April 2011 - The Health Care Blog

The 100% Estate Tax

By MERRILL GOOZNER There is a dangerous but beguiling econometric logic behind the idea that turning Medicare over to the insurance industry will lower health care costs. It’s an idea that could catch on if the general public became convinced that there...

Published Mon, Apr 18 2011 8:40 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Medicare, Merrill Goozner, Health care costs, Paul Ryan, Vouchers

Why ACOs Won’t Work

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI First, I think Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are a great idea. Just like I thought HMOs were a good idea in 1988 and I thought IPAs were a good idea in 1994. The whole notion of making providers accountable for balancing cost...

Published Thu, Apr 07 2011 8:07 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Robert Laszewski, THCB, ACOs, Incentives

Controlling the Medicare Budget — Time to Fast Forward to 1999?

By ROGER COLLIER The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the government deficit will exceed one and a half trillion dollars this year, with federal health care annual expenditures expected to hit the trillion dollar mark by 2012. The largest federal...

Published Wed, Apr 27 2011 5:13 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Medicare, IPAB, National Bipartisan Commission of the Future of Medicare

Some Employers Already Sending Workers To Exchanges to Buy Health Insurance

By JULIE APPLEBY Fed up with the unpredictable cost of health insurance for his small business, Mike Sarafolean last year made a dramatic change: Instead of picking a plan to offer workers, he now sends them to a “private exchange” or marketplace...

Published Fri, Apr 29 2011 6:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Employers, Julie Appleby, Private exchanges

IOM Health Data Initiative Forum is June 9

Health 2.0 is supporting and I’m attending The Health Data Initiative Forum on June 9, 2011 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and you should too. The Forum aims to accelerate momentum for the public use of data and innovation to improve...

Published Wed, Apr 13 2011 7:13 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: micro

The Disappearing Family Doctor – Is It a Bad Thing?

By DAVIS LIU, MD The New York Times recently published an article titled the Family Can’t Give Away Solo Practice wistfully noting that doctors like Dr. Ronald Sroka and “doctors like him are increasingly being replaced by teams of rotating...

Published Tue, Apr 26 2011 10:43 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Physicians, primary care, Davis Liu, Family doctors

Interview: ICA

It’s video week on THCB! We’ve overcome some technical difficulties with videos, so for the next couple of days we are getting caught up on our queue with some great interviews from companies who attended HIMSS in February or World Health...

Published Thu, Apr 21 2011 1:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Tech, HIMSS 2011, ICA

Primary Care Revolt: Replace the RUC

By RICHARD REECE, MD An under-the-radar revolution is going on out there. It is a revolt of primary care physicians against the AMA and CMS. It is a request for parity with specialists. It is a movement to replace how primary care practitioners are paid...

Published Thu, Apr 21 2011 7:56 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Physicians, primary care, AMA, CMS, RUC, Richard Reece, specialists

Why Medicare Isn’t the Problem, It’s the Solution

By ROBERT REICH I hope when he tells America how he aims to tame future budget deficits the President doesn’t accept conventional Wasington wisdom that the biggest problem in the federal budget is Medicare (and its poor cousin Medicaid). Medicare isn...

Published Tue, Apr 12 2011 8:24 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Medicare, Robert Reich, Medicare costs

$3 Million Heritage Health Prize: Interview with Dr. Richard Merkin

By Matthew Holt I recently had a chance to interview Dr. Richard Merkin, President and CEO of Heritage Provider Network. Richard has spent the last 30 years implementing a successful business model to address the needs and challenges of affordable managed...

Published Tue, Apr 26 2011 2:49 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt

Unlucky Student

By KIMBERLY SEELYE Last July, I found myself needing to visit a doctor for an urgent medical issue. My period had started in April and never stopped. It was light, so it wasn’t too much of an annoyance, but after three months I figured I needed professional...

Published Wed, Apr 13 2011 3:00 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Costs of Care, Kimberly Seely

Interview with Louis Burns, CEO, Care Innovations

By Matthew Holt Louis Burns is CEO of Care Innovations, the joint venture between Intel and GE that’s aiming to change the world of home care and patient to clinician connectivity. Clearly there’s been lots of money and effort invested —...

Published Tue, Apr 19 2011 1:24 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health 2.0, Patients, Tech, Intel, GE, Care Innovations

Summary of CMS Proposed Rule on Accountable Care Organizations

By JORDAN T. COHEN (Second in a series. See Part 1 and Part 3.) CMS recently released the proposed rule that will regulate PPACA’s Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The MSSP relies on the accountable care organization (ACO) model in order to generate...

Published Mon, Apr 18 2011 8:57 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: CMS, Tech, Affordable Care Act, MSSP rules, MSSP, Jordan Cohen

Fostering Innovation in Healthcare IT

By JOHN MOORE As in most sectors, innovation in healthcare IT (HIT) is by and large incremental. A tweak here and added feature there to some existing application, e.g., what we are seeing today from EHR vendors as they strive to meet meaningful use criteria...

Published Mon, Apr 18 2011 8:37 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, EHR, THCB, Meaningful Use, John Moore

Finding A Path Through The Health Insurance Market ‘Gobbledygook’

By LISA W. DREW My ZIP code is a black hole for individual health insurance. That’s what I recently discovered when I tried to find the coverage I want at an affordable price. What hubris I had. My story started in 2009, when my position as a journalism...

Published Sat, Apr 23 2011 9:34 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB