October 2009 - The Health Care Blog

A Bill of Rights for Health Care Reform

By KIM BELLARD Our nation's Founders created a pretty good system of government by starting from what they wanted to achieve, exemplified by the Bill of Rights, so perhaps we would be wise to base health care reform on a... Read More...

Published Thu, Oct 29 2009 6:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform, Patients

Health Care Reform Lite

By J.D. Kleinke “The only constant in health care is change.” It’s one of those shop-worn things you hear too often on health care’s rubber-chicken circuit; and not only is it not true, but it is exactly untrue. The only... Read More...

Published Fri, Oct 16 2009 6:27 AM by The Health Care Blog

Smoking and mental illness

By Maggie Mahar At last weeks Health 2.0 Conference Maggie Mahar, author of HealthBeatBlog got more than a little feisty about Al Waxman's suggestion that we make people with bad health behaviors pay more. She said that 95% of smokers... Read More...

Published Sun, Oct 11 2009 2:26 PM by The Health Care Blog

The ugly, the bad, the very good and the great at the Health 2.0 Conference

By Matthew Holt So the Fall Health 2.0 2009 conference in San Francisco at the Concourse Exhibition Center is over. The bunting is down, the cocktails are drunk, and everyone can get back to the sanctity of the WiFi enabled... Read More...

Published Sat, Oct 10 2009 1:46 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Matthew Holt

Carrot or Stick? Should Patient Decision Aids Be Rewarded or Required?

By DON KEMPER Should we incent or require providers to prescribe patient decision aids? Should we incent or require consumers to use patient decision aids? Overtreatment is the most celebrated cause of runaway health care costs, but we shouldn’t blame...

Published Thu, Oct 01 2009 6:35 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Costs, Physicians, Patients

Olberman, hysterical hypocrisy expose

By Matthew Holt A really fun piece from Keith Olbermann as he shows how the entire Gang of Six and more voted for fully socialized flood insurance and yet seem to have a problem with an independent government run public... Read More...

Published Sun, Oct 04 2009 1:21 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy

Saving Health Care, Saving America

By BRIAN KLEPPER, DAVID C. KIBBE, ROBERT LASZEWSKI and ALAIN ENTHOVEN So far, Congress' response to the health care crisis has been alarmingly disappointing in three ways. First, by willingly accepting enormous sums from health care special interests...

Published Fri, Oct 30 2009 6:08 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Reform, Policy/Politics, Policy, Transparency, Current Affairs, Marketplace, primary care, Corruption, The Industry

Senate Health Care Reform: Two Huge Problems, One Giant Red Herring

By ROGER COLLIER Pity poor Senator Harry Reid. Not only is he facing an uphill reelection fight in Nevada, but as Majority Leader, he must reconcile the health care reform bills from the Finance and the Health, Education, Labor and... Read More...

Published Wed, Oct 28 2009 12:41 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: The Public Option, Roger Collier

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

THCB UPDATE

If you haven't had a chance to sign up for THCB UPDATE yet, you really should. You'll get a helpful reminder email from us when important posts go up on the site. In the two and a half six months... Read More...

Published Wed, Oct 07 2009 11:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

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

Who should tell your MD what to do?

By PAUL LEVY In this Wall Street Journal op-ed, Norbert Gleicher suggests that expert panels won't improve health care because the the quality of the research on which they would base their physician practice guidelines is not reliable. Instead, he...

Published Wed, Oct 21 2009 6:40 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Paul Levy

Physician Accountability for Violation of Safety Rules: The Time For Excuses Has Passed

By BOB WACHTER In a recent New England Journal, Peter Pronovost and I make the case for striking a new balance between “no blame” and accountability. Come on folks, it’s time. At most hospitals, hand hygiene rates hover between 30-70%,... Read More.....

Published Wed, Oct 14 2009 7:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Bob Wachter

The Big Day for Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt Yes, today is the big day for Health 2.0 or rather the first of two huge days. In less than 7 hours Indu and I will be stepping onto the stage and six months of work, rehearsals... Read More...

Published Tue, Oct 06 2009 1:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0

Commentology

Jeff Goldsmith writes: "As you may know if you've read my postings, I'm an outspoken advocate of tightening Medicare fraud and abuse laws. There will be a post on this in a day or two. It's actually the stuff that's... Read More....

Published Tue, Oct 27 2009 12:46 AM by The Health Care Blog