The Health Care Blog

So Much For Comparative Effectiveness

By MERRILL GOOZNER The Obama administration's commitment to cost control in health care can now be summed up in four words: Not on our watch. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told American women this week that they have...
November 20, 2009 in Comparative Effectiveness Research, Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (58)

CMS Reinstates Paying for Avastin Used Off-Label for Macular Degeneration

MERRILL GOOZNER Medicare has reinstated payment codes for eye specialists who use Genentech's Avastin to treat wet macular degeneration. A tiny amount of Avastin, which is sold for cancer treatments, successfully treats the condition at about $100 per shot. Genentech...
October 29, 2009 in CMS, Medicare, Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ornish Alienates HuffPo's Class Warriors

By MERRILL GOOZNER Ariana Huffington recently anointed diet-and-exercise guru Dean Ornish as her chief medical correspondent. With all the guff her site had taken from the science-based medicine crowd for giving free rein to anti-vaccinists, faith healers and the no-evidence-needed...
September 1, 2009 in Media, Medicare, Merrill Goozner, prevention | Permalink | Comments (3)

U.S. v. Europe -- What's Your Risk of Dying?

By MERRILL GOOZNER Want to have some fun with numbers? Check out a brand new "Death Risk Rankings" website, which was sent my way today by Dr. Paul Fischbeck of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He and his colleagues have...
August 27, 2009 in Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (3)

E-Health - It All Depends on How It's Used

By MERRILL GOOZNER Technology isn’t a quick fix. Just ask General Motors. In the 1980s, the auto giant spent $50 billion to automate and computerize its plants in an effort to compete with Toyota. Today, GM is emerging from bankruptcy...
July 29, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Merrill Goozner, Quality, Technology | Permalink | Comments (15)

The Message Is The Medium

By MERRILL GOOZNER Emory University psychologist and political consultant Drew Westen in the weekend Washington Post offers a troubling view of the public's role in health care reform. While reform's reality involves complicated technical issues like insurance exchanges, public plan...
June 28, 2009 in Annals of Journalism, History, Media, Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (4)

FDA Regulation of Tobacco Called 'Death Sentence'

By MERRILL GOOZNER Legislation headed for President Obama's desk that would give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco was called a "death sentence" for agency morale by longtime FDA observer Jim Dickinson, editor of FDA Webview (subscription...
June 15, 2009 in Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Myth of the Cadillac Plan

By MERRILL GOOZNER Last week's White House meeting on health care reform re-floated the idea of taxing employer-provided health benefits to help pay for insuring the uninsured. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the powerhouse Senate Finance Committee, told reporters...
June 7, 2009 in Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (11)

Should We Open the VA to All Comers?

By MERRILL GOOZNER Merrill Goozner has been writing about economics and health care for many years. The former chief economics correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, Merrill has written for a long list of publications including the New York Times, The...
June 3, 2009 in Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (32)

Health costs increase despite recession

By Merrill Goozner The latest one- and ten-year outlook for health care spending from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects health care spending growing 50 percent faster than growth in the overall economy. By 2018, health care will...
February 24, 2009 in Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (3)

Daschle out at HHS - Sharfstein in at FDA?

By MERRILL GOOZNER The early stages of the Obama administration are beginning to resemble the Clinton years, which I observed from afar (I was a foreign correspondent in Tokyo at the time). Take Zoe Baird and substitute Tom Daschle, who...
February 6, 2009 in FDA, HHS, Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (21)

Is Medicare backpedalling on evidenced-based medicine?

By Merrill Goozner Note: This post first appeared at Gooznews.com Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal carried stories today on Medicare's expansion of the number of drug-listing compendia that can now be used to justify reimbursement...
January 27, 2009 in Merrill Goozner | Permalink | Comments (2)