Healthcare Roundup: Insurer Antitrust Exemption in Danger, GE Starts Investment Fund, Healthcare Mergers Up, and More

(MoneyWatch)  Insurers May Lose Antitrust Exemption - House and Senate committees have both voted to strip the insurance industry of the antitrust exemption it currently has under the provisions of a 1945 federal law. The Senate version of this measure would go further by repealing the McCarran-Ferguson Act, which bars the feds from interfering with state regulation of insurance. The legislators who voted for the measures-mostly Democrats, but also some Republicans-say that the antitrust exemption has contributed to rapidly rising insurance costs. Those who oppose it say that the Obama Administration is punishing insurers for fighting the current healthcare reform bills. [Source: New York Times]

GE Starts Investment Fund - General Electric has launched a "Healthymagination Fund" that will bestow a total of $250 million on worthy partners in the health IT, life sciences, and medical diagnostics fields. In the health IT area, GE will support firms developing clinical information systems, EHRs, and health data exchange software. GE is a major player in both diagnostic imaging and health IT. The new fund is part of GE's $6 billion "Healthymagination" campaign, which is said to be aimed at expanding EHR adoption, improving healthcare access, and reducing health costs. [Source: iHealthBeat]

Healthcare M&A On a Roll: Merger and acquisitions activity in the healthcare industry is at an all-time high. While overall deal activity has declined across the economy, healthcare mergers for 2009 will exceed those in 2007 and 2008. The reasons: continued easy access to financing and efforts by healthcare companies to find new revenues. [Source: Wall Street Journal]

Physicians Like Mass. Reforms - In a recent survey, Massachusetts doctors said they supported the state's 2006 health reform law by a 5-1 margin. Three-quarters of respondents said they wanted the law to continue, and only 7 percent favored repealing it. The majority said the statute either was not having much effect on their practice or was having a positive impact. Many physicians said the law helped their practices by reducing the number of uninsured and of those who could not afford to pay for care. [Source: New England Journal of Medicine]

Barriers to Electronic Lab Results Seen - A workgroup of HHS' Health IT Policy Committee said that it would be difficult for many physicians to meet the "meaningful use" criteria for exchanging data with laboratories. (Doctors must use EHRs "meaningfully" to qualify for government health IT incentives.) The obstacles cited by the workgroup include divergent state regulations, insufficient standards for ordering test and receiving results, lack of IT expertise, and high costs. The group advised the government to encourage the development of EHRs that display lab results in a format that complies with clinical requirements, share results with patients and other physicians, and use a universal set of standards for messaging, definitions, and vocabulary. [Source: iHealthBeat]