The Health Care Blog

What’s wrong with individual health insurance mandates by Claudia Chaufan

Individual health insurance mandates have lately been hailed as the solution to the health care crisis in America. Mandates to buy health insurance have been included in legislative proposals at the state level – for instance, by Gov. Schwarzenegger and...

Healthcare and The Gathering Storm - Brian Klepper

Here are two very interesting and frightening charts that my good friend Warren Brennan, the CEO of SMA Informatics in Richmond, passed along this AM, with this question, aimed at the CFOs of hospitals and other health care organizations: What...

Clinton v. Obama on Healthcare, by Bob Laszewski

This is a repost of an original that addresses Hillary Clinton's claim, repeated in last week's Texas debate, that only her health plan accomplishes universal coverage because it has a individual mandate and Barak Obama's does not. Senator Clinton goes...

An Analysis of Senator Hillary Clinton's Health Plan Proposal by Robert Laszewski

This is nothing like the Clinton Health Plan from 1993. Senator Clinton has so far been running a smart campaign for President -- at least on the policy side -- and her health care reform strategy is no exception. She...

TECH: Fred Trotter meets Dr. Peel

I was on my way to see Deborah Peel's talk yesterday when I was waylaid by a previous engagement that I'd mischeduled in my calendar. Given I had 4 people waiting for me I couldn't break it but I was...

TECH/PODCAST: ICW's Jeremy Coote

ICW is a German-based consumer facing record company, that is dominant in Germany and several Eastern European countires. Over here they decided that their skills lie in integrating data from disparate systems, very much a Health 2.0 trend (which is...

PODCAST/TECH: The new Virtual Palomar West

My first interview at HIMSS is with Orlando Portale, CIO and Michael Covert, CEO of Palomar Pomerado Health in the San Diego area. They're planning a new hospital and are working with Cisco and have put together a fun video...

Health 2.0 – Patient-oriented Health Care, by Dan Kogan

Dan Kogan is a veteran IT developer who built some matching systems now prevalent in financial institutions. He’s now turned his attention to healthcare and has started Health World Web. I (Matthew that is) have been advising him as he...

More on Google and the Cleveland Clinic

For a start, as I said in my last post and many times, and at least one of these commenters has written at length, the benefits of sharing health data in clinical situations massively outweigh the risk. So that should...

TECH: HIMSS Today

Today it's HIMSS. Yesterday I spoke to the CHIME CIOs and had a good time. Today I’m talking to the Cisco Community for Connected Health and the rest of the time I’ll be accosting people with a microphone. Come back...

Google, the Cleveland Clinic and the Privacy Zealots

So Modern Healthcare's Joseph Conn has a whole page to write about the Cleveland Clinic and he writes just about HIPAA and the fact that this pilot is not going to be covered by it. Writing in the San Francisco...

Where have all the savings gone, long time passing? by Eric Novack

Where have all the savings gone, long time passing? I am not the first to comment on this New England Journal of Medicine article, but it does deserve a place here at THCB. It has been the dogma of many...

HEALTH PLANS: $9 million? OK, We'll change our tune

On Thursday HealthNet was being sued by the LA City attorney's office and saying that it was doing nothing wrong and would keep on trucking: Health Net's Olson said the company's application had been approved by regulators and didn't need...

HEALTH PLANS: L.A. sues Healthnet

In the latest fall out over health plans behaving badly, the City of Los Angeles is suing Healthnet about its policy of paying bonuses to staff for cancellations. The suit alleges that Health Net sold at least 100,000 individuals policies...

POLITICS: Ghost in the Attack Machine

I'm up at Spot-on discussing the return of one of the more improbable and unlovable charcters in the last health reform debate, and her recurrence as a Ghost in the Attack Machine. As ever come back here to comment... It's...

THCB UPDATE

Careseek CEO Gale Wilson Steele writes in to comment on the ongoing controversy over physician ratings: "It's not surprising that physicians are uncomfortable with the idea of others "rating" them. After all, what do others know about how well they...

