December 2010 - The Health Care Blog

Between the Cracks

By KELLY CHERAMY Between the cracks is a frightening place to be. During the course of trying to improve our family’s financial stability, my husband and I were blind-sided by one hidden detail: We’d face $10,000 in costs to continue... Read More...

Published Sat, Dec 18 2010 5:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Op-Ed, Health care costs, COBRA

Using An App to Confront Your Metastatic Melanoma

By GEORGE D. LUNDBERG, MD If you or anyone else you know has had a malignant melanoma, you and that other person, and your respective physicians, should click http://therapy.collabrx.com to access the Targeted Therapy Finder--Melanoma (ttf-melanoma)....

Published Fri, Dec 17 2010 8:08 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Op-Ed

Goodman's Law

By JOHN C. GOODMAN The other day I ran across five items of interest: 1. A news article about Medicare paying $800 to rent a wheelchair that could have been purchased outright for $350; 2. An article in The Atlantic... Read More...

Published Fri, Dec 17 2010 7:37 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Medicare, John Goodman

Loser Pays

Tort reform is a hot-button issue among physicians. It distorts the practice of medicine by compelling doctors to order tests, the lack of which, might be used against them. It makes each patient a potential enemy. It forces doctors to... Read More.....

Published Fri, Dec 17 2010 7:34 AM by The Health Care Blog

Thoughts on the PCAST Report

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report this month ambitiously titled “REALIZING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE FOR AMERICANS: THE PATH FORWARD...

Published Fri, Dec 17 2010 5:35 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, EHR, ONC, Margalit Gur-Arie

Health 2.0 NYC Chapter Angel "shark tank" on Jan 19

If you don't know what an Angel VC shark tank matchmaking event is, you can find out when the wildly successful Health 2.0 NYC Chapter has one on January 19.(It might have something to do with Health 2.0 start-ups being... Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 16 2010 3:23 PM by The Health Care Blog

Will Avatars, Robots, and Video Games Replace Doctors?

By KENT BOTTLES, MD I have never met Dr. Joseph C. Kvedar of Partners HealthCare’s Center for Connected Health, Susannah Fox of Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, or Professor Andy Clark of Edinburgh University face to face... Read...

Published Thu, Dec 16 2010 11:19 AM by The Health Care Blog

Will ACO IT Models Be Walled Gardens or Open Platforms?

By VINCE KURATIS Will ACO (accountable care organization) IT models be walled gardens or open platforms? i.e., will ACO IT platforms focus on exchanging information within the provider network of the ACO, or will they also be able to exchange... Read...

Published Thu, Dec 16 2010 8:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health 2.0 Announces its Starting Five for the 2011 Developer Challenge

Following the success of the 2010 Health 2.0 Developer Challenge, we are excited to get the ball rolling again for 2011. Within the short time the Developer Challenge has been live, we have had six winners, who were able to... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 15 2010 11:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

To Die Well

By ROB LAMBERTS, MD Everyone liked him. Though his later years (the only ones in which I knew him) took away his ability to do most things, and though he was in great pain every day, it was easy to... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 15 2010 8:25 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Rob Lamberts, Op-Ed

High Stakes Health Reform – Employers: In or Out?

By MICHAEL TURPIN It’s high noon for private healthcare. Over the last decade, large, medium and small employers that procure and manage over $1T of private healthcare spend for an estimated 180M Americans have been engaged in an expensive game... Read...

Published Wed, Dec 15 2010 7:52 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: health care reform, Michael Turpin

Selecting an EHR for the Patient Centered Medical Home

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE The conceptual definition of a Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) speaks of a physician directed medical practice, oriented to the whole person, where patients have enhanced access to a personal physician and care is coordinated...

Published Wed, Dec 15 2010 4:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: EHR, Patients, Margalit Gur-Arie

The Grinch that Stole Obamacare

By DAVID DRANOVE Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution, better known as the Commerce Clause, states that Congress has the power to “regulate Commerce…among the several States.” To supporters of health reform, the Commerce Clause is the.....

Published Tue, Dec 14 2010 6:25 PM by The Health Care Blog

What's Surprising About the Virginia Ruling

By MARK W. HALL Most everyone expected district Judge Hudson in Richmond VA to strike the individual mandate as unconstitutional, so the outcome of today’s decision is hardly surprising. What was uncertain is: 1) what remedy he would grant; and... Read...

Published Mon, Dec 13 2010 3:51 PM by The Health Care Blog

Great Ideas: Improving Healthcare Infrastructure

By GEORGE HALVORSON Sepsis is the number one cause of death in American hospitals--higher than cancer or stroke. Your chance of dying from a sepsis infection can triple if you choose a hospital that doesn’t have a good sepsis response... Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 13 2010 11:00 AM by The Health Care Blog