December 2009 - The Health Care Blog

Convergence and Death of the Public Option

By Tim Greaney So maybe the two parties are coming together on health reform after all. Last night we learned that after days of “secret talks” among the “gang of ten” the Democrats have reached agreement to restructure their health... Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 10 2009 7:58 AM by The Health Care Blog

How Will the Senate Bill Impact the Insurance Companies and Their Customers?

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI How will the Senate bill impact health insurance companies and their customers? Even better, how will it impact a not-for-profit health plan--one with a reputation for being a "good guy" that continually wins the country's...

Published Wed, Dec 23 2009 9:33 AM by The Health Care Blog

Making A List and Checking It Twice

By MERRILL GOOZNER Allow me to call readers attention to an article in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that calls on medical specialty societies to make lists of the five most wasteful practices in their... Read More...

Published Tue, Dec 29 2009 10:11 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Economics

Welcoming immigrants and robots to fill the nursing shortage

By DAVID E. WILLIAMS In a report this week, Nursing crisis looms as baby boomers age, CNN Money repeats a well-known story: there are unlikely to be enough nurses to take care of people as they age. Nursing schools can’t... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 30 2009 7:21 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Nursing

Senate passes bill, more to come

By Matthew Holt Its Christmas Eve and the Senate just passed a major health reform bill. Personally I think the reforms in it are relatively minor, but the passage of the bill itself is a screaming big deal. When I... Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 24 2009 9:14 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy

Senate Compromise on Health Care Reform: Political Genius?

By JOE FLOWER Democrat Roland Burris, the sudden senator who replaced Barack Obama in that august body, has now joined those who are pledging to filibuster any bill that does not have a "public option" – joining of course those,... Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 10 2009 9:29 AM by The Health Care Blog

Spotlight on Health 2.0: Clinical Groupware from SF '09

Every week we bring you a video from the world of Health 2.0. This week we're featuring a clip focusing on Clinical Groupware and the Next Generation of Clinician-Patient Interaction tools, as seen on stage at our latest conference in... Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 07 2009 10:50 AM 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

Enthoven beats up Gawande

By Matthew Holt I finally got around to reading Atul Gawande's New Yorker piece on why the current reform bill mirrors early 20th century agriculture. I learned lots about the role of the Department of Agriculture in teaching farmers what... Read...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 6:49 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy

Why Wait Four Years?

By PAUL LEVY I was struck during President Obama's health care speech before Congress several months ago that the reforms he advocates would not go into effect for four years, until 2014. This timetable, too, is written into both the... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 02 2009 6:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

2009 Homeless Gift Guide

By DOC GURLEY This time of year, no matter what your worldview, religion or culture, it's hard, as you hurry past the homeless huddled on the street, to not feel like Scrooge. Whether you're taking your family to the Nutcracker,... Read More....

Published Wed, Dec 23 2009 9:26 AM by The Health Care Blog

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

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

2009: A Year of Surprises and Change for the EHR Technology Market

By by DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits." All's Well That Ends Well (II, i, 145-147) 2009 began with... Read More...

Published Sun, Dec 06 2009 9:49 PM by The Health Care Blog

Interview with Alan Greene MD, author <i>Raising Baby Green</i>

One of the most remarkable talks I heard this year wasn't about health care. It was about food. Of course, food is very, very closely related to health and health is at least tangentially related to health care. So I... Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 1:01 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Matthew Holt, Policy, Consumers, Children's Health, Podcasts, Books