January 2011 - The Health Care Blog

Electronic Medical Records Attack Hospitals

By MICHAEL KIRSCH, MD Readers know of my criticisms of the electronic medical record (EMR) juggernaut that is oozing over the medical landscape. Ultimately, this technology will make medical care better and easier to practice. All systems will be integrated...

Published Sun, Jan 30 2011 1:47 PM by The Health Care Blog

(Limited) Sympathy for the Blue Devil(s)

By Matthew Holt A year on from Wellpoint's ju-jistu move of announcing a 39% rate increase in California, therefore re-invigorating the health care bill and guaranteeing themselves billions in government subsidies, Blue Shield of California (that...

Published Mon, Jan 10 2011 2:23 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy, Health Plans

Dicker With Your Doc? Not So Fast…

By JESSIE GRUMAN, PhD “How to Haggle With Your Doctor” was the title of a recent Business section column in The New York Times. This is one of many similar directives to the public in magazines, TV and Websites urging... Read More...

Published Fri, Jan 21 2011 2:04 PM by The Health Care Blog

ACOs and Community Hub of Wellness & Health

By KENT BOTTLES, MD Hospitals are going to change. What worked in the past will not work in the future. The passage of the federal health care reform law and the inevitable transition from fee for service to global payments... Read More...

Published Sun, Jan 23 2011 9:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Ghosts of Health Reform Past

By DAVID DRANOVE I have not blogged for several weeks, mainly because I have been making sense of the curious events that transpired over the Christmas holiday. If you a regular reader of my blog, you know that I have... Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 10 2011 9:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Ready, Set…ACO?

By JONATHAN BUSH Happy New Year, everyone! 2010 was certainly action-packed, and 2011 promises the same. I hear a lot of thunder about getting ready for ACOs. This isn’t a crystal ball forecast, but I see hospitals spending tons of... Read More...

Published Fri, Jan 14 2011 6:06 AM by The Health Care Blog

Wanted: A PCAST Patient Portal

By Adrian Gropper, MD What do the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report and the New England Journal of Medicine article on value in health care by Porter have in... Read More....

Published Tue, Jan 04 2011 5:20 AM by The Health Care Blog

The "Unreasonable" Premium Increase Rule

By ROGER COLLIER HHS has now released its final set of draft regulations for provisions of the Affordable Care Act scheduled to go into effect early in 2011. This last regulatory publication—actually a “notice of proposed rulemaking” inviting comments...

Published Mon, Jan 03 2011 7:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Data Mining Case Reaches the Supreme Court

By GLENN LAFFEL, MD, PhD Twenty years ago, IMS Health got the idea to purchase prescription records from pharmacies, license physician information from the AMA’s Physician Masterfile, and link the two databases so as to create something new and different...

Published Wed, Jan 12 2011 12:34 PM by The Health Care Blog

Turning the Clock Back Isn't Enough: The Nasty Surprise Awaiting the GOP on Health Care and the Deficit

By SCOTT BITTLE and JEAN JOHNSON The Republicans who will take control of the House this January have made it clear there are two things they hate: deficits and President Obama's healthcare reform. They've promised to reduce the first and... Read...

Published Tue, Jan 04 2011 5:52 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Needle In the Haystack

By J. LEONARD LICHTENFELD, MD Well, it didn't take long to get into the New Year, did it? There I was this earlier this week, starting my New Year right by getting exercise on my elliptical when I heard the... Read More...

Published Thu, Jan 06 2011 9:01 AM by The Health Care Blog

Geomancy, Haruspex and Contextual Discovery

By ALEX EPSTEIN What if your internet interface knew what you wanted – before you even knew you wanted anything? Would it help or hurt? Would you wind up doing things you didn’t want to, simply because of suggestion? Would... Read More...

Published Fri, Jan 21 2011 10:33 PM by The Health Care Blog

The ACC’s Cardiac Stress Testing Appropriate Use Criteria Answer the Wrong Question

By ADAM ROTHSCHILD, MD, MA Dr. William Follansbee is the chairman of the American College of Cardiology/American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACC/ASNC) task force on non-invasive cardiac imaging and the director of nuclear cardiology at the University...

Published Thu, Jan 20 2011 1:24 PM by The Health Care Blog

Definition of HIE: What’s Yours?

By JOHN MOORE Trying something new here – soliciting your collective input, the proverbial wisdom of the crowd. As you may have read in yesterday’s post, Chilmark is quickly approaching publication of the Health Information Exchange (HIE) report. One...

Published Sun, Jan 09 2011 7:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

A Healthcare Information Services Provider Business Model

I've written previously about Healthcare Information Exchange Sustainability and the need for Healthcare Information Services Providers (HISPs) to serve as gateways connecting individual EHRs. How should HISPs be funded and how can we encourage HISP...

Published Wed, Jan 05 2011 4:49 PM by The Health Care Blog