Health Beat

Medical Mistakes: How Some Hospitals Reduce Malpractice Suits

The New America Foundation’s Joann Kenen has posted an insightful piece on how some innovative medical centers deal with medical mistakes: Rather than stonewalling patients and relatives, they “Disclose. Apologize and Fix.” I’ve written in the past about...

Published Wed, Apr 07 2010 7:41 AM by Health Beat

Guess Who Has Been Over-Treated For More Than Twenty Five Years?

When I was in my twenties, I was diagnosed with glaucoma. At the time, I didn’t worry about it. I was twenty-something, busy teaching, having babies, writing a book—and, with glasses, my eyesight was 20/20. It was only when I... Read More...

Published Fri, Feb 25 2011 2:10 PM by Health Beat

Cesareans and Induced Births: Who Is Choosing These Procedures--and Why? Part 2

Today, close to one-third of all babies born in the U.S. enter the world through a slit in their mother’s abdomen, usually just above her pubic bone. Since 1975, the share of mother who undergo a Cesarean has more than... Read More...

Published Tue, Feb 15 2011 2:50 PM by Health Beat

Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease Requires Cooperation, Not Fierce Competition

A vaccine or drug that can prevent healthy, yet high-risk people from developing the memory loss, confusion and other devastating cognitive problems that characterize Alzheimer’s disease is the Holy Grail for researchers, drug companies and patient advocates...

Published Thu, Feb 17 2011 2:10 PM by Health Beat

Mass. Data Supports “The Importance of the Individual Mandate”

The individual mandate to buy health insurance is clearly the most contentious aspect of health reform. More than two-dozen states have joined federal lawsuits seeking to have health reform repealed on the grounds that the mandate is unconstitutional...

Published Fri, Jan 14 2011 3:06 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

Alice Rivlin Does Not Support Ryan’s Plan to Bury Medicare

Yesterday, on “CNBC’s Morning Joe,” Paul Ryan claimed Alice Rivlin, Clinton’s OMB director, as an ally: “Alice Rivlin and I designed these Medicare and Medicaid reforms” he announced. “Alice Rivlin is a proud Democrat at the Brookings institution. These...

Published Wed, Apr 06 2011 5:48 PM by Health Beat

Healthcare Insurance: Reform Begins to Hold Insurers Accountable

First it was Aetna. Now Blue Shield of California is doing the right thing. Who will be next? Health Insurers are beginning to slice premiums and rebate money to customers. Last year, many of health care reform’s critics (on the... Read More...

Published Tue, Jun 07 2011 8:42 PM by Health Beat

Obama Administration Says That It Would Veto Boehner’s Bill

The Obama administration is now warning that the President will veto House Speaker John Boehner’s two-step plan to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and cut $3 trillion in government spending. President Barack Obama’s Office of Management and Budget has announced...

Published Tue, Jul 26 2011 2:00 PM by Health Beat

Berwick to Head Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS); Who Is Don Berwick and What Will This Mean for Reform? Part 1

The rumors that I wrote about Friday http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2010/03/dr-don-berwick-to-become-new-medicare-director-if-its-true-th.html are, in fact, true. President Obama will name Dr. Donald Berwick, president of the Institute for Health Care...

Published Sun, Mar 28 2010 1:28 PM by Health Beat

The New York Times Attacks the Dartmouth Research Part 1

Today, the New York Times published a piece about the Dartmouth research that is raising eyebrows-- in part because there are so many factual mistakes in the story, in part because the tone is so personal. “It sounds as if... Read More...

Published Thu, Jun 03 2010 3:20 PM by Health Beat

A Little-Known Provision in Reform Legislation: Safety Net for Alzheimer’s Patients and Others Who Need Long Term Care

Last week, the New York Times asked me to write an opinion piece for its “Room for Debate” section. Here is the topic that the Times asked participants to discuss: “An article in the Times this week focuses on a... Read More...

Published Fri, Jun 11 2010 5:43 AM by Health Beat

What Many Liberals Don’t Understand About Health-Care Reform

Both liberals and conservative critics have charged that the health reform legislation that President Obama signed this spring focuses mainly on insurance coverage, and does little to rein in the spiraling cost of health care. This isn’t true. But the...

Published Wed, Jun 16 2010 5:22 PM by Health Beat

Palliative Care and Hospice Care: Transforming the American Way of Dying (In Iowa, If Not in New York) Part 1

Summary: Below, I write about Palliative Care: Transforming the Care of Serious Illness (Jossey-Bass, 2010), an outstanding collection of essays edited by Diane E. Meier, Stephen L. Isaacs and Robert G. Hughes as well as a Dartmouth Atlas report, released...

Published Wed, Nov 24 2010 12:51 PM by Health Beat

Health Care Reform in Texas: Political Theater Spreads Misinformation

Texas is thinking of abandoning Medicaid, reports the New York Times, reprinting a story from the Texas Tribune, a colorful piece that omits one central fact about Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Apparently the state’s conservatives...

Published Mon, Nov 08 2010 2:17 PM by Health Beat

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