The Health Care Blog

POLICY: A roadmap for reform by Maggie Mahar

Maggie Mahar is an award winning journalist and author. A frequent contributor to THCB, her work has appeared in the New York Times, Barron's and Institutional Investor. She is the author of Money-Driven medicine: The Real Reason Why healthcare costs...

THCB Reader mail

Journalist Maggie Mahar, the author of "Money-Driven Medicine" and a frequent contributor here at THCB, begs to differ with Matthew's lukewarm review of Sicko. (Theme: "Will Sicko Hurt more than it helps?") She emailed in to say: "I think that...

PHARMA: HealthDot Pharma Report 04

The ScribeMedia guys bring you the HealthDot Pharma Report 04. Unusual and perhaps the future? UPDATE: Link fixed.

QUALITY: Back surgery request

A great friend of mine is looking for back surgery information. As we know this is one area where not much is know about what works. Any ideas? If so please comment: I've been dealing with a couple of herniated...

JOB POST: Practice Leader, Knowledge Services

Kaiser Permanente's Care Management Institute (CMI) is a unique, pioneering institution with a mandate to drive, fund, and catalyze care management activities throughout our non-profit HMO. CMI strives "to make the right thing easier to do. The Center for Health...

POLICY: Orszag makes the CBO get religion

Somehow last week in the midst of one of the busiest working months of my life I managed to squeeze in a little time with Peter Orszag who’s the new-ish Director of the Congressional Budget Office. Or as he called...

POLICY: We want Moore...or something like that

John Cohn on Michael Moore--Fan-fucking-tastic. It's called “Will Michael Moore's Sicko help or hurt the universal health care movement?” Go read it. Ezra Klein takes the wider view on Moore's attack on American exceptionalism, equally worth it. As for me,...

POLICY: Why isn't more being done about ASD? By John Whitmer

One in 150 children is diagnosed today with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). ASD is a neurological and immune deficiency disorder that affects people’s behavior, communication, and socialization. ASD is genetic—in other words, children are born with ASD. It is passed-down...

PHARMA/PHYSICIANS/HOSPITALS/QUALITY: Busy busy busy

My correspondents have sent me lots of articles today. All worth a read— When Is a Pain Doctor a Drug Pusher? Basically never as far as I can tell but in the DEA’s view any time the DEA feels that...

PODCAST/TECH: Interview with Isabel's Joseph Britto and Jason MaudE

Over at the Worldhealthcareblog I have a video interview up with Joseph Britto and Jason Maude, the joint CEOs at Isabel Healthcare. Isabel is a very interesting company that uses natural language recognition to search clinical texts in order to...

HOSPITALS/POLICY: King-Drew and the wider issues of care for the poor

It looks like it might be the end for King Drew, or as it's known now, King–Harbor. Some of the LA board of supervisors are in favor of closing the hospital immediately, and yesterday the State of California initiated proceedings...

HEALTH2.0: User Generated Healthcare UPDATE

We're pleased to announce that Allscripts president Lee Shaprio will be joining the lineup at Health 2.0 San Francisco. Lee will be participating in the "Health 2.0: Looking ahead" panel along with EdVenture Holding's Esther Dyson, RevolutionHealth's Jay Silverstein, RelayHealth's...

JOB POST: Help Wanted, Intrepid Physician Needed

Who would like to join a Norman Rockwell inspired, old-fashioned New Hampshire General Practice, and put some grace in their life? The Last privately owned and operated General Practice in all of Strafford County New Hampshire seeks a young(er) associate...

PHYSICIANS: A "black box" for docs by John Irvine

OB-GYN Dr. Gil Mileikowsky was forced from his position at Encino Medical Center in Los Angeles after he testified in a 2003 case involving a medical mistake at the hospital. A day after confirming in court that doctors in his...

TECH/CONSUMERS: Perspectives on the Future of Personal Health Records

I am embarrassed to say that I have yet to read the CHCF report on Perspectives on the Future of Personal Health Records . But this is a reminder to myself to do it soon! (And no, I'm not bitter--honestly--that...

PHYSICIANS/PHARMA: Klepper on oncology

Brian Klepper has an excellent piece on the mess in oncology called The cognitive dissonance of conflicted care (over at Pat Salber's blog The Doctor Weighs In).

