Charleston FestivALL 2008: A City Becomes A Work Of Art

FestivALL 2008 is coming soon and the sights and sounds are set to hit the streets of Charleston on June 20-29.

This week's theme over at Picture West Virginia (a project by Brian Stealey to get people thinking creatively about West Virginia) is sounds - so it prompted me to write my first post promoting this year's FestivALL. A great place to catch a variety of artistic sounds. Check out any of the links in the summary of events for a taste of the "sounds."

What is FestivALL? FestivALL has become the Charleston's centerpiece arts and summertime entertainment event with a wide array of theater, dance, music and visual arts.

Check out photos from last years event and these video cuts (Part 1 and Part 2) from YouTube by Rudy Panucci's PopCult. Also check out my past posts from 2006 and 2007 here, here, here and here.

If you've never attended look over the schedule of events and pick at least a few to attend. Show your support for FestivALL!

Below is a summary of the major events for the weeklong event (check out the full schedule of events for more):

June 20- WV Day Live on the Levee, music, food, by the river
June 21- 10th Anniversary of Smoke on the Water- Charleston Chili Cook-Off
June 21- Charleston- The Opera (It’s not an Opera, but it will have great music)
June 22- The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra (Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and more)
June 25- Savion Glover in his new show, Bare Soundz
June 26- Mayor's Concert: Gladys Knight
June 27- Blues, Brews & BBQ featuring Shemekia Copeland and Sonny Landreth
June 28-29- The Capitol Street Art Fair
June 28- Whad'Ya Know with Michael Feldman
June 28- Wine & All That Jazz featuring The Ellis Marsalis Quartet
June 29- Mountain Stage, WV Public Radio’s internationally distributed live radio show featuring: Hayes Carll, Jakob Dylan & the Gold Mountain Rebels, Krista Detor, Andy Davis and Priscilla Ahn. (catch out more Mountain Stage at this recent post at Picture West Virginia)

At a special edition of Live on the Levee, we will celebrate West Virginia Day with West Virginia music, food and drink at Haddad Riverfront Park. (Free)

Smoke on the Water, Charleston’s Chili Cook Off on June 21 invites chili cooks from around the nation for hospitality and competition they will get no where else on earth. It’s the 10th Anniversary of this fundraiser for HospiceCare.

Charleston-The Opera, presented by Dixon Hughes at the Cultural Center Theater, Saturday June 21, is a multi-media production of Pittsburgh’s Squonk Opera. They will visit our city twice to gather information, interview residents and recruit local talent to join them in the production they will create. It weaves hometown documentation with Squonk’s aural and visual trickery and will be a “heartfelt toast and a punk-vaudevillian roast” of our fair city. (Matinee and evening performances, all tickets $25)

On Sunday, June 22, The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra will perform a chamber concert at The Clay Center featuring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and other mid-summer delights. (Ticket prices TBA)

On Wednesday, June 25, at the Clay Center, FestivALL and The Clay Center will present Savion Glover in Bare Soundzs, a tour de force dance performance by the “greatest tap dancer in the world”. A child star of Sesame Street and co-star with Sammy Davis Jr. and Gregory Hines in the 1989 movie, Tap, Mr. Glover came into his own in 1996 in the Broadway smash hit production Bring in ‘da Noise/Bring in ‘da Funk. He has gone on to create his own dance projects and to star as the motion-capture dancer of Mumble the Penguin in the animated movie Happy Feet. Last fall he appeared on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars performing excerpts from this production. (Tickets $35/25/15)

The Mayor’s Concert on Thursday, June 26, at the Clay Center, will feature the dynamic voice of Gladys Knight. Ms. Knight’s stellar career started with Motown records in the late sixties. She has continued to delight millions of fans around the world with her unique Soul, R&B, Pop and Gospel music sounds. She won her first two (of seven) Grammy Awards in 1973 (R&B, Pop) and her latest in 2005 (Gospel). This concert is made possible by the generous support if Mayor Danny Jones and Pritchard Mining. (Tickets $55/45/30)

