The Health Care Blog

PODCAST/CONSUMERS/TECH: Interview with Joseph Kvedar, Partners' Connected Health guru

Joseph Kvedar wrote a piece for THCB a couple of weeks back on Connected Health and its potential. As I'm in Boston I dropped in on him in his office at the center of the world's greatest collection of medical...

TECH/HEALTH PLANS: Interview/Podcast with Mark Ganz, CEO Regence and Luis Machuca, CEO Kryptiq

This is the transcript from an interview I did at WHCC last week with Mark Ganz, the CEO of Regence, the Oregon based Blues plan that operates in the Pacfic Northwest, and Luis Machuca, the CEO of Portland-based health IT...

TECH/POLICY: Boston Friday dog blogging

This week I've been in Washington DC at the World Health Care Congress and I've talked to a lot of people--some on and some off the record. Much of that of course has been available at WorldHealthCareBlog, and some smattering...

POLICY: How will you get paid? By Paul Levy

Paul Levy is the President and CEO of Beth Israel Deconess Medical Center in Boston. Paul recently became the focus of much media attention when he decided to publish infection rates at his hospital, despite the fact that under Massachusetts...

INTERNATIONAL: Rationing American style

I don't approve of health care by anecdote, but there are plenty of loonies on the Canada bashing right who do. And some of them make movies to prove their point. I also think that taking individual stories out of...

PHARMA: Fard on Pharma-Non-Profit Cause Alliances

Fard Johnmar at Envision Solutions has another report out. This one is about the public’s view of disease specific non-profits, such as the American Diabetes, Heart, Cancer, et al Associations/Societies and their alliances with drug companies. Neither side looks too...

THCB: Email problems

My hosting company’s site was hacked yesterday. While they fix it I can't get email. If you need to find me try matthewseparate AT gmail.com

JOB POST: Policy Analyst/Organizer – Healthcare for All

Come help lead the fight for health care for all! The Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) and the Institute for America’s Future (IAF) seek a policy analyst/organizer to work on our campaign for universal healthcare. This person should have experience...

POLICY: Ezra Klein's The Health of Nations

Now I’ve met Ezra I can stop calling him the young punk. He has written another excellent review of health care in universal coverage nations, including socialized medicine in the heart of America for our allegedly most treasured citizens. It’s...

TECH/THCB: Health2.0 Conference, September 20th, San Francisco

I am delighted to tell you all about a brand new conference that THCB is putting on with Etude Scientific , in conjunction with the World Health Care Congress. It’s a conference and report called Health2.0: User-Generated Healthcare. The conference...

TECH: Justen Deal rehashed in the WSJ

In an article called The Email Kid Takes On HMO's Corner Office the WSJ has a rehash in some decent historical perspective of the Justen Deal—Healthconnect issue. I get a minor billing as the venue for Andy Wiesenthal’s podcast. For...

PODCAST/TECH: Interview with Chris Hobson, Orion Health

Last week THCB picked up a new sponsor, as evidenced by the banner to the right. Orion Health provides messaging, interoperability and clinical work-flow solutions. So I thought that it might not be a bad idea to interview Orion to...

POLICY: Introducing CalHealthReform.org by Marian Mulkey

Marian Mulkey is a Senior Program Officer with the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF). CHCF is an independent, nonpartisan health care philanthropy whose work focuses on improving health care in California by promoting innovation in care and access to information, so...

POLICY: Is Michael Porter getting better?

Well he did mention incentives, even though me and one of the smartest guys I know (Kim Slocum) both agreed that the evidence that he was seeing of lots of activity moving to his models, was largely fictional. What am...

TECH: Interview/Podcast with Peter Neupert, Microsoft

Next couple of days, lots of me over at the WHCC blog. For a start here's the Interview/Podcast with Peter Neupert, Microsoft.

BLOGS/POLICY: WorldHealthCareBlog

I'm in DC at the World Health Care Congress where I’m writing about speakers like George Halvorson from KP talking about health care reform (he’s right but wrong) and Tadataka Yamada from the Gates Foundation talking about health in the...

