April 2011 - The Health Care Blog

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

Of Zebras, Rare Diseases, and Google

By RICHARD REECE, MD When you hear hoof beats behind you, don’t expect to see a zebra. Medical aphorism on the rarity of rare diseases A rare or “orphan” disease affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. There are more than 6...

Published Tue, Apr 26 2011 5:41 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Richard Reece, Jerome Groopman, Rare diseases, Cyberchondriacs, Orphan diseases

A Case for Self Insuring Small Business

By MICHAEL TURPIN During the course of 2009, an alarming trend line was broken. For the first time ever, more employers under 50 employees were not offering medical insurance to employees than those who continued to provide employer sponsored healthcare...

Published Fri, Apr 08 2011 4:23 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Michael Turpin, Healthcare costs, Self-insuring, Private sector, Medical cost shifting, Small Business

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

PatientsLikeMe goes big, doesn’t stay home

PatientsLikeMe has, since before we first featured them at Health 2.0 in 2007, been the patient online community continually pushing the boundaries for patients with rare diseases. It started with MS, ALS and Parkinson’s and slowly moved towards...

Published Mon, Apr 11 2011 1:10 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: micro

$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

The Rashomon of Health Care: Why the Government is Promoting and Hindering ACOs at the Same Time

By DAVID DRANOVE As I have previously blogged, a centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the promotion of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is banking on the financial incentives of ACOs (through...

Published Wed, Apr 27 2011 9:54 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, CMS, ACOs, Uncategorized, FTC, Antitrust

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

Time to End The Health Care Tax Exclusion?

By MERRILL GOOZNER President Obama on Wednesday will unveil his counter offer for bringing the nation’s budget deficit under control. Last week, the Republican plan authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., chairman of the House Budget Committee, focused public...

Published Tue, Apr 12 2011 10:37 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Merrill Goozner, Health insurance, Employer-sponsored plans, Healthcare tax exclusion

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

Rest in Peace: Personal Health Records (PHRs)

By JOHN M. GROHOL While doing some research the other day on personal health records (PHRs), I came across this article, describing Revolution Health’s announcement — without much media attention — about dropping its PHR at the beginning of 2010. (Disclosure...

Published Thu, Apr 14 2011 7:43 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, PHRs, Health Vault, Google Health, John Grohol

Health Wonk Review

Health Wonk Review is up at David Williams Health Business Blog. THCB even makes a rare appearance! (Hopefully we’ll be appearing a little more frequently in the future…) Tweet this Share on Facebook Read More...

Published Thu, Apr 14 2011 9:50 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: micro

THCB Live: Microsoft

A few weeks back at HIMSS Matthew Holt caught up with Microsoft Health Solutions’ Sean Nolan (Chief Architect) and Nate McLemore (VP, Business Development) to chat about the technology and business of NHIN Direct, HealthVault and much more. Tweet...

Published Fri, Apr 15 2011 8:23 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

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

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