The Health Care Blog

CHARITY: Hurricane donations

I don't feel like doing much today other than feeling lucky that I don't live in New Orleans and donating to the Red Cross. Please feel free to follow this link and do the same.

POLICY: Getting transparency in benefit costs, by Eric Novack

After his first post on how to get doctors to provide care to uninsured patients, surgeon, talkshow host and THCB podcast star Eric Novack is back with a second installment. And believe it or not I completely agree with him....

BLOGS/PHARMA: John Mack on "ethical pharmaceutical marketing"

John Mack attributes one of my contributors words to me. So first some remedial education. When I say that this is The Industry Veteran's views on XYZ, and here are The Veteran's words, and I introduce that in an indented...

BLOGS: Grand Rounds at Healthy Concerns

Grand Rounds is up over at Healthy Concerns, Elisa Camahort's "healthcare from the consumer view" blog. And she picked two posts from THCB, so I feel very special!

PHARMA: The Industry Veteran, on what the Vioxx verdict means

After too long an absence, The Industry Veteran is back to tell us what's really the problem going on in big Pharma. It's that short-term thinking has invaded its strategic marketing. I remeber being at a meeting in 1998 where...

PHARMA: Vioxx--can we usher in a grown-up era?

Every week I write a brief editorial for my FierceHealthcare newsletter (and if you haven't signed up yet, why not? It's free and daily). Today's was of course about last week's Vioxx jury verdict. I may be an optimist but...

INTERNATIONAL/PHYSICIANS: Canadian doctors going home means the US sucks, n'est-ce pas?

This one I find hilarious and gives me great deal of personal satisfaction. The pro-American health care system, "it's the finest on earth crowd" goes on and on about how terrible the Canadian system is and how all the doctors...

POLICY: Gladwell on Moral Hazard, with UPDATE

Go read Malcolm Gladwell on Moral Hazard in the New Yorker. Gladwell basically thinks that there's some moral imperative on the part of the political right to promote user fees at the point of care and that it's uniquely American....

POLICY: Klein on Gladwell on moral hazard

Ezra Klein beat me to a post on Malcolm Gladwell's piece on Moral Hazard in the New Yorker. I'll be back tomorrow to explain why if you cross-breed him with Jill Quadagno, you about get to the right answer. Go...

PHARMA: John Mack on Merck

In an email to the Pharma Marketing list-serv, John Mack said rather more eloquently what I was trying to say at the end of my most recent post: Another message that this jury sent was: Don't bury us in scientific/medical...

PHARMA: WSJ on how Merck lost

I know many of you don't have WSJ access, but the article this morning on how the Vioxx trial was run is really eye-opening. I'll re-quote liberally. First off, how important was all the science? Pretty key given that Ernst...

BLOGS: Another Podcast

This time I'm interviewed by Kent Bottles over at SoundPractice.net. I haven't heard this one yet, but I remember being somewhat loquacious! Let me know what you think. The MP3 is here

PHARMA: Merck gets PR makeover at opportune time?

You know that this is one of those things that's just an unfortunate coincidence, but the headline in my in-box says that "Merck Hires B-M to Rebuild Image". B-M is Burson-Marsteller, a huge PR agency and part of the WPP...

TECH: Open source EMRs -- how open is open? And will it matter?

cAt the most excellent HISTalk blog, there's an interview with Scott Shreeve, Medsphere Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer. Now MrHISTalk has once again got one up on THCB as when I was due to interview Scott (or was it his...

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PHARMA: Brutal news for Merck

The jury in the first Vioxx trial has found Merck liable for the death of the patient by arrhythmia. Merck had to fight this one as it didn't even seem to be the kind of heart disease that those people...

POLICY/PHYSICIANS: Is the Medicare reimbursement issue more serious this time?

This week things are starting to get a little serious regarding physicians' Medicare reimbursement. The AMA is gearing up for a fight, trying to avoid a scheduled 4.3% cut in Medicare reimbursement. Meanwhile a survey of California doctors suggested that...

