December 2015 - The Health Care Blog

The Ten Worst Wellness Programs and What They Do to Harm Employees

By AL LEWIS and VIK KHANNA If corporate wellness didn’t already exist, no one would invent it. In that sense, it’s a little like communism, baseball, or Outlook. After all, why would any company want to purchase programs that damage morale,reduce productivity...

Published Fri, Dec 04 2015 7:59 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Wellness, Al Lewis, Vik Khanna

What Killed Scott Weiland?

By JOSEPH KRAININ, M.D. His voice had the unusual ability to convey both aggressive muscularity and profound vulnerability. Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots were icons of my adolescence. Personally, my memory of Mr. Weiland will always be inextricably...

Published Sun, Dec 06 2015 10:05 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Pain, Stone Template Pilots, Scott Weiland

Health 2.0 Presents the Final Agenda for WinterTech 2016

By DEEPA MISTRY Health 2.0 announces the final agenda for the WinterTech conference, January 13, 2016 in San Francisco, California. As the only event dedicated to health tech and investing during the health investment mecca, JP Morgan Week, the event...

Published Wed, Dec 09 2015 12:21 PM by THCB

Filed under: Health 2.0, Uncategorized

America’s Bitter Pill: Managed Care 2.0, the CBO and Cost Containment

By KIP SULLIVAN Steven Brill’s latest book, America’s Bitter Pill, is a frustrating mix of excellent history and muddled health policy analysis. The book is a very good addition to the literature on the history of the Affordable Care Act and by far the...

Published Fri, Dec 11 2015 2:46 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Kip Sullivan

HEART for the Stage 3 API

By ADRIAN GROPPER, MD It is imperative that we support the interoperability components of Meaningful Use Stage 3. The promise of reform to justify our massive investment in MU must be supported by broad, patient-centered interoperability mandates so that...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2015 9:12 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB

Genetic Testing: The New Frontier of Wellness Madness

By AL LEWIS The Wall Street Journal just reported that Genetic Testing May Be Coming to Your Office Soon. This is all well and good, assuming employees would want their health insurer’s buddies collecting their DNA for no good reason, handling it, selling...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2015 9:31 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Al Lewis

“Roads? Where we’re Going, We don’t Need Roads.”

By HANNAH GALVIN, MD When I was 10, Marty McFly rode a hoverboard through a 2015 Hill Valley’s Courthouse Square, and I knew what I wanted from Santa that year. Needless to say, I was disappointed that Christmas morning in ’89. Fast forward to the real...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2015 10:05 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Hannah Galvin

All I Want For Christmas: Seven Things I Wish My EMR Could Do

By HANS DUVEFELT, MD Dear Santa, I’ve been a very good doctor all year. I have checked all my boxes and aced all my Meaningful Use requirements. This year, I’m not asking you for anything fancy. I just thought you might be able to instill some kindness...

Published Sat, Dec 19 2015 2:45 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Hans Duvefelt

The little agency that could

By LEAH BINDER In the children’s book The Little Engine That Could, a little blue engine hauls an improbably large trainload of toys and candy over a mountain while chanting, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” The Labor Department named this...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2015 1:08 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Leah Binder

The Quest For Zero Infections: A Fool’s Mission?

By ANISH KOKA, MD Joyce is sick. I am in the intensive care unit, peering at vital parameters that glow on the screen above her bed. My eyes linger on those numbers because it is easier than looking at her. A fever rages, her core temperature reads 103...

Published Sun, Dec 27 2015 6:31 PM by THCB

Filed under: Uncategorized

How Should Errors In the Patient Medical Record Be Addressed?

By PETER ELIAS, MD This summer an article in USA Today talked about Regina Holliday’s efforts to make the medical record more easily and promptly available to patients so it becomes as a tool patients use as they engage in co-managing their own care....

Published Wed, Dec 30 2015 3:47 PM by THCB

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Healthcare Link in the San Bernardino Shootings

By JOE FLOWER Another day, another mass shooting. At this point the news reports say nearly 30 down, 14 or more dead, multiple perps, at a banquet for the San Bernardino, California, Department of Public Health. And instantly the argument is all about...

Published Wed, Dec 02 2015 3:03 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Joe Flower

What’s Missing in the Debate Over Employer Wellness Programs

By SUSAN DENTZER By now, Americans are no doubt getting used to debates that put show over substance and skirt the genuinely profound issues the nation faces. But although we may have come to expect as much in this political season, we deserve better...

Published Fri, Dec 04 2015 10:23 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Susan Dentzer

What Would Issac Asimov Do?

By PAUL LEVY The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story “Runaround“, although they had been foreshadowed in a few earlier stories. The...

Published Tue, Dec 08 2015 10:36 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Paul Levy

Uberizing Health, Data is the Vehicle and a Right

By LEONARD KISH No, there is no Uber of healthcare, even as everyone claims to be or wants to be the Uber of healthcare. Others rail against it. Part of it is that an Uber for healthcare sounds great! The sharing economy! But what is it? What would it...

Published Thu, Dec 10 2015 8:55 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Leonard Kish