Fund for the Arts has announced the talent for it’s annual events, Blues, Brews & BBQ and Wine & All That Jazz, both of which take place by the river on the lawn of The University of Charleston. (Ticket prices TBA)

On Friday, June 27, Blues, Brews & BBQ will feature Shemekia Copeland and Sonny Landreth. Daughter of blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, Ms. Copeland has won a mantel full of blues awards and is one of the hottest young blues talents in the country. Cajun slide guitar wizard Landreth began his career with Zydeco king Cifton Chenier and has electrified audiences for over two decades. Local and regional talent will also be featured.

On Saturday, June 28, the patriarch of New Orlean’s first family of jazz, pianist Ellis Marsalis, performs at Wine & All That Jazz with The Ellis Marsalis Quartet. The father of Wynton and Branford, Mr. Marsalis plays regularly in the Crescent City, tours occasionally and continues to be a major force in the world of jazz. Local and regional talent will also be featured.

On Saturday, June 28, West Virginia Public Broadcasting will host the very popular live radio show, Whad’Ya Know with Michael Feldman. Mr. Feldman’s wit and humor attract millions of listeners each week on public radio stations nationwide. (Ticket prices TBA)

The Capitol Street Arts Fair will expand its hours and number of artisans represented on Saturday and Sunday, June 28-29. Partnering with Tamarack and Allied Artists, the Fair will bring in over one hundred high quality artisans showing, selling and, in some cases, demonstrating their work. (Free)

We will conclude with Mountain Stage, the internationally distributed WV Public Radio live music performance show on Sunday, June 29. (Ticket prices and talent TBA)

Among the artisans’ tents of the expanded Capitol Street Art Fair, June 29 –29, will be small “street stages” that will feature many different flavors of music and dance. There will also be a variety of street performers: magicians, stilt walkers, strolling musicians, mime/clowns, etc.

The Kanawha County Library Street Fair, focusing on kids and families, will run for two days this year (June 28 and 29). The West Side Ice Cream Social and Wiener Dog Races (June 21 and 22) will move to our first weekend and also expand. (as a bonus you also get Phil Phister, friend and World's Strongest Man). Both events feature stages with family friendly entertainment. At the Library Fair there will be a tent with local dulcimer players who will invite kids to join in and watch for an announcement about an incredible “balloon artist”. Both are free events.

The Commercial Insurance Stage at Davis Park will have free music both weekends. On the first weekend (June 21) will be a memorial to the late Winston Walls, a great Charleston Jazz/Blues B-3 organ player. The music will be blues, jazz and related music styles. The next week (28 and 29) it will be a memorial to the late Derek Kirk, a young Charleston musician who died last year and played in several jazz and fusion bands, and the featured music will be those flavors. Free country and bluegrass music will return to the Capitol Market on both weekends.

There will once again be free site-specific dance and theater. “A Streetcar Named Despair”, performed on a trolley bus, will return and there will be a new “Location, Location, Location” play with an Elvis theme (the King once stayed in Charleston’s old Daniel Boone Hotel). The One Act Play Festival will be back featuring theater companies from around the state (ticket prices TBA) as will a Charleston Light Opera Guild production (show and ticket prices TBA).

Alltop Law: We've got Law covered.

Health Care Law Blog has been added to Law section of Alltop, the digital magazine rack of the Internet. Check out all the Alltop categories on the main page.

Alltops, along with its sister site, Truemors (covering breaking news, stories and rumors and referred to as "NPR for your eyes"), are the creation of Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens and Guy Kawasaki.

The "about us" section of Alltop states:

We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs.

You can think of an Alltop site as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points—they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In other words, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation” by providing “aggregation without aggravation.”

The Health of Google and Google Health

Very interesting post over at ZDNet by Tom Foremski on an upcoming meeting of Google hacks at the Googleplex set for May 19.

