The Health Care Blog

POLICY: Vic Fuchs speak--You listen

Just one article in a wonderful 25th Anniversary perspective for Health Affairs. From the greatest health economist of them all, What Are The Prospects For Enduring Comprehensive Health Care Reform?.

POLICY: David Gratzer, source of Rudy misinformation

My, my. We can't exactly be surprised that Rudy Giuliani is on the one hand telling yet more porky pies and on the other hand not contributing to the debate in health care—other than shouting “socialized medicine” as loudly as...

Why Consumers’ Checkbook v CMS is a Sideshow - Brian Klepper

There are people who call for market solutions as the answer to every societal problem, but who then work to restrict the information that markets (and societies) must have to function effectively. Often, the truth is that these supposed market...

BLOGS: Grand Rounds is up at Running A Hospital

Everyone’s favorite blogging hospital CEO Paul Levy hosts Grand Rounds at Running a hospital

HEALTH PLANS: Trading health plan stock rumors for fun & profit

Just when you thought stock action in health plans was all dull, along comes a little fun. Wellcare’s chart of course looks about as good as the average stock chart when the Feds raid. Whatever the company says, Wall Street...

Patients: Coordinated Physician Care Pilots - Paul Grundy MD, IBM

Dr. Paul Grundy helped organize the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative at IBM and serves at its Chair. IBM spends about $1.7 billion a year on healthcare for its employees and families, providing coverage for half a million people. The company...

Health 2.0 FAQ with UPDATE on Health 2.0 San Diego

Q. What is Health2.0 and why are we running conferences about it? The term Web2.0 has been around since 2003. The O'Reilly organization both coined the term and created a definition that year, and then they went on to create...

HEALTH2.0: Some new players, some very interesting technology

There's lots of activity in Health 2.0. So I thought I'd showcase a couple of new sites today... 1. A company that I've been closely involved with and (FD!) am an adviser to, Enhanced Medical Decisions, has now officially launched...

HEALTH PLANS: WellCare killing healthcare? With help?

There's been enough bad behavior in Medicare private health plans to go around, but some of the worst behavior has come from private FFS plans, and some of the worst behavior of all has come from WellCare, a Medicaid and...

INTERNATIONAL: Social cohesion in the UK includes aging rockers

protesting against hospital cuts

HEALTH 2.0 Connecting Consumers and Providers

It's official! The waiting is over. The follow-up to the first Health 2.0 conference has been scheduled. "Health 2.0 Connecting Consumers and Providers" will be held on March 4th, 2008 at the Westin San Diego. For details, visit the Health...

POLICY: Socialized fire departments & trading up

Michael Millenson’s excellent and biting piece on the willingness of Orange Country Republicans to accept socialized fire departments has provoked great response. But of course this being America, even the concept of us “all being in this together” for a...

QUALITY: Stents cannot be killed, well perhaps not

So in the latest of the stent wars a new study suggests that Medicare has been saving money as drug-eluting stents have replaced by-passes. This of course is music to the ears of J'n'J & Boston Scientific -- not to...

X2HN, Women's Executive Networking Conference

Want to go to a conference where there’s no chance that you have to meet Matthew? Gale Wilson-Steele (founder of MedSeek & CareSeek and one of my favorite people in healthcare) wrote to THCB about the conference that she co-founded...

PharmaSURVEYOR in a capsule By Erick Von Schweber

THCB frequently spotlights Health 2.0 startups that are using Web 2.0 technology in new and innovative ways to solve healthcare challenges. Today we feature Erick and Linda Von Schweber, the developers of a new web-based system that allows consumers to...

Fire Burns Away the Fog of Ideology: Can Humane Health Care Reform Rise from the Ashes? - Michael Millenson

THCB welcomes back our solid pal, the erudite Michael Millenson, for whom the sun doesn't shine if there's no wisecrack in the wings. Now leading a consulting firm specializing in health care quality projects, Michael is a former Chicago Trib...

HEALTH2.0: More doctor rating--this time it's Wellpoint & Zagats

So Zagats, which is the best known old world ratings guide in the restaurant business, is making a move into health care. And it's doing it with the biggest blues plan Wellpoint. So there’s likely to be quite a bit...

