The Readmore 2014

More on the flattening of health care. U.S. businesses and health insurers continue to look at the option of outsourcing health care services oversees.

The article appearing in the Las Vegas Sun discusses a VP of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina recent visit to Bumrungrad in Bangkok along with Delegate Canterbury's efforts here in West Virginia to propose legislation giving state employees the option of traveling abroad for health care services in return for certain incentives.

Does it cost more (or less) to live in West Virginia? Numerous times this question has either come up or been posed to me. The Charleston Daily Mail had a blurb today on a recent report issued by the WVU College of Business & Economics examining cost of living.

The report looks at 4 cities in West Virginia: Charleston, Morgantown, Martinsburg and Vienna. All come in below the national average for cost of living. Vienna (91.1%), Charleston (92.8%), Martinsburg (97.7%) and Morgantown (99.7%). The report also has a snapshot of prices for milk, new home, pizza, boy's jeans and a movie. Interesting info.

The West Virginia Business & Economic Review, Fall 2006 covers the topic in its report, "Cost of Living in West Virginia Cities: Second Quarter 2006."

I have to agree with ESPN.com, "IF IT'S PANDEMONIUM YOU WANT . . . No. 3 USC lost. No. 5 Texas struggled. No. 7 Auburn struggled. This may have been the greatest Saturday in West Virginia history."

USC's loss sets up a great Thursday night game between the Mountaineers and the Cardinals. Let the hype begin for the "Battle in the Bluegrass."

Some inspiration for Mountaineer fans.

The Charleston Area Bloggers (CAB) are planning to meet at Capitol Roasters on November 11 around 7am to 9am. Come early, late or anytime in between. Wi-fi is available.

If you can't make it the group is setting aside Wednesday, December 6 @ 7am for the December get-together. Mark your calendar and plan to attend.

Rick Lee and Oncee have posted about the upcoming event. As Rick says, everyone is welcome especially West Virginia bloggers.

Looking forward to seeing old and new bloggers.

CCHIT is the first group to be designated by HHS as a RCB. How's that for health care acronyms!

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technlogy's (CCHIT) designation as as a Recognized Certification Body (RCB) will allow for those marketing health IT products to move forward for approval as a certified interoperable product. The article indicates that CCHIT as a RCB will be able to evaluate health information technology products to ensure that they meet base-line requirements for functionality, interoperability and security.

The importance of RCB approval also plays into gaining the benefits of the new safe harbors for Anti-kickback and Stark law allowing electronic health information systems to be donated to physicians by hospitals, health plans and others.

A summary is also provided in the HHS Press Release.

UPDATE: Tax-exempt hospitals should be cautious and examine the tax implications of donating health information technology equipment to physicians and other for-profit health care providers. Non-profits have to examine whether the donation is a public vs. private benefit and I would think that most attorneys would recommended seeking a private letter ruling from the IRS prior to donating equipment.

What current U.S. Supreme Court Justice has roots in West Virginia? Answer.

Tip to SW Virginia Law Blog.

The Charleston Daily Mail reports today that Vonage has finally entered the West Virginia market. I've been waiting for Vongage to come to West Virginia after having used the service in North Carolina at my brother in law's house. Based on my experience it's a great service.

Those of you who aren't famililar with Vonage and voice over internet service providers you can read this. Basically, it is phone service over your high speed internet service. One of the nice features is that your phone number is portable.

According to the article, Vonage prices will be $24.99 per month and a $14.99 per month basic residential service. There is a draw back if you live here in Charleston. You can't get a local Charleston number yet and instead have to sign up using a Wheeling, Huntington, Parkersburg or Beckley exchange number. This is a draw back for me -- since I would want local Charleston calls from my family and friends to not be charged a long distance call for calling me local via a landline.

Wondering when Vonage will get a Charleston exchange? Maybe someone from Vonage will see my post and provide a response.

UPDATE: A few weeks ago I checked in to see if Vonage was now available in Charleston. At that time it still wasn't available. However, today (2/4/07) I checked again after a conversation with my neighbor about the service and it now appears to be available in Charleston. Although I haven't switched yet -- I plan to switch our home phone the coming days, especially after a recent failure by Verizon to come out and check out lines after we had been having trouble with a garbling line. When we called Verizon they told us that we had to first go out and check the line ourself on the outside box by plugging in a phone and see if it still has problems. I guess this would help to diagnose whether the problem was an outside line problem or problem with the lines in our house.

The following areas are listed as available for West Virginia (area code 304).

Beckley	Bridgeport	Charleston Zone 1
Clarksburg	Fairmont	Grafton
Huntington Zone 1	Hurricane	Logan
Martinsburg	Parkersburg Zone 1	Philippi
Princeton	Ravenswood	Scott Depot
Spencer	Wheeling Zone 1

Welcome to West Virginia Vonage!