April 2011 - The Health Care Blog

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

Comparing Hospitals on Safety, Quality and Cost

By MERRILL GOOZNER The Sunlight Foundation today gave us a fascinating first peak at the hospital safety data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which was finally convinced to release the information after years of stonewalling by the...

Published Tue, Apr 26 2011 5:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Merrill Goozner, CMS, Hospital safety, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, American Hospital Association

Feds on the Web: Medicare relaunches caregiver site

I’ve been impressed by the efforts of CMS and others in the Federal government to develop helpful websites. Medicare has just relaunched its Caregivers website. It’s got a nice variety of stories, links and resources–including links...

Published Mon, Apr 25 2011 10:20 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Matthew Holt, micro

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

Patient-Driven Care Instead of Patient-Centered Care

By PAUL LEVY After being part of a discussion at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement today, I have decided to change my profile, above, from this: Advocate for patient-centered care, eliminating preventable harm, transparency of clinical outcomes...

Published Wed, Apr 20 2011 1:10 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Paul Levy, Hospitals, Patient-centered care, Patient-driven care

Near Chicago next week? Meet Todd Park!

If you’re near or in Chicago next Weds (April 27) and you care about health data, applications or innovation, we highly recommend that you get to a Community Forum on the Health Data Initiative. The formal invite & details follow–Matthew...

Published Mon, Apr 18 2011 12:33 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, EHR, THCB, Health 2.0, Medicare, Policy, Obama administration, Tech

Who Gets Autism?

By NEUROSKEPTIC The paper is from Leonard et al and it’s published in PLoS ONE, so it’s open access if you want to take a peek. The authors used a database system in the state of Western Australia which allowed them to find out what happened...

Published Mon, Apr 25 2011 12:10 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Autism

ACO Fairy Tale Faces a Rumpelstiltskin Moment

By MICHAEL MILLENSON The ACO fairy tale is drawing perilously close to an unhappy ending. The government’s long-awaited draft regulations on Accountable Care Organizations have brought a dose of ugly reality to a concept that’s always seemed...

Published Tue, Apr 19 2011 11:04 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Michael Millenson, ACOs

Interview: Medicity and ActiveHealthManagement

Matthew Holt interviews Brent Dover of Medicity and Jeff Jacques of ActiveHealthManagement at HIMSS. Tweet this Share on Facebook Read More...

Published Wed, Apr 20 2011 1:05 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

Why Direct is a Hit and PCAST is an Outcast

By VINCE KURAITIS (click on the graphics to link to original sources) Regular readers know that I find Professor Clay Christen’s theory of disruptive innovation to be a useful lens to explain industry evolution. Let’s look at two recent health IT initiatives...

Published Tue, Apr 19 2011 9:29 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Vince Kuraitis, PCAST, The Direct Project

There Aren’t Enough Rich People To Pay For Medicare And Medicaid

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI I hear more and more of my progressive friends arguing, in the context of deficit reduction, that we should be raising taxes before getting aggressive about reducing the cost of Medicare and Medicaid — as well as Social Security...

Published Mon, Apr 25 2011 4:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Robert Laszewski, THCB, Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare costs, Medicaid costs

Medical Loss Ratio: Putting Percentages and Politics Aside

By CONNIE HARVEY The Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) policy written into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires health insurance companies to deliver more direct value to consumers by mandating that they spend a higher percentage of...

Published Tue, Apr 05 2011 2:11 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Insurance companies, Affordable Care Act, Connie Harvey, Medical Loss Ratio

Interview: McKesson Health Solutions

Matthew Holt interviews Emad Rizk, President of McKesson Health Solutions at World Health Care Congress. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kadZ_XloyA Tweet this Share on Facebook Read More...

Published Fri, Apr 22 2011 1:05 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Tech, McKesson

The Massachusetts Mistake

By ROGER COLLIER A year after the passage of health care reform, fewer than half of Americans support it, a similar percentage believe that it has already been found unconstitutional or soon will be, health care costs are continuing to rise far faster...

Published Sun, Apr 10 2011 8:06 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Roger Collier, Massachusetts, Affordable Care Act, Healthcare reform

Vermont Chooses Single-Payer: Who Else Has an Appetite for Experimentation?

By JONATHAN HALVORSON This past Monday, the Vermont Senate passed a Single-Payer bill. The House had already passed a similar bill and the governor is friendly to the legislation, so all that stands between Vermont and a single-payer law are a few formalities...

Published Fri, Apr 29 2011 7:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health Reform, Connecticut, Vermont