THCB: Podcast question

Did anyone download the podcast into their MP3 player? If so did it download once or twice? (I'm trying to figure out if there's a slight problem in the code). Any other comments please let me know, before I launch...

THCB: The First Podcast--Erick Novack

Here is THCB's first podcast. You can listen to it here by clicking on this link -- Eric Novack interview, and telling it to "open" when it asks you. That should make the file play in your MP3 player of...

PHARMA/POLICY: Part D Sponsors Brace for Intense Competition for Seniors

And you thought that Medicare Part D was a big giveaway to the drug companies and PBMs.... Well this article in AISHealth.com's Managed Care Week suggests that Part D sponsors are gearing up for intense price competition to recruit seniors...

POLICY: Jill Quadagno on "A critical national competitiveness issue"

The Oxford University Press in the US has its own blog. Who knew? As a Cambridge man I shudder at promoting anything from the dark blue side of the British divide, but Jill Quadagno (who's book on why we don't...

POLICY/HEALTH PLANS: Stronger Rules Sought on Association Health Plans - Los Angeles Times

Following up the post about the Shadegg legislation which would allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, the other shoe dropping in the Congress is the approval of Association Health Plans -- legislation passed in the House and...

HEALTH PLANS: Fuzzy math from eHealthinsurance?

I'm having no luck getting a reply from eHealthInsurance.com (albeit I've approached them in a rather roundabaout route via their sponsored blogger!) about this study they put out last week. They claim that people buying high-deductible health plans from their...

BLOGS: Podcast coming

I had a very entertaining phone call over Skype with Eric Novack which I managed to record using my advanced technical skills....(i.e. don't expect too high a call quality!). This will become THCB's first podcast very soon -- in other...

POLICY: HSAs for Medicaid--cost-shifting to the poor by Theora Jones

Policy analyst Theora Jones has been a little quiet at THCB lately, but the news that South Carolina is going to be giving all its Medicaid recipients HSAs got her a little riled up. THCB recently pointed out that if...

POLICY: Review of One Nation Uninsured

And while we're making such a fuss about Jonathan Cohn this week, he has a book review out of One Nation Uninsured, by Jill Quadagno. Not having read (or even heard of) this book which is a history of why...

HOSPITALS: Consultant in hospital facility management needed

A colleague of mine needs someone to help in a consulting gig his organization is doing for a hospital facility management organization. They need someone who understands hospital facility management to guide them in figuring out what the key metrics...

POLICY: Crossing state lines with unaccompanied healthy people

The Kaiser Family Foundation reviews The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn's piece (now directly linked)about the Shadegg bill which would allow the purchase of health insurance across state lines. Here's their description of Jonathan's piece pulled verbatim: A bill (HR 2355)...

BLOGS/TECH: Quick appeal for tech savvy

This is a quick appeal to my more technically savvy friends about something that REALLY annoys me. Let's say I'm on a web site and I want it to open another page or save what it's done (e.g. if I'm...

TECH/THE INDUSTRY: Helppie sues ACS

After being booted from his baby Superior only 5 months after selling it to outsourcer ACS, Richard Helppie is claiming that he retired and that he's not even a little miffed. However, there's touchy feely niceness and then there's business....

PHYSICIANS: How to easily increase access to care, by Eric Novack

Eric Novack is an orthopedic surgeon who went to medical school in liberal San Francisco, but is now practicing in the red state of Arizona. Eric has been sparring with me and others in the comments on THCB, and also...

PHYSICIANS: Physician entrepreneurship

And in just one tiny example of physician entrepreneurship, the LA Times reports on a new bill to close a loophole in California Workers' Comp law. The Workers Comp problem is one of those perennial problems here in California, where...

INDUSTRY: What would you read?

So I got an email from a student asking for a basic primer on the US Healthcare system. He's at Northwestern, so I might recommend him Edward FX Hughes as a go to guy. But my two favorite books about...

POLICY/BLOGS: Interesting Mass. policy by Abby, and new blog

Promoted from the comments, regular contributor Abby writes an interesting piece about the movement in Massachusetts to get to universal insurance there via some kind of Medicaid expansion coupled with pay or play. Meanwhile definitely check out the blog written...