Fascinating description of Google's use of machines and software to produce results rather than humans and how this might exist in the health care environment. I have not heard of this description of what Google does and why it does it better and cheaper.

Also, he offers compelling thoughts on the pharma advertising market target that Google may be looking for as it goes about developing Google Health.

Tip to the NewsGang Twitter feed.

Get Well Rick Lee!

Not the type of health care blogging that I like to see. Get well Rick!

Rick Lee, my favorite photo blogger is in the hospital. If you follow his photography leave him some virtual Flickr flowers in the post comments like some of his other regular readers. Here you go Rick - doing my best Rick Lee.

New HHS HIPAA Privacy Compliance and Enforcement Data

DHHS and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) have added new enforcement statistics and data to the OCR HIPAA Privacy and Compliance and Enforcement site. Previously, I've posted about the statistics.

OCR added new information broken down by the following topics:

• Charts showing state-specific case investigation results (West Virginia shows (see the graphic above): 71% resolved after intake and review; 18% corrective action taken; 11% no violation)
• Calendar-year enforcement results graphs and charts
• Calendar-year graphs showing the number of complaints received
• Yearly variation in the top 5 types of issues resolved through corrective action

The statistics show that the number of complaints made to OCR continue to increase -- from 6,534 complaints in 2004 to 8,132 complaints in 2007.

Also, the statistics show that the top 5 types of complaints requiring corrective action have remained fairly consistent - except in 2007 "notice" jumps into the top 5.

I would be interested to hear others thoughts on the compliance statistics.

The momScore: How West Virginia Ranks For Maternal Health

While reading this week's Grand Rounds hosted this week at Suture for a Living, I jumped over to an interesting post by Dr. Val on an effort by her and Revolution Health to team up with medical experts and mommy bloggers to create a new health index for Mother's Day.

West Virginia ranks 38 out of 51 states on the momScore. As we head into this weekend's Mother's Day, Anna Marie Jarvis would want us to try to raise our ranking. I'm issuing a challenge to all West Virginia health care providers to think about and work on improving these statistics and metrics.

West Virginia received a a score of 69 out of a possible 100. The areas used for the ranking include: access to prenatal care, air quality, availability of childcare services, family paid leave policy, health care coverage rate, infant mortality, maternal mortality, risk of pregnancy complications, affordability of children's health insurance and violent crime rate.

If you want to discuss or debate West Virginia's rankings you can post your comments on the interactive momScore community.

WVHCA: Proposed Amendments to Cardiac Catheterization Standards

The West Virginia Health Care Authority approved for public comment proposed revisions to the Certificate of Need Cardiac Catheterization Standards (current 3/19/2007 standards).

These revisions were made by the Authority after Governor Manchin rejected the previously proposed standards. The proposed standards continue to modify the requirements for the participants in the demo pilot project involving offering therapeutic cardiac catheterization.

The standards distinguish between Primary (Emergency) Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (Primary PCI) which involves providing cardiac catheterization services within 120 minutes of an emergency myocardial infarction and Elective Therapeutic Catheterizations. The proposed standards also set new need threshold levels for elective therapeutic catheterization.

Written comments on the proposed standards may be submitted to Dayle D. Stepp, Director of Certificate of Need, no later than May 23, 2008.

I previously reported on the modifications to the standards here, here and here.

WV Environmental Law

A welcome to West Virginia's newest law blogger, Dave Yaussey, who is blogging at the WV Environmental Law. Dave is a partner at Robinson & McElwee in their Charleston office.

I use to practice law with Dave and consider him to be one of the go to environmental lawyers in West Virginia. During a conversation a few months ago talked to him about blogging and suggested that he start one on environmental law. He took up the challenge and is off and running. Congrats Dave!

California HealthCare Foundation: Social Media's Impact on Health Care

The California HealthCare Foundation has issued a new report, The Wisdom of Patients" Health Care Meets Online Social Media, authored by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, a health economist, management consultant and fellow health care blogger at Health Populi.

