February 2010 - The Health Care Blog

It's Up To Us ...

By PAUL LEVY A conversation with a reporter yesterday helped me clarify my thoughts about federal health care legislation. In my view, the most effective role of the federal government would be to provide national standards by which the health... Read...

Published Sat, Feb 27 2010 6:22 AM by The Health Care Blog

Not exactly what athenahealth was looking for

By Matthew Holt This is not a fun day for athenahealth, and frankly with HIMSS coming up, not a fun time to have such a day. None of this has anything to do with their products or their client services,... Read More...

Published Fri, Feb 26 2010 8:39 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt

Paris, Here We <s>Come</s> Are

By Matthew Holt For those of you just getting up on Friday, here's a little taste of the atmosphere we're drinking in for the upcoming Health 2.0 Europe conference. And yes, we have been working hard here too! Health 2.0... Read More...

Published Fri, Feb 26 2010 6:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0

The White House Healthcare Summit - Democrats 0 Republicans 0

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI There is politics and there is policy. On the policy front what we saw today was the same exchange of the old talking points we have watched for a longtime. No progress was made toward any kind... Read More...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 3:14 PM by The Health Care Blog

More of the Same, Only More Expensive

By SARAH PALIN The President has wrestled control of the health care debate away from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid by finally introducing his own plan. Unfortunately, the White House’s proposal includes everything we found untenable about the old Senate...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 10:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Sarah Palin

The Messy Business of Transparency

By NAOMI FREUNDLICH President Obama’s latest plan for health reform brought a flurry of commentary in the last two days; including divergent views on whether his commitment to "transparency" is helping or hurting the process. Yesterday, the...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 10:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Transparency

A Backhanded Way to Make Policy

By PAUL LEVY One of the arcane steps in government regulation of health care is the Physician Payment Rule. This is the manner in which CMS, the Medicare agency, annually allocates payment dollars among the various specialty services. The PPR... Read...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 7:47 AM by The Health Care Blog

Dear Mr. President

By ROB LAMBERTS I am writing this as a representative of the examination room - one who sits facing patients, dealing with our healthcare delivery "system" on a daily basis. I am writing this as one who will bear the... Read More...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 7:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

A 2.0 Interview with Berci Mesko, regional ambassador to Hungary for Health 2.0 Europe

By Denise Silber Dr Bertalan Mesko, or Berci to his friends, is a recently-graduated Hungarian medical doctor, with whom I had the pleasure of blogging about geriatrics at IAGG 2009. Berci was then just beginning his PhD in clinical genomics.... Read...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 2:31 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Health 2.0, Physicians

Is Geography Your Health Destiny?

By RISA LAVIZZO-MOUREY, MD Dr. Lavizzo-Mourney is the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Before joining Robert Wood Johnson she taught at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of medicine and health...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 9:01 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: public health

EHR & The Art, Science and Business of Medicine

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE "The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business..." - William Osler Dr. Osler was a great physician and a great man. However, in America today medicine may be a calling... Read More...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 8:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: EHR, Technology

Bentley & Stanton: Two UK docs talk about Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt Last week in London I met with two of the brightest lights in the UK's community of physicians looking at Health 2.0. Annabel Bentley is the medical director and head of informatics at Bupa, the UK-based non-profit... Read More...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 8:22 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Health Plans, e-patients, International

HIMSS Parties, and a little more

By Matthew Holt Next week the health IT world descends on Atlanta which means a lot of chat, lots of meetings and lots of parties. You’ll be seeing the results of my interviews on THCB next week. But meanwhile more... Read More...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 3:18 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Matthew Holt, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

The President’s Proposal

By MAGGIE MAHAR You might be wondering why I haven’t written about the President’s Health care bill. The reason is that I have very little to say. This, I realize, is unusual. But the truth is that the president’s proposal... Read More...

Published Tue, Feb 23 2010 6:28 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Obama, Maggie Mahar

The President’s Health Care Plan

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI It is hard to see how the health care plan the President released this morning changes anything. There is nothing new in it save a health insurance rate regulatory board that is an awkward political proposal at... Read More...

Published Mon, Feb 22 2010 1:03 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Obama