TECH: Fred Trotter--HealthVault: No privacy commitments

I’m at the Partners Connected Health conference. Yesterday’s entry got killed by an overheating crash—but having blown the dust out of my heatsink, hopefully my Gateway is OK now. Later today 5 cool Health2.0 companies are going to be showing...

Massachusetts Health Care Reform : The Canary in the Coal Mine By Maggie Mahar

Advocates for health care reform have been keeping an eye on Massachusetts, hopeful that its new health reform law will serve as a pilot program for the nation. I’m much less hopeful than I was two days ago. Yesterday I...

Food Porn: Hardees and the 920 Calorie Burrito - Pat Salber

Perhaps the folks over at Hardee's fast food haven't heard the country is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. They have just unveiled a new breakfast offering, the Country Breakfast burrito. It consists of a two egg omelet filled...

Esther Dyson on Health 2.0

I hadn't heard this quote from Esther Dyson describing Health 2.0 before. She puts it very well. What we heard today was to me something like the mobile phone system; it kind of snuck in quietly. It didn't say it...

HEALTH 2.0: Sssh. It's a secret!

Pre-registration for the next Health 2.0 conference is now open. The exact location and date for this March event must remain a closely-guarded state secret for now, but expect an official announcement from the Health 2.o team soon. September's conference...

Is BC/BS Practicing Medicine? By Gregory Paweleski

I've observed the incessant complaints on various cancer blogs and discussion boards about BC/BS "denial of coverage" on the backs of injured and diseased human beings during their fight with the great crab. In one case, the patient was denied...

HEALTH2.0: Vertical Search--The only way is up?

Forrester data in iHealthbeat: Seventy percent of online consumers surveyed said they have used a Web-based search engine to find health-related information, but just 7% of online consumers surveyed said they have used a health-specific search engine, according to a...

POLICY: Friday quiz--A tale of two professors

I’ve been told that I make “vicious ad hominem attacks” about people I disagree with on matters of substance. So I thought it would be fun to show what some other luminaries say. See if you can guess who wrote...

HEALTH PLANS: Health Plans Behaving Badly

I spent Monday lecturing a bunch of health plans about their bad behavior and how that had to change or they’d eventually be put out of business. So how might that not play out? Here’s my best guess up at...

BLOGS: HWR up at Healthcare Economist

Oops missed submitting! But at the Healthcare Economist Health Wonk Review is up.

Aspen Report 3 - Removing the Blinders: Dr. Kelman's Wonderful Contribution, Brian Klepper

One of the most fascinating and moving experiences at the Aspen Health Forum – Given the quality of the content there, this is saying something. The audience was rapt – was a talk by Neen Hunt, Executive Director of the...

PODCAST: Overtreated--Shannon Brownlee explains all

Overtreated is a marvelous new book by Shannon Brownlee. Shannon is a former US News & World Report health reporter, and now is a Fellow at the New America Foundation (that's the centrist third way Clintonite Dem one). In the...

TECH/HEALTH2.0: Marissa Mayer speaks Google Health

At Web2.0 Summit yesterday (no, Matthew isn't important enough to be invited to apply for a ticket, but I met a VC for lunch there so I knew it was happening!) Google's new (and presumably temporary) head of health care...

HOSPITALS: Why We Don‘t Have Enough Nurses (It's Not Low Wages) By Maggie Mahar

THCB contributor Maggie Mahar returns today with another of her insightful pieces on the business of healthcare. If you haven't yet done so, you are hereby commanded - yes, as in that's an order - you should go pick up...

HEALTH 2.0: Sermo CEO Daniel Palestrant

Monday's announcement that Sermo, the social networking site for doctors, is teaming up with Pfizer has left the company one of the most-talked about tech startups in the country. In this clip from September's Health 2.0 conference, Sermo CEO Daniel...

We Are What We Eat: Where Is America's Leadership? - Brian Klepper

One of the attributes of a great image is its ability to convey vast amounts of information and meaning quickly and simply. Here's a terrific example. In one of his typically astute comments, Barry Carol alerted us to a wonderfully...

What Obesity Really Costs - Brian Klepper

Any lingering doubts that America's cavalier attitude toward lousy food and obesity is draining the nation's health and economic vitality should have been laid to rest a couple weeks ago. Two important studies were released that quantified just how much...

