March 2011 - The Health Care Blog

Unjust Enrichment

By MARGALIT GUR ARIE A new lawsuit has been filed this month in an attempt to curtail the unconsented and currently legal traffic of de-identified medical records, this time against pharmacy giant Walgreens. The class action suit brought by Todd Murphy...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 4:11 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

A World Without *** Cancer?

By VIPAN NIKORE There isn’t a country on this planet where there isn’t someone dreaming of curing cancer. What if there was something even more spectacular than curing cancer? What if you could stop cancer right in its tracks and eliminate its existence...

Published Sat, Mar 19 2011 10:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Breast cancer, Immunology, Oncology

Heritage–Even More Prizes

Heritage Provider Network used to be an under-the-radar IPA in S. California. Then they announced a $3m prize for anyone able to correctly predict hospital admissions from their data. Now they’ve announced a series of milestone prizes over the next...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 2:48 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: micro

The Quest for the “Not For Comfort” Healthcare Organization

By JOE FLOWER The current reorganization of health care could make it better and cheaper for everyone, harnessing real creative and competitive energies to build the “next health care”—or it could lead to local monopolies, higher prices and less real...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 11:05 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Joe Flower, ACOs, co-management, PCMHs

THCB Live: Alcatel-Lucent’s Jim White

Alcatatel from Health 2.0 on Vimeo. Alcatatel from Health 2.0 on Vimeo. Tweet this Share on Facebook Read More...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 10:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Tech, Alcatel-Lucent

Are Market-Oriented Economists Wrong About Health Care?

By JOHN GOODMAN Tyler Cowen posted 10 common mistakes of market-oriented economists the other day, paired with 14 common mistakes of left-wing economists. That prompted Ezra Klein to propose his own list of mistakes and others are chiming in. I think...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 7:10 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, John Goodman

Privatize Medicaid? Have We Learned Nothing??

By MONA MANGAT, MD As we move thru 2011, many states are eagerly progressing with implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We have many Early Innovators that are leaders in setting up the state based exchanges. These states are Kansas, Maryland...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 5:33 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, Florida, Mona Mangat, Privitization, Rick Scott

The Promise of Stem Cell Research: Recent Advancements and Setbacks

By JOE McWILIAMS Few technologies spark as much fascination, hype, and controversy as stem cell technology. One of the most interesting medical applications of stem cell research is in regenerative medicine, where stem cells are being developed to regenerate...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 3:24 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

THCB Live: Sage CEO Betty Otter-Nickerson

Betty Otter-Nickerson, Sage from Health 2.0 on Vimeo. Matthew caught up with Sage Healthcare CEO Betty Otter-Nickerson at HIMSS to talk about the company’s plans for 2011 and beyond. Tweet this Share on Facebook Read More...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 1:57 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, HIMSS 2011, Betty Otter-Nickerson, Sage

Are Patients and Interoperability Finally Coming to the Fore of Health IT?

By ADRIAN GROPPER, MD In recent weeks, I’ve witnessed a huge change among my practicing colleagues. For the first time, the true cost of vendor-proprietary records is seen as an existential issue for practices that may need to join an Accountable...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 12:16 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, EHR, THCB, Adrian Gropper, ACOs

Bias And How to Deal With It

By DERICK LOWE, PHD The coverage of the Japanese reactor situation reminds me of the coverage of many other technical issues when they overlap with serious breaking news stories. I wrote a little on this subject a few years ago, talking about the Merck...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 12:15 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Bias, Japanese reactor, Media, Derick Lowe

The Inspector General Observes

By PAUL LEVY A recent report by the Massachusetts Inspector General raises a thoughtful concern about the implementation of global payments in the state. In the effort to contain health care costs, much discourse has centered on moving from a predominantly...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 10:41 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Paul Levy, Massachusetts, ACOs, Global payments, AQC

AEI defends Health 2.0 vs the “old guard”

Not often a lefty like me promotes AEI, but Jon Entine has written a great piece attacking the behavior of the FDA. For the last 3 years the establishment has been attacking the DTC genomics companies for basically allowing people to access their own...

Published Wed, Mar 16 2011 12:46 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: micro

Tele-what?

By NEIL VERSEL As a journalist who for the last decade has covered the use of information technology in health care, I’m rather disgusted at some of my brethren in the mass media. I’m none too happy with the medical establishment, either. Both seem hopelessly...

Published Wed, Mar 16 2011 11:09 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Neil Versel, Telemedicine, Telemonitoring, Yale, Wireless

Looking For Quality In the Wrong Place

CHRIS LANGSTON Last week I attended the first annual meeting of the Long-Term Quality Alliance and listened to Gregg Pawlson (a geriatrician and executive with NCQA) talk about quality measurement. Right now, quality measurement does too little to drive...

Published Wed, Mar 16 2011 7:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Quality, Geriatric Medicine