TECH: Google to Store Patients' Health Records

The AP has announced that Google's first step into the world of storing health records will be in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic—which of course already has a boatload of patients using EMRs and PHRs on the Epic MyChart system....

BLOGS: Health Wonk Review, GoozStyle

Health Wonk Review is up a Merrill’s joint.

HOSPITALS: The SEIU & Paul Levy lovefest continues

The SEIU has been trying to organize Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who’s CEO Paul Levy’s most famous accomplishment is writing a blog called Running a Hospital. (What could be more worthy than that? Yes, we feature Paul’s posts on...

POLICY: The financial castrophe of uninsurance will get worse

Just another reminder about the perversity of our insurance system. Steve Lopez in the LA Times writes a about a 57 year undergoing chemo whose COBRA benefits are running out . Whether or not chemotherapy is always the right option...

HEALTH 2.0 Accelerator

At the end of Health 2.0 in September 2007, CommerceNet’s Marty Tenenbaum proposed the creation of an industry initiative to accelerate the Health 2.0 vision. This initiative would do for Health 2.0 what CommerceNet did for e-commerce, educating and catalyzing...

PODCAST: American Well's Roy Schoenberg

Ever since I saw Roy Schoenberg (of American Well)'s view of the future of patient to physician communication I've been waiting to bring it to you on THCB and the Health 2.0 Blog. And finally I was able to get...

PHARMA: The ACP does the right thing

In 1937 marijuana was banned by Congress. The only question asked was, "what's the position of the American Medical Association?". It actually was in favor of keeping marijuana legal for medical purposes. But the response given to Congress by whoever...

A Blueprint for Healthcare Reform by Maggie Mahar

On this blog, we have often debated these questions: “Why is U.S. healthcare so expensive? Why is it that states like Massachusetts and California just can’t seem to find a way to provide high quality, affordable medical care for all...

Where will all the employees go? By Eric Novack

A quick question: With calls for a substantial increase in government involvement in health care by so many—and, among the major justifications is the claim of high administrative overhead in the private sector relative to government—what do the proposals plan...

Web Video Statistics: I Smell a Rat by Craig Stoltz

Craig Stoltz is a web consultant working in the health 2.0 space. He has previously served as health editor for the Washington Post and editorial director of Revolution Health. He blogs at Web 2.0 ... Oh really? The web metrics...

Peeling The Healthcare Onion, By George Van Antwerp

George Van Antwerp is a Vice President at Silverlink Communications where he focuses on developing healthcare communication solutions across the industry with a focus on the pharmacy space. He and I have been conversing back and forth by email for...

POLICY: Two awful stories

Just before you get too lost in the wonkiness of health policy, just remember the financial implications of being sick in the wrong circumstancesin this country. Here's a woman with a sick kid who is going to have her husband...

HEALTH PLANS: I beat Lisa Girion!

This might be my proudest moment in blogging. Anyone can be ahead of the WSJ by 5 years. But on THCB I connected the dots between LA Times coverage of the dumb public relations of Wellpoint in California, and New...

PHARMA: The statin backlash (or WSJ later than THCB by 5 years!)

Yesterday the THCB hit meter went off the charts. not sadly because of some new genius posting on THCB, but because the WSJ has this article about Lipitor causing memory loss and Google searches are bring up an article from...

You can take your $15 fee and ... ! by Paul Levy

In the past, I have sometimes used this blog to refer to articles from medical journals when I felt they had broad public interest. Sometimes, those articles have not been available to the general public because they were only available...

HEALTH PLANS: Insurers getting lambasted

First, 24 hours after being shamed in the LA Times, Wellpoint has backed down on getting docs to check up on whether their patients should have their insurance recisionned (is that a word?). It’s good to know that someone’s setting...

Let's All Ask Secretary Leavitt To Explain HHS' Schizophrenia On Medicare Physician Data - Brian Klepper

Regular readers will know that, last Sunday, I posted a column that pointed to HHS' schizophrenic behavior when it comes to the release of Medicare physician data. First they fight the consumer advocacy group Checkbook.org's lawsuit demanding the release of...

