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| Current Arkansas Medical News |
Give & Take
Stimulus Package Offers More Healthcare IT Dollars, Stiffer HIPAA PenaltiesNineteen billion dollars... that's the magic number topping newscasts regarding funding for the promotion and adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) in the recently-passed stimulus package.
CINDY SANDERS |
Medical Community Pitches in to Help Trent Pierce
A car bomb in West Memphis on February 4th nearly killed Arkansas State Medical Board chairman Trent Pierce, MD, making national news and shaking the state's healthcare community to the core. As the family practice physician slowly recovers from the traumatic injuries he sustained and more than 20 subsequent surgeries at Elvis Presley Trauma Center in Memphis, family spokesperson Scott Ferguson, MD, said the only thing more overwhelming than the shock of the violent act itself was the flood of selfless support Pierce's family has received from friends and strangers alike.
JENNIFER BOULDEN |
What You Should Know About Long Term Disability Income Insurance
A Cautionary TaleSeveral months ago we were contacted by an emergency room physician who was forced to give up his practice because of a debilitating back condition. Fortunately, he had a policy of disability income insurance to protect him from just such misfortune. Unfortunately, based upon early contacts with his insurance company, he was fearful that his claim was going to be denied.
ROBERT M. CEARLEY, JR. |
A Primer for Retirement Plan Sponsors
Every retirement plan has a person or an administrative committee specifically named as a fiduciary in the document that established the plan. If you are the plan sponsor, you are the fiduciary. Others who may be counted as fiduciaries may be anyone who has discretionary control over the administration of the plan or the investments offered in the plan. Fiduciary status is determined as much by function as by title.
CHAD CARLSON, Delta Trust Investments, Inc. |
| Health Information Technology Focus |
Brain Scientist's Stroke Recovery Brings Insight
In 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD, was a 37-year-old neuroanatomist working at Harvard and researching the brains of the severely mentally ill. Fourteen years later, Taylor is a best-selling author and was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2008. The recognition comes not as a direct result of her research into other people's brains, but rather, from the unique perspective she gained into the brain's functions as the survivor of a massive hemorrhagic stroke of her own.
JENNIFER BOULDEN |
SAVES Transforming Arkansas Stroke Care
Rural Hospitals Get High-Tech ExpertiseTechnology, training and timing are all coalescing around a new program for stroke care in the state. Although Arkansas is currently ranked 48th in the nation in stroke mortality, the state may soon make significant headway on improving that ranking. A unique telestroke program is bringing board-certified stroke expertise to rural hospitals throughout Arkansas and enhancing the state's overall stroke education in the process.
JENNIFER BOULDEN |
HFMA Takes Healthcare's Financial Pulse
'Weakened but still beating' is probably an accurate summary of findings in "Healthcare Financial Pulse," an ongoing initiative of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). The program was set up to track the emerging trends affecting the industry's bottom line.
CINDY SANDERS |
Best Practices, Stimulus Can Help Hospitals in Recession
It's a tough time for Arkansas hospitals, but according to one expert in medical finances, they can improve their financial performance by incorporating sound business practices. The federal stimulus package can help.
STEVE BRAWNER |
Tobacco Tax Will Help Bottom Lines
Programs funded by a recently-passed statewide tobacco tax increase could help improve hospitals' fiscal health at the same time they improve the health of Arkansans.
The signature program of the Governor's Healthcare Initiative is a statewide trauma system that will provide funding to hospitals based on a four-tier system. Arkansas is the last state to develop a statewide system.
STEVE BRAWNER |
Elizabeth Schneider, MD
Maybe she was born into it. Baptist Health pathologist Elizabeth Nestrud Schneider spent about 12 years of her life at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, including the very first day.
JENNIFER BOULDEN |
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