The report covers a lot of territory and provides a great overview of the quickly evolving and developing health care social media and health 2.0 movement. The report highlights how health care consumers are becoming empowered by social media and the overall impact the live web is having on patients, providers, insurers, etc.

Online health care is moving from one based on "health information retrieval" to patients and providers generating and sharing content online. This growing online collaboration is leading to unique approaches to care and a larger value proposition of harnessing the collective wisdom for other purposes including -- coordination of care, clinical insight, higher quality, prevention, etc. In the end, this may even lead to more cost efficient care.

A special thanks to Jane for interviewing me and acknowledging me in the report for my insight on some of the health care legal implications .

To borrow a quote from Secretary Leavitt courtesy of Fred Fortin who I have been following as he micro-blog via Twitter at the World Health Care Conference, "pong and Wii. We are just leaving the pong era in health care . . . "

For more on the new report check out CHCF's Press Release and a summary of the report (download full report).

Dr. Val Emotes Her Way Through Grand Rounds 4.31

Val Jones, M.D. at Dr. Val and The Voice of Reason does a great job hosting this week's edition of Grand Rounds, titled: "How Do You Feel About That?"

Great job and thanks for adding one of my posts. Don't miss the photo links to the various emotion categories (click on the category headings). Reminds me of my Flickr linked Grand Rounds 3.5: A Visual Tour.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day courtesy of Google. Take a few minutes and check out the environmental features of Google Earth from the Google Earth Blog.

For my West Virginia readers (and those who may consider a get away to West Virginia) check out this earth day idea by fellow Charleston blogger, Rebecca Burch, who highlights the new project called Picture West Virginia . . the way West Virginians picture it. Go here for more info on how the PWV collaborative blog works and how you can participate. The current topic is "my town".

Consumers' Checkbook v. HHS Update

The WSJ Health Blog, "Feds Fight to Keep Doctor Data Secret," has the latest on the Consumers' Checkbook v. HHS matter involving whether or not Medicare physicians claims data should be made publicly available. Consumers' Checkbook, a nonprofit consumer information and service resource, wants to use the data to rate physicians and health care services.

Last week the DOJ filed its appeal and HHS released this statement regarding appeal of Consumers' Checkbook Decision explaining the basis for opposing (and supporting) release of the data. The press release states:

HHS is appealing this decision because of two conflicting court opinions that control HHS’ release of data. Release of certain Medicare claims data is currently governed, in part, under an existing order issued by a federal court in Florida in 1979. That order, which is still in effect, prohibits Medicare from releasing physician reimbursement data in a manner that would enable the user of that data to identify individual physicians. The court order states that this information is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974. The data sought by Consumers Checkbook, when combined with other publicly-available data on Medicare fees, could lead to the disclosure of annual Medicare reimbursement amounts for individual physicians. Release of the data would, therefore, result in a violation of the existing Florida court order. On the other hand, HHS faces the decision rendered last year by the District of Columbia court ordering the release of the data. HHS argues in its appeal that the recent decision is based on an erroneous application of the Florida court order and of the Freedom of Information Act’s exemption that protects privacy. The Department seeks resolution of this conflict from the Court of Appeals.

Beyond the legal issues that must be resolved, HHS recognizes and shares the goals of Consumers Checkbook. Like Consumers Checkbook, HHS seeks to support consumers and providers with quality performance and cost information for a variety of providers and plans. For many years, HHS has worked closely with providers and other stakeholders in developing and reporting quality information, including the use of national consensus-based quality performance measures. While Consumers Checkbook seeks to post the number of times a provider has performed a specific service, the quality measures used by HHS generate more valid, specific, and comprehensive information on the quality of care delivered.

For background on the legal saga check out my prior post.

Blawg Review #156 Virtually Hosted at Virtually Blind

This week's edition of Blawg Review is hosted by Benjamin Duranske at Virtually Blind.

