Bredesen F&A Commis. Goetz departs for Ingenix

Second-term Gov. Phil Bredesen's F&A Commissioner Dave Goetz announced his departure for as-yet undisclosed responsibilities within Ingenix, the healthcare technology subsidiary of insurer UnitedHealth Group that bought Franklin-based AIM Healthcare a few years ago. Goetz has overseen the Bredesen-charter e-Health Council of state government in recent years. That group partnered with AT&T on connectivity, handled physician-office IT initiatives, had a stake in a regional health information exchange in the Memphis area, spawned a new public-private partnership, and more. Online news indicates Ingenix has been battling class-action lawsuits regarding an allegedly faulty database that petitioners say led to reimbursement errors. Prior to serving nearly eight years with Bredesen, Goetz led both the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Tennessee Business Roundtable. Earlier, he was a Capitol Hill reporter for Nashville's WTVF Channel 5 (CBS). Former Bredesen Revenue Commis. Reagan Farr and ECD Commis. Matt Kisber recently signalled their involvement in Silicon Ranch, a Solar-oriented venture, details of which have not been released.

State Funding Board hears Laffer, others

Beginning today, the State Funding Board, which declares economic parameters for annual State budgeting, will hear from a series of outside experts, including Nashville-based supply-side economist Arthur Laffer on where they think we're headed. Chattanoogan.com has it. The Funding Board's meetings will be live-streamed on the Internet.

State revenue outlook

The State Funding Board, which includes the state's treasurer and secretary of state, Gov. Phil Bredesen's F&A commissioner and others, sees no improvement in State revenue the next couple of years. Chattanoogan.com Meanwhile, KNS Columnist David Moon offers some anecdotal information on the economic outlook here. And, there's this report from the TFP on the flat revenue trend at TN Lottery, and the negative impact on HOPE scholarship funding.

Health IT leaders see challenges, opportunities

With billions in Stimulus funding in the pipeline for Health IT upgrades nationally, Thursday's NHCC gathering of informatics eagles in Nashville seemed to signal both local players' resolve to play pivotal roles in development and adoption of health IT, as well as the sizeable risk we run that all that spending won't change healthcare...enough. VU Medical Center's informatics guru, Bill Stead, M.D., insisted that the needed innovation won't materialize if executives throughout the healthcare system don't "stop playing defense around a model that's not sustainable." David Brailer, M.D., the like-minded former national Health IT coordinator for the latter Bush Administration, warned that would-be HIT providers must employ deeper understanding of how healthcare actually works, if they're to justify their share of the pie. Addressing the Nashville Health Care Council event, Bredesen F&A Commissioner Dave Goetz said the State of Tennessee should, according to NHCC's post-event release (pdf), 'build the infrastructure and the information sources necessary for the private sector to then use to drive value and innovation'. Stead, Goetz and others put all this in even stronger terms during an event last fall, as reported then by VNC. Brailer said he believes Nashville is one of the nation's few cities prepared to be a leader in HIT. NHCC President Caroline Young agreed, and stressed that NHCC's goal is to "help position our members" for such leadership. A related summit report by NashvillePost.com covered inadequate patient engagement in HIT diffusion, the need for standardization and the importance of demonstrating dramatic improvement in health care outcomes, flowing from IT investment. Further VNC coverage of informatics and related.