March 2010 - The Health Care Blog

Crowd Sourcing Comes Through Again

By PAUL LEVY I have written below about the incredible power of crowd sourcing, using the reach and scope of social networking on the Internet to solve a complex problem. Here's a play-by-play about a difficult question. It demonstrates how... Read...

Published Sun, Mar 14 2010 10:19 AM by The Health Care Blog

Community Wars? WebMD launches Health Exchange

By Matthew Holt Just when we thought things were calming down in the world of Health 2.0, it’s kicking off. WebMD has been watching Everyday Health take over its spot as top Health site ranking in the ComScore rankings (cue... Read More...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 1:41 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Matthew Holt

Healthcare 2015

By MICHAEL TURPIN "This gets back to the fundamental lesson of political survival that Bill Clinton taught me, which is if you make it about the American people’s lives instead of your life, you’re going to be okay." -- Paul... Read More...

Published Sun, Mar 21 2010 2:14 PM by The Health Care Blog

The Tale of the Fancy Sea Creatures and the Pipes

By ROB LAMBERTS Once upon a time there was a land on the ocean. The people lived off of the food from the ocean and were very happy. But as they grew bigger, they had a problem: they made a... Read More...

Published Sun, Mar 21 2010 12:37 PM by The Health Care Blog

The big question for what's next

By Matthew Holt It’s the morning after the big night. Soon all melodrama of the past 14 months will be forgotten, particularly the last 6 weeks (for which the current narrative is that Nancy Pelosi brought health care reform back... Read More...

Published Mon, Mar 22 2010 10:07 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy

What’s Next With Health Care (And Why This Process Was Madness)

By MARIAN WANG Sometimes things are a little clearer in retrospect. Now that health care reform has passed in the House, it seems there are two main questions in people’s minds: What’s next? Why, procedurally, was the legislative process so... Read More...

Published Mon, Mar 22 2010 2:41 PM by The Health Care Blog

The Oxymoron Columnist

By MERRILL GOOZNER Charles Krauthammer's columns in the Washington Post are like the Wall Street Journal editorial page, must-reading for anyone who wants to keep up with the illogical fulminations and small-minded cruelties of what passes for intellectual...

Published Fri, Mar 05 2010 5:37 AM by The Health Care Blog

Could It Be That the System (Gasp) Works?

By ROBERT WACHTER Heading into the final weekend of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, who could have guessed that in a year that brought us Death Panels, Pickup Trucks, “You Lie”, The Cornhusker Compromise, Bart Stupak (boy, that must have been... Read More...

Published Sat, Mar 20 2010 7:04 AM by The Health Care Blog

HIMSS impressions

By Matthew Holt HIMSS is like a 4 day party with interesting conversations, meetings that I always miss (sorry RelayHealth & Ingenix—I owe ya both!), and usually a travel complication. This time I got there smoothly but missed my plane... Read More...

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 8:49 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Matthew Holt

"I Am Not Bound To Win. But I Am Bound To Be True."

By MAGGIE MAHAR So many said it would never happen. But now, on Sunday, March 21, 2010, it appears that reformers have the votes. Rep. Bart Stupak, the leader of the anti-abortion hold-outs, has announced that he will vote "yes."... Read More...

Published Sun, Mar 21 2010 6:28 PM by The Health Care Blog

Vote Yes

By DAVID KIBBE & BRIAN KLEPPER One of us was at a local diner yesterday, when a good friend and health plan broker walked up to say hello. This guy delivers premium increases every day to employers, and understands how... Read More...

Published Fri, Mar 19 2010 7:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Andy Wiesenthal, Kaiser Permanente

By Matthew Holt Those of you with really long memories may remember that Kaiser had a little kerfuffle with a guy named Justen Deal. As part of that incident, I did a rather unorthodox interview with Andy Wiesenthal from The... Read More...

Published Wed, Mar 17 2010 1:43 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Matthew Holt, Health Plans, Consumers

A little HIMSS housekeeping

By Matthew Holt Today till Weds I'll be at HIMSS in Atlanta. You can see me at the Bloggers panel at 3pmMonday, or more importantly at the talk Jane Sarasohn-Kahn & I are giving on Health 2.0 & Participatory Medicine... Read More...

Published Mon, Mar 01 2010 4:07 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Matthew Holt

Epocrates--reference present and EMR future

By Matthew Holt I met with Bob Quinn the CTO and Geoff Rutledge, the CMO, of Epocrates at HIMSS last week. The company has a big footprint in mobile (and web) reference content for physicians. The big news is that... Read More...

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 1:03 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Matthew Holt

What Good are Health Insurers?

By BILL KRAMER As the health reform effort moves into the final stages, everyone seems to be taking a whack at health insurers. Some of the insurers’ wounds are self-inflicted, such as WellPoint’s announcement of 39% premium increase for individual.....

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 2:20 AM by The Health Care Blog