CNBC
Finds New Medical Banking Opportunity
Contact:
Scott Watson
615-794-2009
scottw@mbproject.org
Franklin,
TN (July 27, 2004) CNBC reporter Hampton
Pearson broke a major story yesterday during "Street
Signs",
suggesting that CMS officials are organizing
a “pioneering effort” to involve banks as part of the
new Medicare Modernization Act. The report suggests
that banks can reduce administrative costs and make
prescription drugs more available through ATM technology.
CNBC interviewed
MBProject’s John Casillas for the story.
“Financial
institutions are exceptionally positioned to speed
adoption of electronic healthcare”, said Casillas
during taping of the CNBC program. The ‘Great American
Interoperability Tour’, organized by MBProject, creates
national awareness of this new area. In addition,
MBProject is organizing open workgroups that are developing
a road
map for financial institutions. “We should not squander
a historic opportunity for banks to join healthcare
providers to implement cost-reducing technologies,”
comments Casillas, “yet to get there from here, we
believe that HIPAA should apply equally across all
market structures, as indicated by existing CMS policy
and guidance.”
This policy goal, expressed by MBProject and others
during hearings convened by the National Committee
on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) last February,
still remains unsettled. NCVHS recently issued a letter
to HHS seeking clarification of medical banking policy.
MBProject is providing comments to the letter and believes
that the NCVHS is moving in the right overall direction
with some adjustments to their recommendations.
CNBC interviewed Casillas during the “Cornerstones
for Electronic Healthcare” conference, supported by HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and organized by
David Brailer, PhD, the new “healthcare IT czar” appointed
by President Bush. The conference was widely viewed as a "tipping point”
in the nation's march towards lower
cost and more accessible medicine in America using
technology.
MBProject
hopes to announce a pilot program to demonstrate
how banking assets can be utilized to create happier
and healthier communities. The pilot will include a
new charity portal that banks can deploy to assist
the giving segment to implement ‘HIPAA-defined operating
efficiencies’, an area MBProject believes is integrally
related to the medical banking industry and vital to
public healthcare interests.
Visit these sites to learn more:
MBProject’s workgroups: http://www.mbproject.org/sombex-workgroups.php
Rebroadcast of CNBC breaking story: http://www.mbproject.org/media_center.php
HHS Press Release: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040726.html
About
the Medical Banking Project...
MBProject is an independent policy research and strategic
advisory firm established to promote the development
of "Charitable Communities Network", an industry
model that leverages HIPAA's security, privacy and electronic
mandates to deliver substantive cost benefits to care
givers. The firm does not provide legal advice and urges
medical banking stakeholders to consult with private
counsel. For more information, please go to www.mbproject.org.
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Copyright 2004 The Medical Banking Project, 320 Main
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