November 2009 - The Health Care Blog

Where were you?

By MICHAEL PAINTER, Senior Program Officer - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation I distinctly remember the first time I heard the title, “National Coordinator for Health Information Technology”. It was 2004. That’s, of course, the year that RAND released its...

Published Mon, Nov 09 2009 4:43 AM by The Health Care Blog

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

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

Op-Ed: Why "free market competition" fails in health care

By JOE FLOWER In trying to think about the future of health care, thoughtful, intelligent people often ask, “Why can’t we just let the free market operate in health care? That would drive down costs and drive up quality.” They... Read More...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 4:59 PM by The Health Care Blog

Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years on the Horizon?

By Vince Kuraitis Earlier this week CMS issued a typically cryptic Announcement indicating that they were shelving the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD) and instead would focus on the recently announced Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Initiative...

Published Wed, Nov 11 2009 8:03 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Medicare

The FDA Steps In: Regulating Prescription Drug Promotion on the Internet

By Kate Greenwood, The FDA has been widely criticized for not providing guidance for drug companies eager to promote their products on the internet. Earlier this year, the FDA expressed the view that the message was what was important, not... Read More...

Published Thu, Nov 12 2009 3:38 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: FDA, Social Media

The Health Internet vs. the NHIN -- A Matter of Control, Cost, and Timing

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER There is growing tension within the Obama administration's health team over who will control health data exchange: everyone (including consumers and their doctors), or just large provider organizations. The public...

Published Mon, Nov 16 2009 4:22 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, HITECH, RHIOs, NHIN, Web/Tech

Controlling Health Care Costs: How to “Bend the Curve”

By Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, MBA As Congress nears passage of the first substantial health care reform in decades, there is an ominous challenge: No reform will be sustainable unless we slow the rapid growth of health care spending.... Read More...

Published Wed, Nov 18 2009 5:25 AM by The Health Care Blog

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

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

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

The post-reform insurance market, or will Mega survive?

By Matthew Holt I had an interesting call from a member of the legal profession the other day, and it got me thinking about the post-reform prospects for my own particular collection of bete noirs—the insurers who prey on desperate... Read More...

Published Mon, Nov 30 2009 1:47 AM by The Health Care Blog

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

Health 2.0 and AccessDNA

Each year at Health 2.0, we present Launch!, a debut of new products and services to the Health 2.0 community. This year we were able to hear from many great companies, including AccessDNA, a new site that generates personalized genetics... Read More...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2009 6:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Tell the FDA the whole story, please

By SUSANNAH FOX By Susannah Fox I scan menus for keywords (fig, parsnips, salmon...) and it turns out I scan Twitter the same way, looking for anyone who is talking about my favorite topics (data, consumers, information quality...) So when... Read More...

Published Mon, Nov 09 2009 4:22 AM by The Health Care Blog

Spotlight on Health 2.0: The Patient Is In, from SF 2009

Every week we bring you a new video from Health 2.0! This week we're featuring The Patient is In, a session focusing on how Health 2.0 tools are making a difference for patients. To see more videos from past Health... Read More...

Published Mon, Nov 09 2009 10:15 AM by The Health Care Blog