March 2011 - The Health Care Blog

Government Failure

By JOHN GOODMAN I can’t even count the number of articles and blog posts I’ve seen asserting that markets can’t work in health care. Or that they work very imperfectly. Or that they suffer from serious “market failure.” In every case, the writer just...

Published Thu, Mar 10 2011 9:20 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

Insurance companies dancing without touching

By PAUL LEVY A story in the Washington Post talks about health insurance companies seeking new lines of unregulated business as the profitability of health insurance falls and as more and more requirements are placed on that line of business as a result...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 4:28 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

Sermo teams with J&J

By Matthew Holt One of the big stories at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Diego is that Sermo is partnering with Janssen Global Services (part of J&J) to created tools for doctors to help them move their patients through the health care system. It’s...

Published Tue, Mar 22 2011 5:41 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Uncategorized

The CMIO Should Be a Doctor

By MAGGIE MAHAR A hospital’s Chief Medical Information Office (CMIO) should be a physician, says Pam Brier, president and CEO of Maimonides Medical Center, “because nobody knows a doctor’s business like a doctor.” As a hospital’s information technology...

Published Tue, Mar 22 2011 7:56 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, THCB, Maggie Mahar, CIO, CMIO

Conflicts Of Interest In Guideline Development: A Dirty Little Secret Gets Aired Again

By DAVID WILLIAMS An Archives of Internal Medicine article (Conflicts of Interest in Cardiovascular Clinical Practice Guidelines) is getting a lot of notice today. In essence, many of the physicians who develop guideline that influence practice patterns...

Published Thu, Mar 31 2011 4:19 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Quality, NIH, cardiology, Conflict of interest, Guidelines, Eli Lilly, Archives of Internal Medicine

Laboratories of Democracy, Part 2

By MERRILL GOOZNER Experimentation in how states would move toward universal health care coverage was written into the DNA of the Affordable Care Act. The law allowed any state to petition for a waiver that would enable it to enact its own brand of reform...

Published Tue, Mar 01 2011 9:57 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Merrill Goozner, Front Page, Obamacare, Repeal, Waivers

Health 2.0 Spring Fling Updates

Health 2.0’s Spring Fling is just 3 weeks away. We are expecting a great crowd, so register today! Catch expertly curated sessions with brand new themes, products debuting to the public for the first time, and discussion on compelling success stories...

Published Wed, Mar 02 2011 4:07 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Tech, Front Page

Health 2.0 Spring Fling–preview interviews

By Emily Ebert At Health 2.0 we are getting very excited for the Spring Fling this March 20-21, and in preparation, we’re doing a series of interviews with some of the speakers and panelists. Below is a list of all the interviews we’re already...

Published Thu, Mar 03 2011 3:06 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Front Page, Health 2.0 Live

Realizing Value from Health IT: A BCG Response to the PCAST report

By BENJAMIN BERK, MD, SIMON KENNEDY, & BCG HCIT Team If we are to achieve the aims of health insurance reform/PPACA, let alone eventual health delivery reform, the US needs coherent, comprehensive federal health IT policy. In late December, PCAST...

Published Fri, Mar 04 2011 8:54 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, Front Page, BCG, PCAST

HIT Trends Summary for February 2011

By MICHAEL LAKE This is a summary of the HIT Trends Report for February 2011. You can get the current issue or subscribe here. Innovations in provider and patient solutions. DrFirst announced that it acquired AdherenceRx to integrate e-prescribing and...

Published Sun, Mar 06 2011 3:46 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, THCB, Michael Lake

A Speed Bump on the Road to Meaningful Use

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE Meaningful Use has hit a speed bump. It’s of the low, wide and gentle type, not the old raggedy, narrow and mean bump you find in older parking lots. Now that a tentative proposal for Meaningful Use Stage 2 has been published by ONC...

Published Mon, Mar 14 2011 2:29 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Meaningful Use, ONC, Stages, Margalit Gur-Aire, NIST

Not So Fast – Why It Pays to Wait Until FY 2012 on Meaningful Use

By PROTIMA ADVANI The registration process and reporting period for the meaningful use incentive program officially commenced on Jan. 3. More than 21,000 health care providers have registered to date and many more are ramping up efforts to meet meaningful...

Published Tue, Mar 15 2011 12:36 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Meaningful Use, Potima Advani

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

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

Oregon Death with Dignity Act vindicated

To no one rational’s surprise, a study confirms that those few Oregon patients (400 over 10 years) who chose legal physician assisted suicide in case of terminal illness had a better quality of death than those who didn’t. Sadly because those...

Published Wed, Mar 30 2011 7:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy, Quality, micro