October 2009 - The Health Care Blog

Regina Holliday: Fred's life & death at 73 cents a page

By Matthew Holt If you ever wonder why the efforts to make it easier for patients and families to get information and be treated as equals in their care by the medical care system matter.... If you need convincing that... Read More...

Published Sat, Oct 24 2009 9:18 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, e-patients

What's got lost in the public option kerfuffle

By Matthew Holt Not so long ago, July this year in fact, PhRMA boss and former Dem Blue Dog & Republican Billy Tauzin told the Aspen Health Forum that a straw poll of Democrats at dinner with him in DC... Read More...

Published Tue, Oct 27 2009 7:17 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy

The Doctor Is In and Logged On.

By RAHUL PARIKH Wow. I've just taken care of three patients in 12 minutes, and I didn't do it by "churning" them through my office as if it's some sort of factory assembly line. Rather, those patients (their parents, more... Read...

Published Thu, Oct 08 2009 6:09 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Physicians, Rahul Parikh

Ur Doin It Wrong

By CINDY THROOP Susannah Fox aptly illustrated what is happening in health care during the 'The Patient Is In' panel of the Health 2.0 conference with some amusing LOLCat pictures captioned "ur doin it wrong." Put simply, when it comes...

Published Tue, Oct 13 2009 8:49 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0

Why AHIP needs the public option

By Matthew Holt It’s been a fun week. After years of THCB explaining that neither could AHIP do genuine research nor could its venerable President open her mouth without lying, the rest of the world has caught on. I won’t... Read More...

Published Fri, Oct 16 2009 8:35 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy, Health Plans, Charlie Baker

Silly Season: Monty Python Policy Making

By IAN MORRISON Editor's Note: Ian Morrison today makes his first contribution to THCB. Ian was President of Institute for the Future where I learned my health care consulting trade in the 1990s. A more amusing boss one couldn't have... Read More...

Published Mon, Oct 19 2009 7:18 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform

Atul Gofigure: Why McAllen Should Have Mattered in the Health Reform Debate

By JEFF GOLDSMITH Back in June, Atul Gawande, a Harvard trained surgeon, published a riveting article in the New Yorker about the physician community in McAllen Texas. If ever an article was strategically timed to influence the nation’s health policy...

Published Thu, Oct 29 2009 6:09 AM by The Health Care Blog

Time to put aside the intellectual disputes for now

By Matthew Holt It’s always fun to see my friends beating each other up in public....and if you read down in the comments on the post published yesterday you’ll see a significant dispute between Maggie Mahar and the Klepper/Kibbe/Lazsweski/Enthoven team...

Published Sat, Oct 31 2009 3:00 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Robert Laszewski, Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy, Public Option, Maggie Mahar

Why Standards Matter 2: Health IT Enters a New Era of Regulatory Control

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER The recent history of electronic medical records in ambulatory care, or what we now call EHR (electronic health record) technology, can be divided roughly into three phases. Phase I, which lasted approximately 20.....

Published Thu, Oct 08 2009 8:27 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, EHR, Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, HITECH, Technology

The Long Tail of the EMR

By Margalit Gur-Arie In the fall of 2008 I had the opportunity to do some research on the, then dormant, EMR marketplace. The results came as no surprise. Most physicians did not have an EMR and were not interested in... Read More...

Published Wed, Oct 07 2009 12:21 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HITECH, Electronic Medical Records

Health 2.0 a-Go-Go: A Revolution By Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet

By J.D. KLEINKE During the standard what’re-you-doing-this-week segment of a Sunday barbecue, I told a neighbor who works in the real world that I was “going to the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco,” a sort of random zeitgeist check... Read More...

Published Tue, Oct 06 2009 8:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0

Let’s Not Lose Sight of the Goals

By BILL KRAMER I love Daniel Schorr. I’ve never met him in person, but I love his voice and his insights about politics on NPR’s Weekend Edition. But this morning I was disappointed. After listening to his comments on the... Read More...

Published Sun, Oct 04 2009 10:24 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform, Policy/Politics, Obama

Two big deals in Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt John Halamka writes about the small but important meeting this week at Harvard Medical School hosted by Zak Kohane and Ken Mandl. Because of the impending arrival of about 1,000 of my best friends next week at... Read More...

Published Fri, Oct 02 2009 12:37 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Health 2.0

Health Internet - The New Consumer-Friendly NHIN

By Adrian Gropper Consumer directed HIE will become the most visible aspect of health IT stimulus and could lead a shift to consumer-directed health plans, increased interest in wellness programs and family-centered collaboration for the young, old and...

Published Fri, Oct 09 2009 10:40 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Information Therapy

The Senate Finance Health Bill Has No Clothes

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI Readers of this blog know that I have lots of concerns for the Senate Finance health bill primarily because it does not so much represent health care reform as just an expensive entitlement expansion. Readers also know... Read More...

Published Mon, Oct 12 2009 8:38 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Robert Laszewski, Reform