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Ketchum Deep in Controversy
By Sebastian Jones and Michael Grabell
ProPublica – March 30, 2010 12:26 pm EDT
President Obama’s push for electronic medical records [1] has faced resistance from those who question whether health information technology systems can protect patient privacy. So last week, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services hired a public relations firm to try to win consumer trust.
The irony?
The firm chosen for the job — Ketchum Inc. [2] — was hip-deep in controversy a few years ago for producing a series of fake TV news stories that violated a federal ban on propaganda. The company also drew fire for channeling taxpayer funds to a conservative pundit to promote the Bush administration’s education policies.
About Ketchum
Ketchum, based in New York, is one of the world’s largest public relations firms, with a host of large corporate clients and a history of winning government contracts. Company spokeswoman Alicia Stetzer declined to answer questions about the $25.8 million contract, funded by the federal stimulus package. Nancy Szemraj, a spokeswoman for the government’s health IT initiative, said the PR firm won the contract over four other companies because of its ability to attract public acceptance. “Ketchum has a long rich history of doing outstanding communication outreach work for large social marketing endeavors,” Szemraj said. “They are very capable of moving the needle, with has to happen here.”
She noted that Ketchum’s work helped HHS enroll 35 million people in the Medicare prescription drug program. And she said all of the firm’s marketing ideas would be reviewed by senior managers at HHS.
Consumer advocates warned that the PR contract will only heighten skepticism about the security of online health records. A poll [3] conducted last year by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health found that roughly six in 10 Americans lack confidence in the privacy of online health records.
Public Suspicions
“The public has always been very suspicious over whether electronic health information will be safe,” said Dr. Deborah C. Peel, a physician and founder of the Coalition for Patient Privacy, which includes consumer, privacy and health groups. Peel called Ketchum a “very, very troubling choice because the last thing the public needs are more tricks being pulled on them.”
During the Bush administration, Ketchum and its former lobbying arm, the Washington Group, had several prominent Republicans on the payroll, including former New York Rep. Susan Molinari. In the last year, it has beefed up its Democratic credentials, hiring Jonathan Kopp, a member of the Obama campaign’s national media team, and Donald J. Foley, a longtime Democratic strategist.
Ketchum has continued to draw government work – particularly from HHS – despite a series of reports in 2004 [4] and 2005 [5], in which Government Accountability Office investigators found it had produced a series of video news releases that constituted “covert propaganda” because they did not disclose they were paid for by the federal government.
The segments aired during local television broadcasts on at least 40 stations across the country. Designed to look like news reports, each concluded with a paid actor posing as a journalist reporting from Washington.
One series was produced for HHS in an effort to promote the Medicare prescription drug program to seniors. The others were paid for by the Department of Education. Overall, video news releases have become increasingly common, used by large public relations firms and companies to repackage advertisements as news. [6]
Prior Controversy
Ketchum was involved in a separate controversy in 2005, when reports surfaced that it had used taxpayer funds to pay syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind [7] education bill during radio broadcasts as part of outreach to the African-American community.
In both instances, Ketchum defended its tactics. Stetzer referred reporters to a 2005 PR Week article, in which CEO Ray Kotcher said, “There is no indication that it was ever the intent of Ketchum or any of our people to mislead anyone.”
This time around, HHS has hired Ketchum to provide a “comprehensive campaign for communications and education,” to encourage doctors and hospitals to adopt health IT and to assure the public that their information will be safe.
Assessment
The campaign is part of the administration’s $26 billion health IT program, also backed by the stimulus package, which aims to spearhead the transition to online medical records through grants, bonuses to doctors and hospitals, and the development of national standards.
Link: http://www.propublica.org/ion/stimulus/item/pr-firm-behind-propaganda-videos-wins-stimulus-contract
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Filed under: Breaking News, Healthcare Finance, Information Technology | Tagged: Alicia Stetzer, Coalition for Patient Privacy, DHHS, Donald J. Foley, Dr. Deborah C. Peel, EHRs, electronic medical records, EMRs, Harvard School of Public Health, health information technology, Jonathan Kopp, Kaiser Family Foundation, Ketchum, Michael Grabell, Nancy Szemraj, Ray Kotcher, Sebastian Jones, Susan Molinari |
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HIT savings projections remain elusive
One frequently projected benefit for greater use of HIT is that, over time, it will save both public and private healthcare providers significant amounts of money.
http://ehr.healthcareitnews.com/blog/hit-savings-projections-remain-elusive
Oh really? The premise is false and now it seems the PR prophet is a sham.
Bernie
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More Doctors Are Prescribing Medicines Online
Despite the above, doctors are increasingly prescribing medications electronically, abandoning the traditional paper scripts that may result in drug errors due to hard-to-read writing or coverage denials by a patient’s insurer.
The number of e-prescriptions nearly tripled last year to 191 million from the previous year’s 68 million, representing about 12% of the 1.63 billion original prescriptions, excluding refills, according to Surescripts LLC, whose online network handles the bulk of the electronic communications.
The growth has accelerated. For the first three months of this year, nearly one in five prescriptions was filed electronically. About 25% of all office-based doctors currently have the technology to e-prescribe, more than twice as many as at the end of 2008, Surescripts says.
Source: Timothy W. Martin, Wall St. Journal [4/20/10]
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HOW eMR VENDORS MAY MISLEAD YOU
As the physician executive of your medical practice, it’s your job to challenge any eMR vendors’ assertions about why you need an eMR, especially during the selection and production demonstration phase.
The most important reason for the digitization of medical records is to make patient information available when the physician needs that information to either care for the patient or supply information to another caregiver. Electronic medical records are not about the technology but about whether or not information is more readily available at the point of need.
