March 2011 - Health Beat - The Network of Care

Medicaid Reform: States Clamor For “Relief and Flexibility”

States want flexibility in implementing the health care law, and President Obama told the National Governor’s Association yesterday that he supported a bipartisan bill that would allow states to apply for innovation waivers in 2014 instead of in 2017...

Published Tue, Mar 01 2011 1:56 PM by Health Beat

Reality Check: Haley Barbour, BMWs and Medicaid Recipients

It seems old lies never die—especially when it comes to entitlement programs for the poor. In the contentious debate over how to reduce spending in state Medicaid programs, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) insisted that one solution for his state.....

Published Wed, Mar 02 2011 2:06 PM by Health Beat

Primary Care and the National Health Service Corps: Finding Physicians “Who Will Go Where No One Else Will Go”

Roughly 65 million Americans live in places where there are at least 2,000 potential patients for each lonely physician. No surprise, these tend to be impoverished rural regions, or depressed inner cities. We call them “underserved areas.” If we paid...

Published Thu, Mar 03 2011 7:17 AM by Health Beat

The FDA “Has a Chat” With Plastic Surgeons

It’s always good to hear about the FDA being proactive. Below, a post by Jim Edwards, writing on BNET’s “Placebo Effect, ” tells how the FDA reacted when surgeons began advising doctors that they shouldn’t use the word “cancer” when... Read More...

Published Sat, Mar 05 2011 1:26 PM by Health Beat

The True Victims Of Fetal Pain Laws

Danielle and Robb Deaver are living proof of the awful reality of Nebraska’s ill-conceived “fetal pain” law. The law, which took effect last October and is the only one of its kind in America, prohibits abortions in the state after... Read More...

Published Mon, Mar 07 2011 12:15 PM by Health Beat

Berwick Targeted By Lynch Mob; CMS Director “Abandoned” by the Administration?

When President Obama named Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) last March, I wrote this: “Most who know Berwick describe him a ‘visionary’ and a ‘healer,’ a man able to survey the fragments of... Read More...

Published Tue, Mar 08 2011 10:28 AM by Health Beat

Berwick Update: "Republicans Won" (Baucus); "Focusing on the Job" (Berwick)

"The Senate will never vote to confirm Dr. Donald Berwick as CMS administrator", Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee told reporters earlier today.. According to Modern HealthCAre, Baucus said that he has discussed...

Published Tue, Mar 08 2011 1:45 PM by Health Beat

Instead of Tort Reform, Why Not Focus On Reducing Actual Malpractice?

In his State of the Union speech in January, President Barack Obama appeared to throw a bone to congressional Republicans when he said, "I am willing to look at other ideas to bring down [health care] costs, including one that... Read More...

Published Fri, Mar 11 2011 2:26 PM by Health Beat

Medical Education: Reforming How We Train Doctors

Below, another provocative story from Pulse--voices from the heart of medicine, an online magazine of personal experience in health care. The piece raised some questions in my mind about how we train medical students. You’ll find my comments at the.....

Published Sat, Mar 12 2011 12:43 PM by Health Beat

Nortin Hadler on How to Win the Healthcare Lottery Without Buying a Ticket

Below an excerpt from an essay by Dr. Nortin Hadler, professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an attending rheumatologist at University of North Carolina Hospitals. He is the author of "Worried...

Published Tue, Mar 15 2011 6:13 PM by Health Beat

Robotic Medicine: A Surgeon Confesses That He Was Seduced By a Robot

U.S. healthcare is awash in medical technology, and recently, in an editorial published on Bloomberg.com, one surgeon suggested that we may be drowning. For as Dr. Craig D. Turner, a urologist in Portland, Oregon points out “what is different with......

Published Wed, Mar 16 2011 1:41 PM by Health Beat

Can Academic Medical Centers Become Accountable Care Organizations?

Below, an excerpt from a superb post by Bob Wacther, Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, that was originally published on Wachter’s World. There, he questions whether academic medical centers...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 7:10 AM by Health Beat

The Dark Side of Industry-Funded Drug Trials

There are many serious problems with the current U.S. mental health system, the most glaring being the over-use or misuse of psychiatric drugs, the warehousing of the mentally ill to prisons and emergency rooms, and the unholy connection between academic...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 12:27 PM by Health Beat

Making Health IT Work in a Hospital: the CMIO Should Be a Doctor

A hospital’s Chief Medical Information Office (CMIO) should be a physician, says Pam Brier, president and CEO of Maimonides Medical Center “because nobody knows a doctor’s business like a doctor.” As a hospital’s information technology (IT) point person...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 12:59 PM by Health Beat

High CEO Salaries at Nonprofit Hospitals Under Scrutiny…Once Again

Shock and outrage ensue every time the press gets wind of the million-dollar-plus salaries and other perks reaped by some CEOs at nonprofit hospitals. This year is no different—except that the ongoing recession that is forcing states to make painful....

Published Thu, Mar 24 2011 7:17 AM by Health Beat

March 2011 - Health Beat

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