January 2019 - The Health Care Blog

AHA’s FutureScan Publication Available Now

Out this week is the AHA (or more precisely their SHSMD division’s) Futurescan publication. This year it’s edited by futurist Ian Morrison @seccurve and it features a bevvy of forecasting articles including one called “Flipping the Stack...

Published Fri, Jan 25 2019 9:20 AM by THCB

Filed under: Matthew Holt, Tech, Health Care Books, AHA

Has U.S. Health Care Spending Finally Stabilized? An Outlook for 2019

By ETIENNE DEFFARGES The official 2017 statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are out, and there are some good news: The annual growth rate of health care spending is slowing down, and is the lowest since 2013 at 3.9%...

Published Tue, Jan 22 2019 8:16 AM by THCB

Filed under: Medicare, Medicaid, Health insurance, Healthcare costs, Healthcare spending, Finance, Etienne Deffarges

The Future of the Affordable Care Act: Unscathed by Attacks from the Right, Overtaken on its Left?

By ETIENNE DEFFARGES Having survived years of attacks from Republicans at the federal level, will the surviving ACA be rendered obsolete by Democrats’ local and state efforts towards universal health care? This could be an ironic twist of fate for Obamacare...

Published Thu, Jan 24 2019 7:57 AM by THCB

Filed under: Politics, Obamacare, Affordable Care Act, Health policy, Etienne Deffarges

Commissioning Healthcare Policy: Hospital Readmission and Its Price Tag

By ANISH KOKA MD The message comes in over the office slack line at 1:05 pm. There are four patients in rooms, one new, 3 patients in the waiting room. Really, not an ideal time to deal with this particular message. “Kathy the home care nurse for Mrs...

Published Thu, Jan 10 2019 6:47 AM by THCB

Filed under: Medicare, Hospitals, Health policy, Anish Koka, HRRP, MedPAC, hospital readmissions

Net Effect of Expanding Medicaid

By SAURABH JHA MD What is the effect of expanding Medicaid on overall healthcare costs and use of the emergency room? This type of question can’t easily be answered by observational studies and requires a randomized controlled trial (RCT). But an...

Published Fri, Jan 11 2019 7:42 AM by THCB

Filed under: Medicaid, Health policy, Medicaid Expansion, Saurabh Jha, Radiology Firing Line Podcasts

Into America: The Odds Against a Foreign Trained Doctor

By SAURABH JHA MD In this episode of Firing Line, Saurabh Jha (aka @RogueRad), has a conversation with Chadi Nabhan, MD MBA FACP, who is a preeminent oncologist, speaker and the Chief Medical Officer of Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions. At the great...

Published Thu, Jan 03 2019 7:16 AM by THCB

Filed under: Physicians, Oncology, Saurabh Jha, Radiology Firing Line Podcasts, Radiology Firing Line, RogueRad, Cardinal Health, foreign trained doctors

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 66 | Ciitizen, Limelight Health, The Pill Club, and ADURO

On Episode 66 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I talk about money, money and more money. For one, Ciitizen, a health records company focusing on cancer patients, just closed a $17 million round. Limelight Health, which helps employers put together quotes...

Published Fri, Jan 25 2019 7:22 AM by THCB

Filed under: Matthew Holt, Limelight Health, Health Tech, Health in 2 Point 00, Jessica DaMassa, Medical Records, employee wellness, employee benefits, ADURO, The Pill Club, Ciitizen, health startups

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 67 | uBiome, Planned Parenthood and Lively

On Episode 67 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess is appalled at the CDC’s salmonella warning for hedgehogs. But in other news, Jess asks me about uBiome, which has raised over $100 million, laying off over 50 people; Planned Parenthood’s new chatbot that helps...

Published Wed, Jan 30 2019 8:26 AM by THCB

Filed under: Matthew Holt, Telehealth, Health Tech, Health in 2 Point 00, Jessica DaMassa, Sexual Health, hearing aids, chatbot, Planned Parenthood

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 64 | J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

Today, for the first episode of Health in 2 Point 00 of 2019, Jess and I are reporting from the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. In this episode, Jess asks me about the big news from the conference and whether there should be a second event in New York...

Published Sat, Jan 12 2019 12:10 PM by THCB

Filed under: Matthew Holt, Health in 2 Point 00, Jessica DaMassa, Livongo, J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference