In Case You Missed It — Healthcare Daily Digest for Thursday, 10 January

Look, you know fast food isn’t the best thing for you. You don’t need me telling you that. I get it, you get it, and sure, yes, road trips and McNuggets are the Shields & Yarnell (young people, find an adult to explain the video to you) of this whole situation (i.e.: perfect together).

I also understand that running a business, like, say, a fast food franchise, where you employ human beings to do things — things you, as the business owner either can’t do, because there’s only one of you; or don’t want to do, because I know I’m not touching that shake maker — is expensive.

Maybe what I don’t understand is cutting the hours of your employees to just below the minimum number so you don’t have to pay their health insurance. And it’s complicated, and not entirely the fault of the franchise owners; things aren’t helped by stuff like this: “California’s insurance commissioner just dinged Anthem Blue Cross for inflating its own cost estimates and improperly tacking on healthcare law fees, and sticking its small-business clients with an 11% hike.”

(Oh, and all the expletives go to whoever this guy is: The Biggest Schmuck on Earth Left This As a Tip.)

Other headlines that are making their way from me to you:

• Detail & Specifity: Looking for some tips on what your ICD-10 documentation should look like? EHRIntelligence.com might have what you’re looking for.

• How Does “Turn Your Head and Cough” Work on the Phone, Though?: I found this piece about healthcare and technology to be… Hm. Too pat? Short sighted? In the mid-1990s, Mark Blatt went “on call” for the first time at his medical practice, covering the bases over a holiday weekend for 12 primary care doctors. “By noon I had taken care of more people than I did in a whole week in the office. I had probably done something substantive for about 80% and around 20% of them needed some sort of follow-up test or care. I sat back and realized this was not a bad idea. It wasn’t just improving cost savings by 3% or 4% — it was actually changing the care into an affordable product.” How many times have you been to the doctor in the last year when he didn’t touch you? is the question Blatt asks — but maybe it led him to the wrong conclusion.

• Add Minnesota to the List: “A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers unveiled preliminary plans on Wednesday for the state health insurance exchange that will be a key piece of carrying out the federal health care overhaul.”

• Failing Performance Tests: according to a The Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute, more than 80 percent — alarmingly close to 100 percent — of Medicare providers will face penalties for failing to meet quality thresholds if current performance trends continue.

• Where Your Aunt Who’s into Crystals Buys Turquoise: Along with Minnesota above, New Mexico has agreed to carry out an expansion of Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. “We have an obligation to provide an adequate level of basic health care services for those most in need in our state. However, we also have an obligation to ensure our state’s financial security,” Martinez said in a news release. “In deciding to expand Medicaid, I weighed every possible outcome and impact. Ultimately, this decision comes down to what is best for New Mexicans.”