In no particular order, the major reasons given for the business case of EMRs by vendors include:
• Increase in staff productivity
• Increase of practice revenue and profit
• Reduce costs outright or control cost increases
• Improve clinical decision making
• Enhance documentation
• Improve patient care
• Reduce medical errors
So, beware!
Shahid N. Shah, MS
http://www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
http://shahid.shah.org/
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Medical Executive Post
I am a graduate student studying forensic medical science, and the health 2.0 information technology material on your site helped me in one of my recent school projects.
Thank you.
Malik Lackland
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Health Records Conversion Raises Concerns
Making your health records part of cyberspace could be the cure for a lot that ails the healthcare system. Reduced costs, increased accuracy, and fewer opportunities for potentially fatal errors are all part of the promised benefits local hospitals are poised to reap as a result of investing tens of millions into information technology systems. Although not everyone agrees there will be a payoff, proponents say the shift eventually could make doctors’ scribbles a thing of the past.
A 2008 report from the Congressional Budget Office estimates an annual $87 billion could be saved by going electronic, and thus eliminating costly duplication and errors while improving efficiency in healthcare. However, some evidence is surfacing that creating a unique electronic record for each patient might not be the lifesaver it has been suggested to be. In this month’s issue of Health Affairs, a peer-reviewed journal of health policy, a Massachusetts General Hospital study found that among 3,000 hospitals surveyed, there was no significant level of improvement when comparing hospitals more fully automated with those that are not.
Source: Anne Geggis, The Daytona News Journal [5/2/10]
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I’m calling you out, ProPublica
[Challenging ProPublica — Like doctors, even the best non-profits occasionally need help with ethics]
A few months ago, ProPublica posted an offer on Facebook: “Ask ProPublica reporters your questions about medical ethics.”
https://www.facebook.com/events/225632220784537/
On February 1, I took the reporters up on their offer: “Shouldn’t consumers who are shopping for dentists be warned that they risk a far greater chance of identity theft from electronic dental records than paper dental records? Why is the danger being ignored?” It was ignored, and until a reader liked it this morning, I had forgotten about it.
Even though my comment has been festering for 10 days, not one ProPublica reporter has bothered to pick it up. I noticed that it’s starting to smell a lot like rotting policy. I’ve witnessed enough old school evasion to have acquired a strong dislike for unresponsive, highly-paid traditional executives of only a few non-profits. Giving unaccountable organizations federal and state tax breaks only empowers secretive tyrants that Americans cannot afford – especially in healthcare. So today, I poked ProPublica with a sharp stick:
Dear ProPublica,
As anyone can see, you failed to respond to questions you invited. Though unresponsiveness is universally rude, I can understand how some non-profits simply cannot afford to openly discuss controversial topics like the cost and safety of electronic dental records. I think most Americans realize that if ProPublica endangers relations with important donors, it won’t be able to pay its reporters to stand up for anyone’s rights. And without sacrifices of a few for the common good, how can US citizens ever hope to enjoy freedom at an affordable, discounted price?
I assume you are aware that President Bush’s goal of a national EHR system connecting all providers on the internet by 2014 was recently delayed until 2015. What’s more, only days ago physicians persuaded CMS’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services (OESS) to agree to a 90-day period of “discretion” in enforcement of the new, tedious 5010 HIPAA transaction standards (March 31). What else could OESS do? HHS is reaching its limit with physicians who are already stressed by the deadline for implementation of a new code set for medical diagnoses (ICD-10). If staff enter the wrong code, insurers have the right to delay payment long after the satisfied patient has left the building.
Incredibly, even though public support for EHRs has quieted due to recent reports describing “epidemic proportions” of data breaches, they continue to have vendor-friendly bipartisan political support as a mandated solution to the rising cost of healthcare. In addition, the budding informatics profession (ICD-10) hopes to acquire medical specialty status soon – helping to popularize its image while solving the national unemployment problem even if increasingly complicated payment codes do nothing to improve patient care.
Here’s what makes this adventure interesting to me: Every presidential candidate is counting on rumored healthcare savings from top-down, computerized management of every detail of doctor-patient encounters in real time – using algorithms created by evolving comparative research of the boxes the physicians must click on and wait until the next page comes up in the patient’s EHR.
Not unlike the banking industry a few years ago, huge, sweet investments have nurtured a politically favored EHR industry that has grown too fat to fail. For example, just look at Allscripts’ success on Wall Street (MDRX). What politician would dare endanger that success story before even half of the stimulus money is distributed? Nobody wants to lose that many votes.
Even though doctors are making increasingly less money, protected stakeholder interests are pushing up healthcare costs so fast that nothing less than the financial health of the nation depends on the continued integrity of fantasy – at least until after the elections. Like ProPublica, presidential candidates dare not upset important donors you possibly share.
While our leaders boast of eliminating stifling government regulations outside healthcare, since 1996, the very purpose of HIPAA and later HITECH has always been top-down cost control of doctor-patient encounters in real time. Please don’t tell me ProPublica reporters didn’t also recognize that long, long ago.
Dental patients’ increased risk of identity theft appears to be a very small sacrifice compared to the interests of influential and important people who have bet everything on the success of EHRs – hoping for a quick, high return before the complaints begin.
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
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Deadline Extended for Appealing Medicare EHR Bonus
Physicians who believe they were incorrectly denied a Medicare bonus for using an electronic health record (EHR) system last year have a few more weeks to appeal their case. Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it is extending the deadline for such eligibility appeals from March 31 to April 30.
The new deadline of April 30 for eligibility appeals applies only to EHR bonuses under Medicare. In an eligibility appeal, clinicians must demonstrate that they met all the requirements of the Medicare EHR incentive program, but failed to receive a payment due to circumstances beyond their control.
Source: Robert Lowes, Medscape News [4/13/12]
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