The Health Care Blog

Commentology: Obama and End-of-Life Care

THCB reader Molly Holmes wrote us to say: As a member of a hospital geriatric emergency team, I’m on the front lines of a major health care issue that need immediate attention. The costs of keeping a person barely alive...
September 24, 2009 in Commentology, genetics | Permalink | Comments (9)

Commentology: Government vs. Corporate Bureaucrats

Bob Bourque of Los Alamos writes: Do I want government bureaucrats deciding on my health care? You bet I do! Because the other choice is to have corporate bureaucrats deciding on my health care. I have some control over the...
September 20, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (13)

Commentology: Improving Cost-Containment

Stephen J. Motew writes: Surgical specialists practice under a slightly more regimented reimbursement model predominantly due to the global period payment for surgical procedures. The total care of the surgical patient for any procedure, including pre-op evaluation, the procedure itself,...
September 15, 2009 in Commentology, Costs, Disease Management, EHR | Permalink | Comments (4)

Commentology

Reader Murry Ferris writes in: I am a 65 year old retired ad exec and also an insulin-dependent diabetic. I have other medical complications, but taking care of the diabetes is the big one. Every day I test my blood...
August 6, 2009 in Chronic conditions, Commentology, Costs | Permalink | Comments (3)

Commentology

By ANONYMOUS I'm retired now, but as a former lawyer, I simply must speak out in opposition to the various health care proposals that are being bandied about. It used to be said that what was good for GM was...
July 24, 2009 in Commentology, Congress, Health Plans, Lawyers, Malpractice | Permalink | Comments (8)

Commentology

THCB reader JB wrote us to say: "I guess you guys are probably aware of the huge backlash that is going on with various medical societies around the US, due to the AMA and other physician groups endorsement of HR...
July 22, 2009 in AMA, Commentology | Permalink | Comments (6)

Commentology

Futurist Jeff Goldsmith's analysis of issues that could cause problems for any health reform effort that eventually emerges from the foodfight in Washington this summer provoked a wide range of reader replies. ("No Country For Old Men") Goldsmith wrote in...
July 2, 2009 in AMA, Commentology, Electronic Medical Records, Jeff Goldsmith, Malpractice, Physicians, Reader Mail, Robert Laszewski, Unions | Permalink | Comments (9)

Commentology: National Health Information Networks; What is the Benefit?

Gregory Park from DB Technology, wrote in to say this about National Health Information Networks: "I was wondering where is the debate on the real benefits in NHINs. What is the benefit exactly? The way that I see it, most...
June 26, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology: The President's Letter to Kennedy and Baucus

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 3, 2009 Dear Senator Kennedy and Senator Baucus: The meeting that we held today was very productive and I want to commend you for your leadership -- and...
June 9, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (2)

Commentology:

Microsoft's, Bill Crounse, said this about David Kibbe's article, "The Parable of the Wicked EMR." "Excellent, well written piece, David. Thanks for sharing your insights. It is important to not only meet the regulatory and privacy requirements associated with health...
April 30, 2009 in Commentology, Michael Millenson | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology:

Deron liked Matthew's interview with athenahealth CEO Jon Bush. He had this to say about Jon: "He's an amazing guy with great vision and clarity. If I were starting a practice from scratch, using Athena's platform would be a no-brainer....
April 13, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

J Bean was among the commenters who took offense at the line of argument in Steven McKinney's "Response to Doctors Raise Doubts on Digital Health Data." "I guess I have to admit that the EMR industry seems to have hit...
April 4, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology > More On Natasha Richardson

Dr. Cory Franklin dropped us a note in response to THCB contributor Sarah Arnquist's piece on the controversy surrounding the death of British actress Natasha Richardson, "Leave Natasha Richardson Out of the Healthcare Debate." "I wrote the article and have...
April 1, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (3)

Commentology

Steven M. Parker of Levelwing was among those who weighed in on the volatile comment thread on Rick Scott's Friday post. ("Patient-based Health Reform or Fannie Med?") Steve had this response to critics who attacked the CPR founder over his...
March 29, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (4)

Commentology

JR wrote to us with an interesting question: "Given the attempt to recover bonus payments to AIG, can you envision a scenarios where CMS attempts to recover payments from physicians that they retroactively deem too high? What if a new...
March 22, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (3)