BLOGS: Healthcare blog 100

So a couple of people have pointed me to the Healthcare 100. I was amused elated to find that I am #8. Actually it's not really a health care blog list, it's a health care and medical blog list. And...

JOB POST: Data analyst - IPRO

IPRO, one of the leading health care quality improvement organizations in the United States, is seeking a talented, motivated individual to bolster our health informatics analysis in the production of Web-based health care report cards. The position is part-time (22.5...

HEALTH2.0/TECH: Another Health2.0 aquisition--Healia snapped up by magazine & publishing giant

Healia, one of the leading new health care vertical search engines, despite being an early stage start-up, has already attracted the attention of the big boys. And one of them, Meredith the publisher of lots of female-aimed magazines, decided that...

POLICY: Eye-candy, Channel swimming and care for the uninsured.

This kid (young man’s name is John Heineman) is swimming the English channel to raise money for a free clinic in Iowa. His aunt wrote to me pointing it out, and he certainly sounds like a very interesting and incredibly...

INTERNATIONAL/POLICY: Good summary article

Nothing new for you wonks, but there’s a good summary article by Susan Brink in the LA Times today about the international comparison stuff. It’s called Care in need of a cure.

PHYSICIANS/HEALTH2.0: Sermo AMA interview

This is the transcript of my interview last month with Sermo’s Daniel Palestrant on the announcement of the deal between Sermo and the AMA Matthew Holt: This is Matthew Holt with The Health Care Blog and a quick impromptu podcast...

PHARMA/POLICY: Crackpots at Hoover

The NY Times gives an op-ed to a crackpot called Henry Miller who used to be a minor official at FDA and is now with the other loonies at Hoover. It’s called Crackpot Legislation in which he goes after those...

HEALTH PLANS/POLICY: Quinn rips Weintraub

Dan Weintraub who’s an interesting (and rare) right-wing journalist working in health care wrote a pretty dumb opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee last week saying that regulating health insurers was the wrong idea and wouldn’t work—because of course most...

Health 2.0: Priming the pump- Jump starting health care consumerism By Scott Shreeve MD

Scott Shreeve co-founded MedSphere, the Southern Californian open source distributor of the VistA EHR. His latest effort is Crossover Healthcare. Scott has been tracking recent developments in the consumer driven health plan sector. Today he shares his take on a...

HEALTH2.0/CONSUMERS/TECH: Patient groups online are a source and a force

We know that patients have been organizing online and Laura Landro (who's been there herself) confirms it in a fascinating article. Go read it. Of course this is making some people nervous. Of course, the rush to link communities and...

PHARMA: Two interesting articles on Avandia

Both from Pat Salber’s blog. One on “How did we get into this mess” by Dov Michaeli and the other by Pat herself, called Truth and Consequences.

POLICY/HEALTH PLANS: More communism at the Wall Street Journal

More radical Bolshevism at the Wall Street Journal. Venessa Furhmans is now saying that Health Savings Plans (are) Start(ing) to Falter. How dare she! She’s going to get it when Rupert takes over! On the other hand, just dumping people...

THCB: Tech section with UPDATE

Over the next few weeks or so you’ll see some changes at THCB. Most importantly, we’ll be launching the Tech Section, a new area of the site specifically focused on healthcare and technology. Stories on healthcare, technology and IT subjects...

BLOGS: Health Wonk Review

Health Wonk Review up at Health Business Blog.

PODCAST/TECH: HEALTH2.0/TECH/PODCAST: Interview with Venky Harinarayan, Founder Kosmix

Here's this week's interview is with Venky Harinarayan, Founder and (unofficial) CEO at Kosmix. Kosmix wants its new RightHealth site to be the "unofficial home page for health". He'll tell you about categories and "broad" searching, the intricacies of the...

QUALITY/POLICYThe NY Times has licked its sore all better!

The New York Times is suddenly acting like Alain Enthoven and Jack Wennberg have taken over its health care reporting! This is the third article saying sensible things about the health care system in less than a week! Today, following...

POLICY: Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog

I am supposed to be (but for reasons of schedule and health—I'll explain later—failing to be) one of the participants in the Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog. But there are lots of great entries there and currently there is Live Blogging...

