In Case You Missed It -- Healthcare Daily Digest for Tuesday, 18 December

Year-end lists are the pasta salads of content sites. Like pasta salads, they’re super easy to make. And like pasta salads, most people put it on their plate but really what they want is seventeen cookies and the short ribs. The point is: here’s a list of the top PCI and HIPAA breaches of 2012 (but really, it’s just an honor being nominated) and the lessons learned from each. Since most everyone thinks of the New Year as a reset button, maybe now’s the time to double-check your own PCI and HIPAA policies against these spectacular failures to make sure you’re not in the running for 2013. That swimsuit portion is unforgiving.

Here are some other headlines around the web:

Getting the Notes from a Neighbor: When making policy decisions in your own hospital, it can be helpful to check out some of the heavy lifting done by others. For instance, the Ohio Hospital Association has an Uncompensated & Charity Care FAQ for your perusal.

Mental Illness and HIPAA: An often confusing, earnest, but possibly short-sighted opinion piece from the Washington Times regarding mental illness and HIPAA, relevant in the wake of the myriad public shootings.

Even if We Survive the Fiscal Cliff…: Kenneth C. Frazier, the chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Merck & Co., has a guest post up over at Forbes.com that suggests regardless of what direction we do or don’t go over that fiscal cliff everyone’s talking about, we need to have a long and hard discussion about the state of healthcare finances in this country.

The Next Big Adventure: “A total of 18 U.S. states are planning to start their own health insurance marketplaces, which will be available to consumers and businesses in 2014, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a blog posting on Monday.”

This Guy’s the Absolute BEST at Hyperbole: C. Peter Waegemann (no relation to C. Thomas Howell) calls the healthcare industry’s current health IT policy ‘misguided’ in a piece humbly titled ‘Not One Successful EHR System In Whole World’. He’s also available as a life coach and motivational speaker.

Absolutely No Hidden Agenda Here!: Wendell Potter, “Center for Public Integrity columnist, author, consultant,” is 61 years young and has absolutely no stake in not raising the Medicare age at all.

Probably Important, You Should Read This: The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has a report titled “How Much Will Medicaid Physician Fees for Primary Care Rise in 2013? Evidence from a 2012 Survey of Medicaid Physician Fees.”

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