The Health Care Blog

Saving Health Care, Saving America

By BRIAN KLEPPER, DAVID C. KIBBE, ROBERT LASZEWSKI and ALAIN ENTHOVEN So far, Congress' response to the health care crisis has been alarmingly disappointing in three ways. First, by willingly accepting enormous sums from health care special interests, our representatives...
October 30, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Corruption, Current Affairs, David Kibbe, Marketplace, Policy, Policy/Politics, primary care, Reform, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (46)

Tale of Two Health Crises

By MARIA FOSCARINIS Twenty two years ago I received shocking news: I had Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system that affects primarily young people. At the age of 30 I began a long and to date successful effort...
August 14, 2009 in Disability Rights, prevention, primary care, Reform | Permalink | Comments (24)

The Case for Home Health Care

By Dr. George Taler While Congress is debating health reform and struggling to accomplish the apparently competing goals of reducing costs while improving quality, I am part of a program that does both. As co-director of the Washington Hospital Center’s...
July 25, 2009 in Chronic conditions, Congress, Costs, Home Health Care, Long Term Care, Medicare, Physicians, primary care, Reform | Permalink | Comments (8)

Musings on Payment Reform

By CHARLIE BAKER Charlie Baker is the president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim, a nonprofit health plan that covers more than 1 million New Englanders. Charlie is a regular contributor to THCB, where he has authored posts on national health...
July 12, 2009 in Charlie Baker, Costs, Massachusetts, primary care, Quality, Reform | Permalink | Comments (38)

Data-Driven Health Care: An Interview with Jerry Reeves, MD

An under-the-radar debate is occurring in health care between those who say data shows that practice variations across the land are “unwarranted” and those who maintain that such variation is inevitable given socioeconomic population differences and cost of practice differences...
June 8, 2009 in Dartmouth Atlas, Economics, evidenced-based medicine, Health Plans, Obama administration, Patient Safety, Physicians, Policy/Politics, primary care, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (17)

Thomas Kuhn, Health Care Reform and Vascular Disease

By WILLIAM BESTERMANN The puzzle of improving care and reducing costs in American medicine and in vascular conditions (that is, diseases associated with blood vessel metabolism) in particular - these are responsible for 60 percent of all cost - has...
May 24, 2009 in Chronic conditions, evidenced-based medicine, Medicine, Obesity, Policy, primary care, Quality, Science | Permalink | Comments (8)

Following the Science To A New Era In Medicine

By WILLIAM BESTERMANN, MD "The current care systems cannot do the job. Trying harder will not work. Changing systems of care will." Crossing the Quality Chasm, Institute of Medicine, 2001 Medical leadership in the United States has not yet come...
April 20, 2009 in evidenced-based medicine, Physicians, prevention, primary care, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (4)

Will CIGNA Remake The Health Plan Marketplace?

By BRIAN KLEPPER America’s health plans are floundering. If their job has been to provide the nation’s mainstream families with access to affordable care (let’s leave quality out of it for the moment), they have failed miserably, though they were...
March 30, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Marketplace, primary care, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (15)

Five Recommendations for an ONC Head Who Understands Health IT Innovation

By David C. Kibbe, Brian Klepper and John Moore. Now that the legislative language of the HITECH Act -- the $20 billion health IT allocation within the economic stimulus package -- has been set, it's time to identify a National...
March 6, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Current Affairs, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, evidenced-based medicine, Health 2.0, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, primary care, public health, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (14)

The New Science of Vascular Disease

By William H. Bestermann M.D. Vascular disease and the conditions that produce arterial problems consume roughly one- third to one-half of the $2 trillion annual spend in American health care. The science and systems exist today to dramatically improve the...
January 28, 2009 in Economics, Policy/Politics, primary care, Quality, Science | Permalink | Comments (9)

