March 2016 - The Health Care Blog

What Healthcare Can Learn From Silicon Valley

By ED PARK As consumers, we expect that when we bank, our ATM card will work in any machine worldwide, dispensing the cash we need and sending the record back to our home financial institution. Similarly, we would be enraged if we bought a new MacBook...

Published Wed, Mar 16 2016 8:27 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB

Getting to the Patient Cloud and Guardian Angels

By DAN HOUSMAN It’s been an exciting 2016 already in the realm of cloud computing and patient engagement. As I was preparing for the HIMSS16 conference, I was reflecting on how things are moving so quickly with the addition of new technologies and yet...

Published Tue, Mar 01 2016 7:32 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Dan Housman, Featured, Cloud, Guardian Angels

Not Quite DOA: Why Reports of the Demise of the President’s Budget May be Exaggerated

By CECI CONNOLLY Anyone who has spent a few years in Washington knows the federal budget dance: President stands behind podium with a fancy seal and flags and unveils a giant tome. The next morning newspapers declare the tome DOA, Dead on Arrival. And...

Published Wed, Mar 02 2016 3:21 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Ceci Connolly, Featured

Quality v. Quantity

By MICHEL ACCAD, MD Impactful news today: Physicians, CMS and major commercial plans, announce simplification of quality measures. "Huge step forward" #aafp — Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) February 16, 2016 A few weeks ago, the medical community...

Published Fri, Mar 04 2016 10:19 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, MICHEL ACCAD

Empathy and Shame

JOHNATHON TOMLINSON, MD How we respond to patients who are feeling, or at risk of feeling shame can make or break a therapeutic relationship. This is about how I try to respond. Shame is a negative moral judgement about oneself. Unlike guilt or embarrassment...

Published Mon, Mar 07 2016 3:16 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Featured

The Trump Healthcare Interview: Part 2

By IAN MORRISON Donald Trump is leading the Republican delegate count and has the best chance of becoming the Republican nominee and, just maybe, even President. In February, we at THCB asked Scottish-Canadian-Californian healthcare futurist Ian Morrison...

Published Thu, Mar 10 2016 8:59 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Donald Trump, Ian Morrison, election 2016, 2016 Election

Troubles at Amazon?

By INDUSTRY STANDARD An internal memo at Amazon is circulating around. It is a bad news message to its part-time workers stating that their health coverage is being cancelled. Whether the note is authentic or not I do not know, so I will not reproduce...

Published Sat, Mar 12 2016 2:31 PM by THCB

Filed under: Uncategorized, Amazon, Benefits, Featured, Tom Emerick

PCMH Fails Natural Experiment

By AL LEWIS Medical Homes Fail Yet Another “Natural Experiment” Three “natural experiments,” three failures. Such is the fate of patient-centered medical homes (PCMH), a well-intentioned but unsuccessful innovation now kept afloat by the interaction of...

Published Mon, Mar 14 2016 9:15 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Featured

The 5 Stages of EMR Acceptance (With Apologies to Kubler-Ross)

By FRANK MEISSNER DENIAL I can’t believe they are making me use this system! Read More...

Published Tue, Mar 15 2016 9:10 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Uncategorized, Featured

Rethinking How U.S. Healthcare Policy Approaches the Mouth

By MARKO VUJICIC, MD Dental care has traditionally been financed and delivered separately from medical care. This is despite the Surgeon General’s report in 2000 that emphasizes the importance of oral health to whole body health. Now, new data show the...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2016 9:19 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Featured, Marko Vujicic

Building Virtual Kaisers; Transcending Healthcare’s Tower of Babel

By GARY MENDOZA Twenty years ago this month, California created an organizational architecture for integrated delivery systems taking global capitation—the restricted Knox-Keene (RKK) license. At its creation, I envisioned the RKK as a pathway to virtual...

Published Tue, Mar 01 2016 12:55 PM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Featured, Gary Mendoza

The Meme-ifcation of Health Care

By YEVGENIY FEYMAN Why can’t we have nice things? As a self-anointed health policy wonk, I find myself asking this question many times. It seems that every potentially transformative (to use a tired cliché) health care trend must eventually go through...

Published Thu, Mar 03 2016 4:54 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB

More on MACRA, Interoperability and the Post-Meaningful Use World

By ANDY SLAVITT THCB is pleased to feature acting CMS director Andy Slavitt’s comments during a panel appearance at this week’s HIMSS conference. We encourage you to read them closely and with an open mind and add your own thoughts on the...

Published Fri, Mar 04 2016 11:52 AM by THCB

Filed under: Uncategorized

Optimistic Skepticism About the Future of Consumer Healthcare

By GABRIEL GONG-LEI LU Healthcare options are changing dramatically. Technological and market developments give people the power to take control of their own health and wellness, now more than ever before. Companies are constantly creating new consumer...

Published Tue, Mar 08 2016 8:11 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Op-Ed, Uncategorized, Featured

Cancer and Moonshot Economics

By STEVE FINDLAY The Obama Administration’s cancer “moonshot” initiative, announced in January and now being debated in Congress, comes at a time of significant advances in cancer treatment and a spurt of cultural attention to the disease. A batch of...

Published Fri, Mar 11 2016 8:37 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, Precision Medicine Initiative