirely? After all, a hypothetical "Opt out" or rather "Do not index these pages I swear are about me and harmful" is considerably less far-fetched a privacy solution than Erick Schmidt's suggestion that people change their names. Bear in mind that there is no specific German law forcing Google to do this, and buildings, experts have assessed, do not count as person-related data in Germany. The general privacy greyzones of the strict German Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (Federal Data Protection Act) and the fact that German citizens and the newspaper BILD are up in arms over the risk that their data will be used maliciously pressured the search giant into providing this special service.

Aneesh Chopra On A Mission To Woo Silicon Valley

On August 17, US Chief Technology Officer Commonwealth Club, the country's oldest and largest public affairs forum, to deliver a talk at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The talk, called "Building a Future for Technological Innovation," covered the recent highlights and future goals of a range of areas the Obama administration is concerned with, like healthcare IT, improving STEM education and research, and cybersecurity. In other words, Chopra didn't cover any new ground. But that's not why he was there. The agenda for the night, and for at least a good deal of his latest trip to California, was to court Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, movers and shakers. Chopra mentioned he had also visited Facebook and Twitter earlier for meetings. The CTO said he understood that there was reluctance among Silicon Valley to get involved in the politics of Washington too "wired for insiders." But he ended the lecture portion of his talk with a call to arms. "My job when I heard that feedback was to fundamentally reduce the friction associated with participation in Washington," Chopra said. "We are tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people."

Cloud Computing Requires National Policy Leadership

For cloud computing to flourish policymakers should create technology-neutral policies that treat cloud and non-cloud services equally and avoid anti-competitive policies that disadvantage foreign cloud computing service providers.

Healing Rural Patients With A Dose Of Broadband

Millions of Americans who live in rural areas travel long distances to get health care. Or they may go without it. But high-speed Internet connections now make it possible to bring a doctor's expertise to patients in far-off places, if those places are connected. As part of its National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission has pledged $400 million a year to connect nearly 12,000 rural health care providers. The program is aimed at improving equipment, bandwidth and training in remote locations.

California launches nation's largest telehealth network

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra joined a diverse group of statewide healthcare and technology agencies August 17 at the UC Davis Cancer Center in Sacramento to launch the California Telehealth Network (CTN), which is set to be the largest in the nation.

"Our passion for broadband and healthcare is tangible and real and will have a big impact here in California," said Chopra during the announcement. The CTN network will provide both the traditional and advanced IT infrastructure that telemedicine needs for growth, he said. The network is the result of a $30 million joint funding effort between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), the California HealthCare Foundation, UnitedHealthcare, the National Coalition for Healthcare Integration, the University of California and other private and public entities.

"Here, we're talking about the digital highway, broadband, that is also part of the infrastructure," Gov Schwarzenegger said. "A lot of people are not aware of that, but there are a thousand people a year dying in California of just someone misreading a prescription or not having the total medical records and so on, so this is inexcusable." With the launch of the California Telehealth Network, he said, "We are changing that, and reducing errors, and saving money at the same time."

"I think telemedicine is going to be the future of medicine," Gov Schwarzenegger said, adding that telehealth is a facet of healthcare reform in that it helps provide good-quality, affordable care for everyone.

The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet

Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.

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