TECH: CCR Training Workshop

The goal of the ASTM CCR Training Workshop is to give developers and programmers in Health2.0, as well as traditional health IT, a "deep dive" into the CCR standard, its schema, and current uses of the CCR for portability and...

Aspen Report 2 - Healing Unbound: The Promise of Advancing Computational Power, Brian Klepper

Laptop-attached ultrasound units that produce startlingly clear internal images for five dollars in the field. Organs that re-generate inside scaffolds. Drugs tailored to an individual’s biology. Micro-images of cancerous cells lit up by bio-chemical markers. Decision support tools that scan...

HEALTH2.0: Sermo, Pfizer: Big Pharma puts big toe in social networking waters

You can’t trust those Brits. I get a super exclusive on the Sermo-Pfizer deal and those damn Brits at the FT break the press embargo. So much for “honour” amongst journalists! This is the latest version of Big Pharma’s experiment...

BLOGS: Looking for a potential TV star?

I had a note from a producer at Discovery looking for someone aged 18-29, who was/is ill/injured while uninsured or on an inadequate plan. This person would need to be a Maryland resident and willing to share their story on...

Aspen Report 1 - A Rage To Know: A Few Days At The Aspen Health Forum, Brian Klepper

At one of the opening sessions of the Aspen Health Forum, Peter Agre and Michael Bishop, both physician researchers and Nobel laureates, recounted their childhoods, their families, their likes and dislikes, their school experiences, and the barriers, successes and lucky...

POLICY: While Politicians Battle Over Expanding SCHIP, Children Are Dropped From the Program by Maggie Mahar

At the moment, nearly everyone interested in the S-CHIP debate is focusing on October 18, the day the US House of Representatives will try to override the President’s veto of an expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Unlike many...

A Broad Vision of Health 2.0: Reformulating Data for Transparency, Decision Support & Revitalized Health Care Markets - Brian Klepper and Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Download health20_1011.ppt Before you start reading, download the document above. It's a single PowerPoint slide that's animated to build. Go into presentation mode, then read along with the narrative below. The term Health 2.0 refers to the concept, described by...

POLITICS: Forgotten children and unopened bills By Eric Novack

On October 18th, the US House of Representatives will try to override the President’s veto of a greatly expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). As is so often the case, political rhetoric serves as a fog that obscures what...

POLICY: Michelle Malkin is really dumb

Yes, that headline is a blatant attempt to get some of the opprobrium Malkin and her nutty commenters are venting on Jon Cohn and Erza Klein. A little background. Jon, being the sensible moderate, wrote a good article on why...

INTERNATIONAL: SWF seeking Canadian M

A SWF, that's a sick white female, is looking for a husband with Canadian health coverage.

Hospitals: Firing doctors by Paul Levy

As one of the first CEOs in healthcare to author his own blog, Paul Levy of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has established a cult following with outspoken posts tackling the issues he faces as the top manager at one...

TECH: Big deal in the RF location tracking world

I haven't spent much time recently on the location tracking tools that I think will be a big part of hospital efficiency improvement in the future. The folks I met this weekend at LA County are thinking about them for...

CONSUMERS/TECH: Molly and Don write a Gray Paper

So this morning and yesterday afternoon at the Ix Conference I've heard some really interesting technology presentations from Silverlink (disclosure Ix and THCB sponsors!) & Eliza, who are both in the voice automated outbound call space. Popped in on Resolution...

CONSUMERS/TECH: David Sobel stars on Tuesday morning at the Ix Conference

Yesterday (Monday) there was a great session about advertising in health care—but actually impossible to blog about as it was mostly funny videos! Great stuff from Hollywood writer Marty Montgomery who works with Vic Stretcher, HealthMedia Inc, & also from...

HEALTH2.0/TECH: Athena Health: The History of the First Health 2.0 IPO By Scott Shreeve

Scott Shreeve writes frequently about Health 2.0, open source and healthcare, topics that as the co-founder of Medsphere, one of the most-closely followed companies in the industry, he is extremely well qualified to write about. If you enjoy this piece,...

TECH/CONSUMERS: Ix Therapy time again!!

Today Indu and I are at the Ix Therapy Conference in Park City, UT. I'm here as a guest of Josh Seidman, Dorothy Jeffress and the crew at the Center for Information Therapy David Kibbe is up first. His talk...