Five "Shovel-Ready" Health Care Reforms

By Brian Klepper & David C. Kibbe Microsoft Health Vault's leader Peter Neupert has a wonderful blog post that makes two important points really well. One message is that health care reform is about the outcomes, not the technology. We...
January 21, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, evidenced-based medicine, Health Plans, Marketplace, Obama administration, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, primary care, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (18)

Confessions of a Cultural Anthropologist: The Cause and Cure of High Health Costs

By Richard Reece Today’s medical students are being inducted into a culture in which their profession is seen increasingly in financial terms. Add in such pressures as the need to pay off enormous debts, and it is not surprising that...
January 13, 2009 in Marketplace, Physicians, primary care, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (13)

The Medical Home Bandwagon and the One-Hoss Shay: Expectations and Assumptions

By RICHARD REECE, MD Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay that was built in such a wonderful way? Logic is logic. That’s all I say. Now in building of a chaise, I tell you there is always somewhere...
December 10, 2008 in Electronic Medical Records, Physicians, Policy/Politics, primary care | Permalink | Comments (11)

Patients still choose docs based on word of mouth

By Sarah Arnquist Patients still choose where they receive care based on good old word of mouth and referrals from their doctors, despite numerous Web sites and initiatives aimed at giving them information to compare the cost and quality of...
December 4, 2008 in Consumers, primary care | Permalink | Comments (3)

Can Health Plans Explain Why They Aren't Re-Empowering Primary Care?

By Brian Klepper & David Kibbe Sometimes a whisper is more powerful than a shout. Here's a cartoon from Modern Medicine that shows a Medical Home counseling session between a primary care physician (PCP), a specialist and the health plan....
October 30, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Physicians, prevention, primary care, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (29)

Exploring and conquering new health care frontiers

By Scott Shreeve The September/October issue of Health Affairs is dedicated to reviewing concepts of the medical home. It is most likely the most current, authoritative, and impressive review of this emerging idea. Health Affairs is an excellent resource for...
September 17, 2008 in Economics, primary care, Scott Shreeve, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Patients lost in the maze

By Sarah Arnquist Millions of patients are paying medical bills they don't actually owe after being confused about the practices of "balanced billing," according to a recent Business Week report. The story goes onto discuss how it's illegal for doctors,...
September 5, 2008 in Consumers, primary care | Permalink | Comments (8)

Hello Health open for business

By Matthew Holt Hello Health, the clinic that Jay Parkinson has been promoting for a while, is open for business. If all the patients are as happy as the first patient, success is assured! The deal is that they’ve gone...
August 25, 2008 in Concierge medicine, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Physicians, primary care, Technology | Permalink | Comments (13)

On Rural Doctoring: The Landscape

By Theresa Chan This is the first part of a series that first appeared on the blog Rural Doctoring, where Theresa Chan writes about her experience working as a family physician and hospitalist in a rural Northern California community. I've...
August 20, 2008 in Physicians, primary care | Permalink | Comments (2)

A Primary Care Paradigm Shift

By Dr. Richard Reece Dick Reece is a retired pathologist and a prolific health care commentator with an active following, particularly among physicians. An astute, incisive observer, he is the author of 10 books; the latest is Innovation-Driven Health Care:...
August 17, 2008 in Health Plans, Physicians, Policy, primary care, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (8)

Healthy Howard coverage expansion could inform future reforms

By Sarah Arnquist Howard County, Maryland is set to launch an ambitious universal health coverage, and the county's top health officials says the effort will provide valuable lessons for future reformers. Starting next month, 2,200 of Howard County's 20,000 uninsured...
August 11, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics, primary care, public health, Sarah Arnquist | Permalink | Comments (3)

The result of the primary care crisis

By Matthew Holt Over at Spot-on I'm writing about the primary care crisis in partial response to the great stuff from Bob Wachter last week on THCB and also from Maggie Mahar and Brian Klepper. Hopefully, it's a primer for...
July 29, 2008 in Marketplace, Matthew Holt, Physicians, Policy, primary care | Permalink | Comments (10)