POLICY: Jonathan Cohn, on film and in the studio

Up at WorldHealthCareBlog (eventually after some production delays) is the interview I did back in April with Jonathan Cohn, author of Sick.. That's Sick the book as oppsed to the remarkably similar I guess (as I havent seen it yet)...

PODCAST/TECH: Interview with Luis Machuca, CEO Kryptiq

We had Luis Machuca CEO of Kryptiq on a podcast from WHCC talking about his company's health plan earlier in May. But he didn't get to talk much about his company's business or technology. This interview rectifies that, and it's...

THCB Reader mail

The news that former Bush administration Health IT czar David Brailer will head a private equity fund backed by $700 million from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPers) drew a cynical response from a number of readers. Vijay Goel...

HEALTH2.0: Knowledge Prostitution

The powerhouse that is Scott Shreeve, not content with jetting around the US, looking after his newest (and 4th) kid and filling my inbox with amazing stuff, is having a go at prostitutes by comparing them to doctors! Personally I’ve...

POLICY: And just in case you thought things were getting better

The answer is not much. Aon surveyed more than 70 leading healthcare insurers and found that healthcare costs are projected to increase by 10.9 percent for HMOs, 10.8 percent for POS plans, 11.2 percent for PPOs and 10.7 percent for...

POLICY: Wow!--sensible stories in the NY Times

Monday's NY Times had a sensible story about practice variation, essentially writing a guide to the Dartmouth Atlas. What's remarkable is that it's the second story about the topic in less than a week. David Leonhardt wrote a sensible one...

QUALITY/CONSUMERS: Spine site

Given the interest of many of you in back pain, this site looks pretty interesting. Spine-health.com.

POLICY: Uninsured in LA? Want to tell the BBC?

A BBC reporter called me looking for uninsured people in the Los Angeles area to tell their story. Is that you? Want to be a star on radio in the UK? You have to be in LA, but if you...

HEALTH2.0/TECH: Kosmix unveils new page

Kosmix has been known for having a number of search engine deals going with Revolution, Vimo and others. I spent a little time with the crew last week down in Mountain View, and will be interviewing Founder/CEO Venky Harinarayan later...

POLICY/TECH: AP exposes Gingrich, well sorta

The AP says that Newt's Center for Health Transformation is a front for companies that want him to promote their points of view and that he's doing it for the money. Well first this is not exactly news--and Newt has...

HEALTH2.0/TECH: PeerWisdom vs OrganizedWisdom

In the great Pacific Northwest, today's fun start-up is called PeerWisdom, which apparently has pulled down a quick $2m to build something in the patient communities space. They’re not alone of course, and even the articlethat "exposes" them (in an...

TECH/POLICY: Obama--looking to Neal Patterson for a contribution?

I was called by the LA Times for a comment on whether increasing access would increase cost. After giving my standard lament about how no one talks about the real underlying problem of practice variation and waste (or at least...

HOSPITALS: The best way to spend the money?

One THCB reader apparently was boring their partner about this, and seeing eyes glaze over got so steamed up they decided to write to THCB: I was at a health care board meeting last night (the organization involved must go...

HEALTH PLANS: Looks like Bill McGuire and UNH are not out of the woods yet

A class action suit against the backdating of options has been allowed to proceed. CalPERS is the pushing the suit and the judge (not the plaintiff’s attorney) compared McGuire’s behavior to that of the con-artists in “The Sting.”

TECH: Healthcare Informatics 100 is not very helpful

The Healthare Informatics 100 list of companies in Health IT is out. It’s fawned over with reverence by lots of companies on the list, and it even gets an encouraging nod from MrHISTalk—who’s usually a lot more sensible. Which is...

POLICY/POLITICS: Giuliani sorta has a health care plan

Great. So the fake hero who made millions out of talking tough has a fake health care plan. About as rational as Bush’s and very similar. Giuliani has blasted Hillary Rodham Clinton and the other two top Democratic contenders for...

POLICY: Wow, look who's returned from the grave (or at least the loony bin)

Besty McCaughey is back at the scene of her greatest triumph. I think she still believes that health care costs going through the roof since the mid-1990s is a good thing!