November 2009 - The Health Care Blog

Extormity launches WHIO to compete with Health Internet

Electronic health records vendor Extormity, seeking to establish itself as the dominant force in the healthcare IT space, is launching its World Health Information Organization or WHIO platform at a public launch event in Brussels. “WHIO is like a mega...

Published Wed, Nov 18 2009 5:59 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Ha Ha, Weird press releases

The Best Health Care Idea All Year

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI Out of almost nowhere has come momentum for a proposal to create a bipartisan entitlement and tax commission to draft proposals to control the long-term costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The idea would require the....

Published Wed, Nov 11 2009 8:11 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Robert Laszewski, Reform

Harvard Study Gets it Wrong on EHRs and Quality

By GLENN LAFFEL MD, PhD America’s hospitals are a triumph of modernity, stocked as they are with PET scanners, ECMO machines, and ICUs bedecked in eye-popping gadgetry. They are also the most complex organizations ever created by man. The seemingly.....

Published Fri, Nov 20 2009 4:04 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: EHR

Abortion Coverage Is About Math As Well As Politics

By AL LEWIS Let us start by acknowledging that those who think abortion is a sin must be respected, and not forced into a risk pool that covers abortion. Let us also acknowledge that those who are pro-choice need to... Read More...

Published Thu, Nov 12 2009 8:06 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health Plans, The Public Option

Sell Patients like Baseball Players - Seriously

By JOE FLOWER Here's a health care reform strategy that I have not heard anywhere else. Think about this: Why aren't health plans more aggressive in promoting the long-term health of their members, like getting them to eat better, stop... Read...

Published Mon, Nov 16 2009 10:31 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform, Patients, Health Plans, Joe Flower

Dave Durenberger on Lieberman

By Matthew Holt Former Minnesota Senator Dave Durenberger, a thinking centrist Republican (remember them?) puts out an occasional newsletter full of gems. This is today’s zinger: The Senate has a better bill than the House, but it also has a... Read More...

Published Wed, Nov 11 2009 7:48 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Policy

Regina Holliday's mural for Fred

By Matthew Holt Regina’s story has been on THCB before—Fred’s Life & Death at 73 cents a page. But you may not have seen the mural. (From NPR) Read More...

Published Thu, Nov 12 2009 1:20 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Electronic Medical Records, e-patients

Op-Ed: Major Reforms in the Financing and Oversight of Clinical Research Needed

By KATHLEEN BOOZANG, Seton Hall School of Law Seton Hall University School of Law’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy has called for major substantive reforms in the financing and oversight of clinical research. In a White Paper...

Published Fri, Nov 27 2009 8:43 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Research

What Health Care Reform Means For: Small Businesses

by SABRINA SHANKMAN and OLGA PIERCE, ProPublica Fairfield Lighting and Design Location: Fairfield, Conn. Employees: 12 (10 receiving health insurance) Sales: $2 million annually Payroll: $384,000 annually Their story Fairfield Lighting and Design has...

Published Mon, Nov 09 2009 3:23 PM by The Health Care Blog

Pay (Only) for Health Care that Works

Charles Silver & David A. Hyman Health care is expensive partly because governmental payers and insurers foot the bill for large quantities of medical services that are ineffective, unnecessary, or unproven. According to a RAND report, studies of...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2009 10:20 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform

A “Third School” of Cost Containment?

By BILL KRAMER Is there a “Third School” of reformers that could help us resolve the long debate about how to contain health care spending? Drew Altman’s recent column describes the history of the debate between the “Regulators” and the... Read More....

Published Mon, Nov 02 2009 10:33 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform, Costs

Modest step in the reform journey shows the idiocy of our political system

By Matthew Holt It does seem to take a health care bill to remind us all how incredibly screwed up the political process is in these here United States. The Medicare Modernization Act was railroaded through by Tom Delay and... Read More...

Published Sun, Nov 08 2009 8:22 AM by The Health Care Blog

Are We Too Small to Succeed?

By DON LINDSTROM The logic behind the government bailouts in the financial and automobile industries goes like this: some institutions are so large and interconnected that their failure could collapse the entire economy. They are considered to be too...

Published Mon, Nov 09 2009 3:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: AMA, Economics

Public Anxiety Meets The Democratic Effort to Get Health Care Done at All Costs

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI The latest polls are an unmitigated disaster for Democratic efforts to get their health care bills passed. This from Rasmussen this morning:“Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 10:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Robert Laszewski, Congress, Reform

Spotlight on Health 2.0: David Kibbe's Motorcycle Tour

Every week we bring you a video from Health 2.0! This week we're featuring a golden oldie, David Kibbe's motorcycle tour across America. To see more videos from past Health 2.0 conferences, or to purchase the entire conference DVD sets... Read...

Published Tue, Nov 24 2009 7:45 AM by The Health Care Blog