POLICY: Criticizing Jonathan Cohn

OK, it's official. All this congratulatory fawing over Jonathan Cohn and his book Sick is getting to me, and I have a real criticism about him. And it's the topic of my column over at Spot-on today--Jonathan Cohn is Way...

BLOGS/PODCASTS: Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director CDC & Peter Neupert, Microsoft

As you may (or may not) know I’m in a gaggle of bloggers who are posting at the World Health Care Blog—which has been set up surrounding the World Health Care Congress. Yesterday I did two podcasts to whet people’s...

TECH/PHYSICIANS: The real state of play in eRx, by Jonathan Pearlstein

The very careful reader will have noted that I met a very smart (and, to a rapidly becoming old fogey like me, disturbingly young!) THCB reader, Jonathan Pearlstein at HIMSS. Jon works for the academic survey firm NORC and has...

BLOGS: HWR up at Healthcare Economist

Health Wonk Review — Up and unbiased at the Healthcare Economist.

TECH/CONSUMERS: Quality, Cost and Connected Health by Joseph Kvedar

Joseph C. Kvedar, MD is the Director of the Center for Connected Health at Partners Healthcare System in Boston. Given that so many organizations are talking about Connected Health in one flavor or another, I thought it might be interesting...

Health Plans: Pulitzer for WSJ by John Irvine

The Wall Street Journal wins a Pulitzer Prize for public service reporting for the critical series it ran on irregularities in the way stock options are awarded at some American companies. The investigation triggered a backdating scandal implicating executives at...

THCB Sponsorship announcement

I am delighted to announce that THCB is partnering with Silverlink, the automated interactive voice solutions company based in Burlington, Mass. Silverlink is now a platinum sponsor. I did a podcast with CEO Stan Nowak a few weeks ago that's...

TECH: Health 2.0 article

This article in Government Health IT by Brian Robertson is a reasonably good description of the basics behind Health care 2.0. It doesn’t really feature much in the way of actual Health2.0 players other than Revolutions, but it does interview...

TECH: AHRQ on eRx

The AHRQ’s report on its monitored eRx pilots is out. Here are the findings that I’ve extracted from their slightly longer list in the exec sum. In addition to testing the functionality of e-prescribing standards, pilot sites tracked various outcomes...

POLICY: Blue Shield dumps the realtors whereas Blue Cross dumps on Arnie

And in the kicking butt and taking names department (more great work from Lisa Girion on this), California’s big non-profit Blues plan manages to wriggle out of insuring one unprofitable group — Realtors . Whereas Wellpoint, the parent of California’s...

POLICY: Gratzer vs Cohn at TNR

The New Republic turned over its column to David Gratzer yesterday and today Jonathan Cohn responds. All good stuff, even if Jon yet again misses out on laying down the financial consequences of being poor and sick here. And he...

POLICY/POLITICS: Pat Salber on gun laws

In the wake of yesterday's massacre in Virginia, here's Pat Salber about the gun massacre on campus. We need to empower and fund reputable organizations to perform the research on violence and violence prevention. (It has effectively disappeared from the...

TECH/PHYSICIANS: Sermo starting to kick-butt and take names

Sermo, the physician community site, seems to really be on a roll. I can now tell you what CEO Daniel Palestrand told me a few weeks back. 1) They've got 10,000 physicians registered--and there's a lot of use on the...

TECH: Things hotting up as Revolution's official launch coming up

The prospect of Revolution Health's official launch (it's actually up already but is relaunching this Thursday) has generated favorable press in the NY Times for Steve Case and crew. Milt Freudenheim's done his homework, mostly. He essentially says that the...

POLICY: Crazy Canadian-haters

I got a hysterical email the other day from someone asking my help in making a movie to castigate Canadian health care. Why? Well they're Scared Sicko.

BLOGS: Health care blogs & extremely modest fame

This article in Federal Computer Week says that health care blogs are no blip--or at least that's what I told them.

POLICY: My last word at TPM--competition within social insurance

So the book club at TPM is drawing to a close. Here’s my first piece trying to explain that social insurance whether voucher/competition-based or fee-schedule-based is pretty similar compared to what we have now. In fact it’s a Distinction without...