Commentology

Carla was one of many commenters who wrote in response to insurance broker John Sinibaldi's thoughtful post on the role that he and his colleagues play in the current healthcare system. ("A Broker's Lament: We Brought This On Ourselves.") "To...
March 12, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

David Longstreet had this to say in response to Andre Blackman's post last week on the the increasing importance of technology in public health. ("Why Technology is No Longer Optional in Public Health." "the biggest change in software technology is...
March 2, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (9)

Commentology

Helen Darling of the National Business Group on Health wrote in to comment on the thread on Robert Laszewski's post on the realities behind the Obama health plan. ("For the Obama administration health care reform will require cost containment.") We...
February 27, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

Michael Millenson had this response to a commenter in the thread on his recent post looking at web sites that offer the public data about provider performance. (' Just OK Quality or the Best? ') "Why does HealthGrades get so...
February 24, 2009 in Commentology, Michael Millenson | Permalink | Comments (1)

Commentology

Joe Flower had this to say in response to criticism of comparative effectiveness research in the comment thread on his post ("Fear and Loathing Over the Stimulus Bill") examining the backlash against the Health IT provisions in the stimulus package...
February 23, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

John Haughton MD left this thought-provoking follow up to his original post on the Obama administration's health IT plans. ("Stimulus Bill Offers Docs Incentives, But Demands Effective Use") "Since writing the post 2 weeks ago, the Stimulus bill has now...
February 19, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (2)

Commentology

MToubbeh, MD wrote us in response to Eric Novack's slightly incendiary post. ("The Expansion of the Federal Healthcare Bureaucracy Bill") I don't think that when we built the Highway system in the country that people were worried that the Government...
February 15, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (1)

Commentology

Jay wrote in on Dr. John Haughton's post on the health IT provisions in the latest version of the stimulus package. ("Stimulus bill offers docs big incentives for technology, but demands effective use.") "While a move to EMR is a...
February 12, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (1)

Commentology

Former Medscape and Journal of the American Medical Association Editor Dr. George Lundberg had this response to Dr. John Haughton's opinion piece on government Health IT spending. ("Stimulus Bill Offers Docs Big Incentives but Demands Effective Use.") "There are many...
February 10, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (2)

Commentology

The anonymous eDoc had this to say about Merrill Goozner's report that Obama may be considering Emory's Ken Thorpe as a replacement for Tom Daschle: "As a member of the Emory community, I know Ken Thorpe as a mover and...
February 6, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

Intermountain CIO Marc Probst had this response to John Halamka's post "Five reasons for Hope" "As a CIO in an integrated delivery system I have had my eyes opened to see the wisdom and benefit of following proven informatics principles....
January 30, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

Mitch came to the defense of Sanjay Gupta in the thread on Maggie Mahar's post "Doubts About Gupta for Surgeon General. "I guess I see this differently. One, Gupta is one of the most respected surgeons in the country in...
January 25, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

Bev MD emailed us in jest in response to "A Shakespearean Approach to Health care reform" "Whew, from your post's title I thought you were going to say, "First, let's kill all the doctors." The thread on David Kibbe's post...
January 20, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

Alan Rosenstein MD's post on "Disruptive Physician Behavior: Fact versus Frenzy" displeased several readers. One fired back: "How about disruptive administrators? Those who destroy clinical departments thru incompetence, inexperience, and just plain egotistical stupidity? What about arrogance, and general ahole-like...
January 15, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

Dr. Rodney Hornblake of Boston wrote us an email wondering if the Obama administration's much- ballyhooed plans for Health IT investment may actually be slowing technology investment over the short term. "My partners and I have put on hold our...
January 12, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (1)

Commentology

Longtime THCB reader Barry Carol writes in on Matthew's "Shocker ..." "Most hospital CEO’s, especially those who oversee academic medical centers, would probably tell you that their profit margins are quite low and that they could not make ends meet...
January 8, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Commentology

Rick Peters, commenting on John Halamka's post, the "Broken Window Effect" ... "Speaking of downtime - have you ever determined why your organization, mine, and virtually everyone in health care does routine scheduled system downtimes on Saturday nights? I understand...
January 5, 2009 in Commentology | Permalink | Comments (1)