Don't miss this edition if you are intrigued by (or just want to better understand) what is happening in the legal world (including the virtual legal world).

National Healthcare Decisions Day (April 16)

Today (April 16, 2008) is “National Healthcare Decisions Day”, a collaborative effort of national, state and community organizations committed to ensuring that all adults with decision-making capacity in the United States have the information and opportunity to properly communicate and document their healthcare decisions.

My law partner, Sam Fox, who serves on the West Virginia State Bar's Law & Medicine Committee sent out an email a few weeks ago asking lawyers in West Virginia to participate in promoting this important initiative. To do my part I thought I would blog some information.

Frist, check out the resources page on the NHDD website for more information on advanced directives and advanced care planning.

Second, for more information on West Virginia advanced directives go to the WV State Bar's resource page and the West Virginia Center for End of Life Care which includes a variety of downloadable forms and information.

Third, today there are a number of businesses and organizations around the state who will be offering assistance in completing advanced directives. Check here for a complete list of locations.

As always I would also recommend that you consult your attorney in the process.

After Tax Day Thought: Intuit CEO Returning To Speak In West Virginia

West Virginia claims its share of high profile thinkers leading and funding some of the most innovative companies and businesses in the world. Add to this list Brad Smith, President CEO of Intuit, Inc.

Last week I learned from Matt Ballard, President of the Charleston Area Alliance that Mr. Smith will be returning to West Virginia to serve as the keynote speaker for the Charleston Area Alliance's Annual Celebration on May 6 from 5:15pm to 8pm at the Clay Center.

Mr. Smith is a native of Kenova, West Virginia and graduated with a degree in business administration from Marshall University. According to his bio, Mr. Smith became Intuit's president and chief executive officer in January 2008, culminating a five-year rise through the company in which he successfully led each of its major businesses. Before being named CEO, Smith was senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's Small Business Division, including being responsible for the company's portfolio of QuickBooks, Quicken and Payroll products. Prior to this he ran the company's QuickBooks Group from May 2005 to May 2006.

I look forward to hearing Mr. Smith's keynote speech and hope to talk to him about Intuit's efforts to bring the Quicken approach to health care reimbursement/payment through its product, Quicken Health. Last year I attended the Health 2.0 conference and learn about Quicken Health from Mike Battaglia.

As a member of the board of the West Virginia Health Information Network I would like to brainstorm on how Quicken Health might be incorporated into West Virginia's efforts to provide better and more affordable health care for West Virginians.

The CAA Blog post on the upcoming event mentions that this ties in well with Governor Manchin's "Come Home to West Virginia" concept (listen to another native West Virginian's version). Recent story on the effort from the State Journal, Bringing Our Children Home.
Here is the except from the Governor's State of the State mentioning the concept:

However, we can’t continue down this path without help. As everyone knows, our best resource has always been our people – and not just those who are here today living and working in West Virginia, but those who were born or raised in West Virginia and have left the state because they felt they had no other choice in order to make a living. Unfortunately, we are all guilty of teaching an entire generation that they couldn’t find a good job in West Virginia, so don’t even bother trying. Well, that’s absolutely not true today, and now our challenge is to reverse these thoughts and show those who have left that this is the perfect time to come home.

Some of the most successful people in the country are native West Virginians – Sylvia
Matthews, chief operating officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Wes Bush, president of Northrop Grumman; Ralph Baxter of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe who has come home to West Virginia to co‐chair our 21st Century Jobs Cabinet and, of course, as previously mentioned, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems. And I know there are many, many more success stories out there, both large and small, that most of us aren’t even aware of – except for the proud mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who deep‐down wish their loved ones were achieving success here in West Virginia.

Regardless of your field of expertise, we need you, and your intellectual capital, ingenuity and work ethic, now more than ever. We need those of you who have an entrepreneurial spirit, or those who have accomplished your goals and are looking for a place where you can teach others all that you have learned. You’ll recognize much of what you left behind, but you’ll also find a work force and a business community that have made tremendous advancements.