PHARMA: Finally, a drug site that everyone can approve of!

Yup, they really are cashing in on the Placebo Effect.

CDC officials blocked public health report by Maggie Mahar

The Center for Public Integrity, a public interest investigative journalism organization, has obtained copies of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of environmental and health data in eight Great Lakes states that was scheduled for publication in...

HEALTH PLANS: Wellpoint can't leave bad enough alone

You’d think the folks at Blue Cross of California or in their parent corporation in Indianapolis would have heard of Lisa Girion of the LA Times by now. Do they really think that by compounding the PR disaster they had...

Hating employer-based insurance, Chelsea Clinton-style by Michael Millenson

Chelsea Clinton is complaining about her health insurance. As a self-employed consultant, I almost felt sympathetic, until I saw she works for an asset management firm, Avenue Capital Group, that manages just over $20 billion worldwide. They are able to...

PHYSICIANS: Your data is wrong!

Read this article from the Dallas Morning News called Insurers' ratings often aren't accurate, doctors complain. It's very very important, in that it explains both what's wrong with using claims data to do analytics without working a little harder than...

TECH: Beating up on Maggie'sFarm Blog

Maggie Mahar's blog HealthBeat is so good that I've been itching to find something wrong over there to criticize! (That's a British trait of criticizing your heroes; sorry!). And finally I have. Her co-conspirator Niko Karvounis wrote a piece on...

HEALTH PLANS: Who said this....?

In one of the many newsletters I diligently peruse so that you don't have to be contaminated directly I read this. Astonishing, even considering the source. I had a terrific opportunity to speak to 700 health insurance agents and brokers...

POLICY: Has the dog's sore not completely healed?

The NY Times has been getting much better in its reporting on health care policy. After all David Leonhardt had Shannon Brownlee's book as economics book of the year! And they've been getting Jack Wennberg in frequently. But every now...

Sunday Morning Post, by Brian Klepper

Here's a classical example of a federal regulatory agency holding fast to two opposing ideas at the same time. I wonder what it means? Last week the Department of Health and Human Services posted an interesting notice announcing a new...

PHARMA: Reprieve for Amgen looking doubtful

In a story titled somewhat cryptically Medicare chief stands by anemia move (do they mean he’s trying to become anemic?) Reuters reports that CMS is not backing down from its decision to radically cut payments for anti-anemia drugs for chemotherapy...

PHARMA: Stunt doubles in pharma DTC?

I’m sure (well I’m not sure but I’ll cheerfully and casually postulate) to keep you all amused on a Friday) that there are many possible overlooked problems with Lipitor and the statins. I’ve heard of severe muscle pain, even amnesia....

INTERNATIONAL: Rational talk about Canadian Health Care

I'm very happy to relate that one of the best pieces ever by me on THCB, Oh Canada, (written when THCB was just finding its feet in 2003) is still as relevant as ever. There are still inordinate amounts of...

HEALTH 2.0: Some simple 2.0 Definitions

The Pew Trusts's e-patients blog (the one in honor of Tom Ferguson) has linked over to some very cool introductory videos to socal netowrking, blogs, wikis, & social bookmarking. About a minute each and great to explain these things to...

BLOGS: Health Wonk Review up at the Health Business Blog

David Williams of the Health Business Blog fame has shaved his beard off. I had one of those terrible moments when I saw him a couple of weeks back of knowing I knew him but not being able to place...

The Ethics of CEO Blogging 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...

HEALTH 2.0 San Diego Sold Out

It's official! Health 2.0 Connecting Consumers and Providers has sold out -- exactly one month to the day before the conference. (March 3rd-4th/Westin San Diego.) If you absolutely, positively have to be there, we have opened a waiting list. A...

Is Mandated Universal Coverage the Right Way to Achieve Health Reform? The Health Reform Debate We Haven’t Had Yet, by Jeff Goldsmith

I don’t know how many of you linked over to Lawrence Brown’s perspective piece “The Amazing, Non-Collapsing US Health Care System” in the January 24th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (buried in Mathew’s “Whisper it quietly. ....