POLICY: While we're on the subject of Medicaid

Modern Physician reports that HHS is getting serious about cutting off those "accounting games" that enable states like New York (but by no means only New York) to get so much extra cash out of Medicaid. While this might be...

POLICY: Medicaid as the route to universal insurance?

During the Dolphin Group webinar I was presenting on today, I was asked if Medicaid would become a communal buying pool that would solve the unisurance problem. I rather fliply dismissed the idea, and Scott Tiazkun, healthcare analyst, IDC Research...

TECH: The Dolphin Group

This morning I'll be doing a webinar for The Dolphin Group which is a newly formed think-tank organization created by Jack Johnson, the CEO of health plan IT services company AboveHealth. The Dolphin Group is intended to provide health plan...

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS: Clinical trials corrupted by Wall Street

This is a doozy, and as it's in the second first newspaper of a minor major west coast city metropolis and world class cultural center (Sorry, Ichiro & Frasier fans! See the comments, but I stand corrected!) it hasn't quite...

POLICY: Where is that tipping point, by Brian Klepper

THCB regulars will appreciate the running conversation I've had over the months with Brian Klepper of the Center for Practical Health Reform about how fast things are getting how bad, (hint: he is more pessimistic than I am, but sees...

POLITICS: Debunking the Drug War

John Tierney has written an excellent article essentially agreeing with what I said on THCB yesterday -- only he gets to do it on the editorial pages of the New York Times. This one is about how addicted law enforcement...

POLITICS: Denny speaks, sort of

Who's Denny Hastert? He's my favorite politician. I regularly ask this question at parties, among college educated yuppies in San Francisco. Frequently NO ONE knows -- and I am not joking. Incidentally by my recollection of the constitution, he's number...

TECH/INDUSTRY: Top 10 Consultants

Modern Healthcare just printed a list of the Top 10 Consultants in health care. I was staggered to find that Matthew Holt Consulting was not on that list, but then I realized that it was top 10 by revenue rather...

POLICY: Debunking the latest drug epidemic

So it's now illegal to buy some OTC cold medications in Texas and Oregon because of the fear of methamphetamine abuse. I've had to report on this idiocy over at FierceHealthcare without commenting on how stupid it is, but here...

POLICY: Employees want health insurance, not pay rise

This week two studies confirmed that employment based health insurance, or the lack of it, is becoming a political issues. Harris Interactive's poll of employees shows that American workers continue to view health insurance as a crucial employee benefit. In...

TECH: And in today's weird story

Presumably so it can spin off its consumer and doctor web sites more easily, WebMD is changing its name to Emdeon. Say it out loud and then wonder why they didn't go the whole hog and call it NeonmDeon... May...

OFF-TOPIC: Bottled water is a bad waste of money

I have been saying that bottled water is a waste of money for years, yet now and again (for parties or convenience, etc) I buy it. This NY Times article lays out what a bad thing it is, and I...

PBMs: PBMs tell the truth while hiding the truth

On a day when Caremark's stock continues up into the stratosphere, and the earnings machines that are PBMs seem unstoppable even before they get their hands on all that lovely government money next year, a report came out yesterday about...

POLICY: Garamendi says California's health care system is falling apart

Hot on the heels of the question raised by Dave Reece yesterday about exactly how bad the shape we're in is, California insurance commissioner John Garamendi -- an unabashed liberal -- is out with a summary report detailing the effects...

POLICY: Unusal book review--Voices of health reform

Richard Reece is the Editor-in-Chief, Physician Practice Options, and he has written a book which mostly consists of interviews with a wide variety of observers and participants from across the health care system. You can order his book Voices of...

HOSPITALS: Specialty hospitals make you rich, but everyone else is doing OK

Really good article in the WSJ about specialty hospitals, featuring one surgeon in the thriving metropolis of Rapid City, South Dakota. The founder of Black Hills Surgery Center, a neurosurgeon called Larry Teuber, has made some $9m in selling off...