While your coming home will help us to make this an even better place to live and work, it will also be rewarding for you as well, because you’ll be able to give something back to this place that I know you’ve always carried with you in your heart and is such an important part of who you are.

So to get the word out, we are going to start a “Come Home to West Virginia” campaign this year through our Department of Commerce. This recruiting campaign will be aimed at bringing former West Virginia residents back home to either work in West Virginia’s growing industries or to expand in West Virginia the businesses they have started in other places.

These West Virginia born knowledge leaders bring a new direction that I hope West Virginia takes to transition itself into a state for the creative class to grow and thrive.

For more check out the blog posts at the CAA Blog and Skip Lineberg at Maple Creative.

Proposed Changes to the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System Rule

CMS posted on its website yesterday (April 14, 2008) the Proposed Changes to the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems and Fiscal Year 2009 (CMS-1390-P).

The proposed rule includes changes to the Physician Self Referral law (Stark law) regulations and seeks comments on the Disclosure of Financial Relationship Report.

The description of the proposed rule reads:

Medicare Program; Proposed Changes to the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems and Fiscal Year 2009 Rates; Proposed Changes to Disclosure of Physician Ownership in Hospitals and Physician Self-Referral Rules; Proposed Collection of Information Regarding Financial Relationships Between Hospitals and Physicians

Practical Advice on the Death Spiral

The Death Spiral, courtesy of the WSJ Health Blog.

Great graphic which highlights advice from my dad, a retired physician in West Virginia, who always warns us of such risks. He says, "eat better, eat less, take small bites, drive defensively with two hands on the wheel, don't climb ladders and be careful with guns." Looking at the graph if we listened to this advice we would take care of most of the larger circles.

Is Prevention Cheaper than Treatment?

David Williams over at the Health Business Blog looks at this question and surprisingly answers it saying that studies show it's often cheaper to let people get sick. This perspective comes from a Washington Post article, In the Balance, Some Candidates Disagree, but Studies Show It's Often Cheaper to Let People Get Sick.

I have assumed (apparently wrongly) that creating a model system in the United States focused on prevention would help halt rising health care costs. Although I've not read all the links in David's post I still have to believe that focusing prevention efforts on chronic disease will have a positive benefits. I'm also wondering whether the study took into account the difficulty (and related costs) of getting people to change their habits which in turn results in prevention.

David makes some valid points in his post including his comment that "consumerism, quality and patient safety initiatives will bear fruit." Like David I'm not sure that prevention will solve the cost crisis but I still have to believe that teaching good health habits and preventative efforts especially early on in childhood before bad habits are formed will ultimately lead to cost savings for our health system.

If you are interested in where the presidential candidates stand on a variety of health care issues -- check out the Washington Posts PoliGraph covering topics on healthcare reform, uninsured, drug prices, prevention, technology and stem cell. Interesting graph.

The Value of Wiki Collaboration

A great graphic from Wikinomics of why wiki collaboration beats email collaboration. A picture says a 1,000 words.

For me the graphic also demonstrates where we may be headed with cloud computing.

Tip to Doug Cornelius' post "Wikis and Happiness" at KM Space.

Dartmouth Atlas Health Care Stats on End of Life Care Costs

The WSJ Health Blog posts (WSJ article, More Choices Drive Cost of Health Care) interesting statistics on end of life care costs according to the latest Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care edition (due out today).

The report shows:

. . . that the cost of individual medical services isn’t the big driver of Medicare spending, at least for chronically ill patients in their last two years. It’s the intensity of care, such as the number of specialist visits and days in the ICU. . .

According to the map graphic West Virginia comes in low in the "below $37,500" category showing the average Medicare Spending during the last two years of life for chronically ill patients.

As the costs of our health care system increase over the coming years we will likely see an increased focus on looking at the end of life care issue vs. costs of health care in those remaining years. These bring to the front a variety of medical, ethical and legal questions.