The Health Care Blog

How to Blow the Big One: A Methodology

By JOE FLOWER [Note to the reader: Anything that is in italics and square brackets (such as this note) is addressed to you, personally. Yes, you. Try it on, see if it fits.] Healthcare has, right now, the greatest opportunity we have seen in our lifetimes...

Published Sat, May 21 2011 5:54 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Joe Flower, Healthcare system, Methodology

The Fall and Rise of Asynchronicity

By PAUL LEVY The daughter of a friend was bemoaning poor connectivity of the internet at a university in Europe. She said, “It’s vital since I don’t have any other method of communication.”My friend noted, “I was telling...

Published Sat, May 21 2011 5:20 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Paul Levy, Email, BlackBerry

Health 2.0 Pavilion @ Maker Faire Bay Area THIS WEEKEND

By MATTHEW HOLT Maker Faire Bay Area is the worlds biggest DIY and tinkerers festival–at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds (about 20 mins south of San Francisco). I’ve heard it called a cross between the Home Depot & Burning Man. And this...

Published Sat, May 21 2011 10:45 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health 2.0

My Own Story of ALS

By AL LEWIS I would like to introduce our newest regular contributor, Al Lewis. Some of you might recall him from his guest-postings, sometimes offensive, usually controversial but always based on both fifth-grade arithmetic and principles of economics...

Published Fri, May 20 2011 1:09 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Al Lewis, Caregiving, ALS

High costs cut drug use…and not in a good way

This pretty interesting study from Avalere Health confirms what several others have shown. If you add a user fee to any medical procedure people use less of it. And of course their decision to use it less is not based on whether it’s medically necessary...

Published Fri, May 20 2011 12:48 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Matthew Holt, pharmaceuticals, micro

One clue to why health care costs are so high? Docs don’t know what things cost

By DAVID WILLIAMS I often hear from hospitals that they’re being squeezed greatly on cost and not getting paid enough by government and private payers. I have some sympathy for this argument, but on the other hand somehow this country outspends every...

Published Thu, May 19 2011 12:09 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

Much More Reform Needed for Medicare?

By ROGER COLLIER This week’s startlingly gloomy annual report from the Trustees of the Medicare Trust Funds lent new urgency to the need for further Medicare expenditure reforms. Whether Washington DC politicians will respond with more than sound bites...

Published Thu, May 19 2011 10:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Roger Collier, Medicare Reform, Medicare trust fund

The System Firsthand

By BRAD FLANSBAUM, DO Grandma is 93. The matriarch of my family is in worsening health, and her decline is difficult to observe. We all experience the travails of the US health care system at some point, and in my family’s case, ours is no exception....

Published Thu, May 19 2011 10:09 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Geriatric, BOOST, Brad Flansbaum, Relocation trauma

Talking uninsurance with Phil Lebherz

Phil Lebherz is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Health Coverage Education, which has as its mission the goals of educating uninsured people about their options to get insurance. Phil is also the Founder and Chairman of LISI, a company that...

Published Thu, May 19 2011 1:33 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Matthew Holt, Health Plans, Medicaid, health care reform, Uninsured, Foundation for Health Coverage Education

When It Comes to Patient Safety, Caution Isn’t a Four-letter Word

By JORGO CHATZIMARKAKIS Around the world and now in the United States, there is a broadening discussion of how best to proceed down the path of approving and getting to market medicines called biosimilars. Biosimilars are non-identical copies of next...

Published Wed, May 18 2011 2:59 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Op-Ed, Patient Safety, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Biosimilar drugs

Maybe there really is mobile health after all

OK, I’m kidding–but Ford Motor Co is excited enough about its new collaboration with WellDoc that it wanted to fly me to Detroit to take a look at it. (I declined–perhaps they should move their headquarters to San Tropez). Welldoc is...

Published Wed, May 18 2011 2:36 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, micro

A New Cost Control Idea – Paying For Outcomes

By JOHN E. MCDONOUGH When it comes to reducing or controlling rising health care costs, we face a problem called “the fierce urgency of NOW.” We have learned from the Medicare and Medicaid budget proposals by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that Republicans...

Published Tue, May 17 2011 9:32 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Medicare, Medicaid, Superhealthanomics, John McDonough, P4O, Paying for Outcomes

Fact-checking Medical Claims

By BRIAN MOSSOP In 2007/08, the work of Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler revealed that human behaviors, and even states of mind, tracked through social networks much like infectious disease. Or put another way, both obesity and happiness worm their...

Published Tue, May 17 2011 6:41 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: The Insider's Guide to Health Care, Review articles, Medical facts, Brian Mossop, Fact checking

It’s All Going According to Plan

By JONATHAN HALVORSON Most people regard health care reform in America as thoroughly bungled. The proverbial train left the station weak and wheezing, was pushed off the rails by hooligans and is about to crumple in an inglorious heap in the ditch. Only...

Published Tue, May 17 2011 8:24 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, PPACA, Universal coverage, Healthcare spending, Jonathan Halvorson

Single Payer Health: It’s Only Fair

By SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS The United States is the only major nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care as a right to its people. Meanwhile, we spend about twice as much per capita on health care and, in a wide number of instances...

Published Tue, May 17 2011 8:20 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, health care reform, Single payer, American Health Security Act, Bernie Sanders

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