March 2010 - The Health Care Blog

What Happens Next in MA?

By PAUL LEVY What happens next in Massachusetts with insurance reimbursement rates now that many of the facts and figures have been made public? Here's what I see. The dominant parties in the state on whose watch the disparities in... Read More.....

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 3:21 AM by The Health Care Blog

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

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

The 2010 DiabetesMine Challenge

By Amy Tenderich We have just opened the 2010 DiabetesMine Design Challenge. This year, we’ll be selecting THREE Grand Prize winners to EACH receive $7,000 in cash and a support package to help winners realize and commercialize their design ideas.......

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 1:07 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Consumers

Health 2.0 Europe--Webinar on Wednesday

This Wednesday, March 10th at 4:30 CET / 7:30AM PST our FREE hour long webinar series will be highlighting the upcoming Health 2.0 Europe conference with our Parisian partner, Denise Silber of Basil Strategies. Joining in the discussion and presenting...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 5:47 PM by The Health Care Blog

Why Rush Vendor Certification of EHR Technologies?

By David C. Kibbe and Brian Klepper A surprise move by ONC/HHS indicates the wheels may be falling off health IT reform at about the same rate they've fallen off Democrats' broader health reforms. David Blumenthal and his staff have... Read More...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 9:23 AM by The Health Care Blog

A Shout-out to our sponsors

THCB would not exist without the support of our generous sponsors. So we'd like to give a shout to our friends at Eliza, our latest corporate sponsors. "Who says nerds can't talk to people? We use technology to engage people... Read More...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 2:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Last Helicopter Out of Saigon

By JEFF GOLDSMITH In popular psychiatry, a classic passive aggressive gambit is “malicious compliance”- intentionally inflicting harm on someone by strictly following a directive, even though the person knows that they are damaging someone by doing so...

Published Sun, Mar 07 2010 5:29 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health Reform Could Harm Medicaid Patients

By Edward Miller, MD Dr. Miller is the Dean and CEO of The Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Both the House and Senate health-care reform bills call for a large increase in Medicaid—about 18 million more people will begin enrolling... Read More...

Published Sun, Mar 07 2010 5:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

Waiting for Dr. Godot

By MICHAEL TURPIN "If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it is for free.” – PJ O’Rourke On the eve of sweeping health reform legislation, it is hard not to notice the glowing skyline in Washington as policymakers... Read More...

Published Sat, Mar 06 2010 6:14 AM 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

Pioneer Speaks about MA Health Reform

By PAUL LEVY The Pioneer Institute is a public policy research center in Massachusetts. On the political spectrum, most people would call it conservative, or a least free-market oriented. In my opinion, regardless of your particular position along that...

Published Fri, Mar 05 2010 5:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform, Paul Levy, Massachusetts

Why cameras shouldn't be let into bars

By Matthew Holt Captions for a bubble above Jonathan Bush’s or Judy Faulkner’s head? In the comments please Read More...

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 6:28 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Matthew Holt

Bush & Palestrant--Live from HIMSS

By Matthew Holt After days of technical gremlins holding me back, I'm getting my HIMSS interviews up online. I’ll start with one from two of my favorites. This is Daniel Palestrant of Sermo and Jonathan Bush of athenahealth, who are... Read More....

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 6:17 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Matthew Holt

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