April 2011 - The Health Care Blog

The Science and Religion of Patient Safety

By BOB WACHTER, MD The patient safety world was set abuzz this week by yet another article, this one in Health Affairs, that seemed to offer additional “evidence” that hospitals are even more dangerous than we previously thought (and we already thought...

Published Tue, Apr 12 2011 2:15 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Bob Wachter, Hospitals, Patient Safety, IHI, Preventable harm, Harm

The Partnership for Patients: The Inside Scoop on a Game Changing Safety Initiative

BY ROBERT WACHTER Earlier today, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Medicare chief Don Berwick announced the “Partnership for Patients,” a far-reaching federal initiative designed to take a big bite out of adverse events in American...

Published Tue, Apr 12 2011 1:16 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Patient Safety, Medical errors, Don Berwick, Conditions of Participation, The Partnership for Patients

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

To the Barricades!

By DAVID DRANOVE Last week, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan unveiled his plan to save Medicare and Medicaid. Supporters hailed the plan as revolutionary; critics decried the plan as revolutionary. For something so revolutionary, it sure is based on some...

Published Mon, Apr 11 2011 1:51 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Medicare, David Dranove, Paul Ryan

Could Facebook be Your Platform?

By VINCE KURAITIS My guess is you’ve probably never asked yourself this question. A quick preview: Technical barriers aren’t the limiting factors to Facebook becoming a care coordination platform. Facebook’s company DNA won’t play well in health care...

Published Mon, Apr 11 2011 8:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Vince Kuraitis, Facebook, Care coordination platform

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

The messy TEDMED divorce

By Matthew Holt Yesterday I got a fun mass email–reprinted here at Medgadget–from Richard Saul Wurman. He founded TED, and later lost control of it to Chris Anderson who has stewarded it to being a giant among conferences. Then he founded...

Published Fri, Apr 15 2011 8:46 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

IPAB — The New Punching Bag

By MERRILL GOOZNER Remember death panels? Politicians have found a new way to use health care reform as a punching bag. The Independent Payments Advisory Board (IPAB) will be a 15-member expert panel appointed by the president and approved by the Senate...

Published Thu, Apr 21 2011 10:01 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Merrill Goozner, Rationing, Death panels, IPAB

Interview: Covisint

Matthew Holt interviews Brett Furst of Covisint at HIMSS. Tweet this Share on Facebook Read More...

Published Thu, Apr 21 2011 1:10 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, HIMSS 2011, Covisint

Interview: Health Dialog

It’s the end of video week on THCB! Following fixing some technical difficulties doing videos we’re putting a whole lot more up and showing some great interviews from companies who attended HIMSS or World Health Care Congress. Matthew Holt...

Published Fri, Apr 22 2011 1:10 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, WHCC, Health Dialog

Interview:CareLogistics and Mercy St. Vincent

Matthew Holt interviews Ben Sawyer, Executive Vice President of CareLogistics, and Imran Andrabi, President and CEO of Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, at the World Health Care Congress. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6pMOjwYagI Tweet this Share on...

Published Fri, Apr 22 2011 1:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Hospitals, Tech, CareLogistics, Mercy St. Vincent

American Well goes mass market

American Well has been the leader in creating an online marketplace where consumers and physicians can actually process care. They’ve done it via health plans using the basic health plan billing and coverage infrastructure, and that’s been...

Published Tue, Apr 19 2011 10:45 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Tech, micro

Time for Toto to Pull the Curtain Away from Patient-Centered Medical Homes

By AL LEWIS Patient-Centered Medical Homes in statewide populations have unstoppable momentum and major constituencies in support of them, so valid analysis of their outcomes is probably as futile as it will be unwelcome. However, the math speaks for...

Published Sun, Apr 03 2011 7:33 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Patient Centered Medical Homes, North Carolina Community Access, Al Lewis

Another Swing at the Windmill of VAP

By MARYA ZILBERBERG, MD Sorry, folks, but I have been so swamped with work that I have been unable to produce anything cogent here. I see today as a gift day, as my plans to travel to SHEA were foiled by mother nature’s sense of humor. So, here...

Published Mon, Apr 04 2011 9:11 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: prevention, Marya Zilberberg, Uncategorized, VAP, VRSA

Medical Loss Ratios – Again!

By ROGER COLLIER A new study, reported in the American Journal of Managed Care, seems likely to add more heat to the continuing medical loss ratio controversy. The Accountable Care Act effectively mandates that health insurers achieve MLRs of 85 percent...

Published Mon, Apr 04 2011 5:47 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Affordable Care Act, MLR, American Journal of Managed Care