December 2009 - The Health Care Blog

Senate Deal on Health Care Bill Done

By Matthew Holt As it's a work day for the Senate worth reporting here that Ben Nelson’s vote has been bought for more Medicaid spending for Nebraska and a complex formula for States to opt out of exchanges being able... Read More...

Published Sat, Dec 19 2009 11:11 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Policy

Kate's Counterpane

A wonderful sad and happy story about someone who never thought disease could happen to them. (It plays in sections or you can go to the original site) From a system/policy perspective, the role of complementary and allopathic medicine is... Read More...

Published Sat, Dec 19 2009 1:12 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Consumers

Interview with Paul Taylor, renegade hospital CEO

By Matthew Holt Paul Taylor is CEO of Ozarks Community Hospital, a teeny 2 hospital system catering to the poor and senior populations in rural Missouri and Arkansas. He thinks that he's figured out a way to deliver health care... Read More...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 7:06 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health 2.0 Does Webinars

By Matthew Holt I'm excited to announce the latest program coming from Health 2.0 - The Health 2.0 Show with Indu & Matthew! This monthly webinar series will focus on news from the Health 2.0 community, a look at some... Read More...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 6:48 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health Reform as Theater: Let Me Down Easy

By MICHAEL L. MILLENSON For a Broadway stage, the set is simple and spare – a long, white leather couch, a handful of wooden tables and chairs. No ornamentation is needed; the stories being told on the stage are what... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 2:42 PM by The Health Care Blog

Improving the Harvest: Farming and Health Care

By Bill Kramer I love Atul Gawande’s writings on health care. He has a rare talent for describing technical details of health care, insurance and finances in terms that most people can understand. His recent article in the New Yorker... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 9:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Joe is kicking them when they're down

By Matthew Holt From a deeply depressing survey of the unemployed in today’s NY Times: Nearly half of respondents said they did not have health insurance, with the vast majority citing job loss as a reason, a notable finding given... Read More...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 1:47 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Policy

MedEncentive's Five Year Report

By Matthew Holt As many involved in the worlds of Health 2.0 and Information Therapy know, some of the most interesting experiments in the world of patient-physician engagement have been happening in the somewhat unlikely environs of small town Oklahoma...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 12:29 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Policy/Politics, Policy, Information Therapy, evidenced-based medicine

States Should Have Flexibility to Develop Own Health Reform Plans

By MAX BARTLETT and JOSE AGUILAR This article was distributed by American Forum, a non-profit op-ed syndication service. One issue has generated little discussion during the heated health care reform debate: whether states should have the right to develop...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2009 3:59 PM by The Health Care Blog

Is it Unconstitutional to Mandate Health Insurance?

By MARK HALL Is it unconstitutional to mandate health insurance? It seems unprecedented to require citizens to purchase insurance simply because they live in the U.S. (rather than as a condition of driving a car or owning a business, for... Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2009 3:02 PM by The Health Care Blog

There Be Dragons: The Fiscal Risk Of Premium Subsidies In Health Reform

By JEFF GOLDSMITH Last week, the Congressional Budget Office weighed in on the biggest economic imponderable in the health care debate: how private health insurance premiums will behave under health reform. Building on its December 2008 CBO health insurance...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2009 7:08 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health 2.0 in Europe: Couldn't? Wouldn't? Does!

By Denise Silber They said it couldn’t happen in Europe, that social media and online tools wouldn’t catch on, because the healthcare context was soooo different from the US. They said that Europeans don’t worry about access and cost, that... Read More...

Published Sun, Dec 13 2009 2:33 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0

The one hundred-- a Boston Cancer Fundraiser

Earlier this month, the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center opened nominations for its annual gala honoring those who have stood out in the fight against cancer, the one hundred. Each year, one hundred people from all walks of life are... Read...

Published Sun, Dec 13 2009 2:23 PM by The Health Care Blog

Better Care Through Clinical Trials

By DOUGLAS W. BLAYNEY, M.D. Amid hundreds of amendments offered in the health care reform debate, there is a non-partisan, non-controversial gem that will both help patients and speed the search for new cures to deadly diseases. Senators Sherrod Brown...

Published Sun, Dec 13 2009 10:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Your Money or Your Wife

By JD Kleinke Talk about perfect timing. Just as the last “death panel” falsettos fade into the droning no-government- takeover chorus, along come those “faceless government bureaucrats” from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to stop the music...

Published Fri, Dec 11 2009 7:19 AM by The Health Care Blog