“As of this moment, they’re on double secret probation!” Dean Wormer, the hilarious caricature of a college dean in the classic film Animal House, declared this about John Belushi’s beloved Delta Tau Chai fraternity. Typical of all “higher learning” administrative types, Dean Wormer, played by the since-deceased actor John Vernon (if you’re younger than 75 years old, John Vernon is best known for his Dean Wormer role and playing the mayor in Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry) is intolerant of anyone at college just trying to have a good time while providing valuable services, like toga parties. This overly-judgmental-ness came to mind after reviewing the big health information policy news this week. Accordingly, sitting in judgment of digital health tools is the theme of the One Thoughtful Paragraph below.
Why is everyone so judgmental this week??
- CMS was judgy about its Oncology Care Model, saying it had limited clinical and quality improvements and the savings didn’t offset payments; however, the agency was less finger-wagging about the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced) Model, saying that the model saved Medicare $465M in 2021 with varied quality results.
- The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice want to be judgmental about Microsoft’s licensing deal with Inflection AI. To read about a timeline of the deal, the planned investigation, and what may happen next, take a look at this Forbes article.
- U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden is calling for HHS to be more judgmental about whether health care organizations are defending themselves as best they can against cybersecurity attacks.
When the Delta fraternity faces the judgmental disciplinary board in the Animal House movie, their charismatic leader – Otter (actor Tim Matheson, who went on to play Vice President John Hoynes in the NBC series The West Wing) quickly turns the conversation away from the crimes of Delta and questions whether the hearing is an indictment of America itself. A little pushback is understandable when people sit in judgment of you. Health plans, for instance, may push back on the Kyruus survey of health plan members’ experience with digital tools. For instance, the report showed that when health plan websites about providers turns out to be wrong (like when doctors are no longer at an office location that is listed), patients give up, don’t schedule an important medical appointment, and lose trust in their health plans. Are we judging the right player here? Health plans may say that it is the physician offices that are nonresponsive to requests for updated information. Also this week, the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) released its second evaluation of digital health tools – this time judging that virtual musculoskeletal (MSK) care solutions (physical therapy support offered through apps) are a net positive for patients. This lighter judgement may be more welcomed by the digital health community after PHTI’s last report, which concluded that virtual diabetes tools are usually not worth the investment. It is important to encourage innovation in healthcare because the system can use all the help we can get. So to all those disheartened digital health developers out there that are trying their best to provide patients with up-to-date information or haven’t gotten the green light yet like the most recently judged MSK solutions, remember what Bluto, John Belushi’s charter, said to motivate his fraternity brothers to fight back in Animal House: “Was It Over When the Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell No!”