THCB Sponsorship announcement

I'm pleased to announce that THCB has lined up a number of long term sponsorship deals this week. We've signed CDW-Healthcare up as a silver sponsor, in a deal which sees them sponsor the site for the next year. If...

POLICY: HSAs--The master speaks

Uwe skewers the HSA as a regressive tax shelter that impacts only the poor over at Health Affairs Blog. This time the cracks are at Bloomberg readers rather than certain crank health policy shops in Dallas, TX but it’s still...

PODCAST/PHYSICIANS/QUALITY: Interview with David Seligman, CEO of Best Doctors

Here’s the transcript of the interview earlier this week with David Seligman, CEO of Best Doctors. Pretty interesting especially for those of you thinking about how to improve health care quality on a national and perhaps nationally branded level. (By...

POLICY: Go read Maggie Mahar at TPMcafe

The TPM Cafe Book Club debate about Sick goes on. This piece from Maggie Mahar is great, and not just because she quotes me twice (although that doesn't hurt!) -- Why Real Reform is Necessary--and Politically Possible. Go read!

POLICY: And while it's Jon Cohn week....Health Care Like The Europeans Do It

Here's his New Republic piece called Health Care Like The Europeans Do It republished on CBS news. Personally I think that he gives the American system too easy a ride, even though Ezra beats up the Cato boys on this...

POLICY: Bickering about Sick

OK. The bickering about Jon Cohn's new book Sick has started over at TPMCafe Book Club. Lots of interesting stuff including one from moi.

TECH: Getting the eRx Plumbing Right Is Hard Work

I'm at Digital Healthcare & Productivity talking about the real progress being made (or not) in fixing the infrastructure needed for ePrescribing. It’s called Getting the eRx Plumbing Right Is Hard Work.

TECH: Baffling press releases #397

This is why no one understands technology. I've interviewed the CEO of Click4Care Dave Blauer a while back and he managed to explain his business well enough. But honestly--read this press release and try to figure out who between these...

TECH/CONSUMERS: JSK on banks moving into health care

Banks Morph Into Health IT Engines. Go read.

TECH: #1 health care blogger gets on Apple's case

Amy Tenderich has written An Open Letter to Steve Jobs. She wants the God of Silicon valley cool to get into the design of medical devices so that her insulin pump comes in pretty colors, just like the iPod. Well...

POLICY/HEALTH PLANS: I used to think the WSJ was good

I used to think that the WSJ had good health care reporting (if not the best). But it looks like its reporting may be heading the way of its editorial page. In an article called High Deductible Policies Offer Savings...

POLICY: Sick, the book by Jonathan Cohn

Jonathan Cohn’s book Sick is out today. The early version of some of the chapters I read was fabulous, and I’m really looking forward to reading the whole thing. If you want to buy it follow this link and click...

PODCAST/PHYSICIANS/QUALITY: Interview with David Seligman, CEO of Best Doctors

This is an interesting podcast (well aren't they all?). I interviewed the CEO of Best Doctors, David Seligman, about his network of second opinion providers and a whole lot more. They're having quite a bit of success selling the service,...

BLOGS/CONSUMERS: Amy, #1, stars at Medscape

Amy Tenderich, #1 health care blogger, stars over at Medscape in Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes: An Expert Interview,

JOB POST: Passionate about changing health care?

We’re looking for curious and innovative people to join our team of scientists, modelers, behavioralists, people without titles, and visualization experts to create new innovations in consumer health. We’re fusing knowledge from engineering, clinical, behavioral and economic disciplines to build...

POLICY: Insurance--Huh! What is it good for? (to the tune of "War")

I like Michael Cannon a lot, but I fear his (and Michael Tanners’s) book (unlike fellow Cato-ite Arnold Kling’s) was very, very weak on dealing with the problems of actually sick people. It devoted a whole three lines to the...

TECH/PODCAST: RHIOs, physician messaging et al--the word from Axolotl's Ray Scott

Here's the transcript of last weeks podcast with Axolotl's CEO Ray Scott. Essential stuff if you care about health data and information exchange--which for some reason some people seem to think is important! Matthew Holt: It's Matthew Holt. I'm back...