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THCB Update

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October 27, 2009 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday mumbles

By Matthew Holt If you can’t quite remember why we’re doing this health reform stuff, here’s a very amusing defense of the current health care system by Jonathan Adler at Newsweek (hat-tip to Jon Cohn). Meanwhile by any measure July...
August 2, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy/Politics, THCB | Permalink | Comments (18)

Biggest and best month ever on THCB

By Matthew Holt By the time most of you read this, I’ll be heading to England to tell those Limeys how to do healthcare right the American way….or something like that, and then off to China. I’ll be back in...
July 2, 2009 in Matthew Holt, THCB | Permalink | Comments (6)

THCB Marketplace Beta Now Open

Go take a look: www.thehealthcareblog.com/marketplace
June 28, 2009 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

Karen Ignagni lie of the day, part 68

By Matthew Holt The big insurers now seem to be doing anything they can to prevent a Medicare-equivalent public plan being launched to beat them up. Yes AHIP has apparently decided to throw the schlockmeisters off the boat, and more...
March 25, 2009 in Health Plans, Matthew Holt, THCB | Permalink | Comments (47)

I shake my fist at Clay Shirky!

By Matthew Holt Last week (Tuesday to be precise) Chris Rauber, the health care journo at the SF Business Times calls me to talk about health care IT. But he ends with a question that’s not about Health care or...
March 15, 2009 in Matthew Holt, THCB | Permalink | Comments (9)

I'm the Man of the Month, really!

By Matthew Holt OK, perhaps not the only man of the month in the whole world, but Missy Krasner from Google Health, who is also a founder of the relatively new Disruptive Women in Health Care blog interviewed little ol’...
February 11, 2009 in Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, THCB | Permalink | Comments (1)

“Get Well Soon” Wishes for Health Policy Pioneer Paul Ellwood

By Michael L. Millenson Here’s a greeting card conundrum. What exactly do you say to an 82-year old man who, emailing you about a joint project you were working on, notes that he has just survived “a 12-foot backward fall...
December 28, 2008 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (1)

Busy, busy, busy

By Matthew Holt So it’s been a wild month at THCB. While the Health 2.0 conference sucked up every available waking and some non-waking moments in Matthew & John’s lives, Sarah Arnquist—our future Pulitzer Prize winner & THCB’s staff writer...
November 1, 2008 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first one's always free....but will you buy a kid a bike?

By Matthew Holt Many times because I'm an independent consultant, blogger or general self-appointed health care know-it-all people want to talk to me. And I’m always happy to talk. Sometimes these conversations turn into business for me or THCB or...
August 25, 2008 in Matthew Holt, THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy Fifth Birthday, THCB

By Matthew Holt Five years ago today, without really knowing what I was getting myself into, I wrote the first post on The Health Care Blog. If you forced me to come up with a reason why, I would have...
August 12, 2008 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (18)

Matthew's top podcasts this year

By THCB STAFF The Health Care Blog is working hard to bring readers more excellent content, but the downside of that is great posts and podcasts quickly get buried. Here's a quick list of Matthew's top podcasts this year. Adam...
July 1, 2008 in Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Podcasts, Technology, THCB | Permalink | Comments (3)

Guidelines for Contributors

THCB welcomes contributions from readers. I often publish pieces and am happy to allow contributors to either use their own name, or use a pseudonym. If you want to use a pseudonym I need to know who you are, but...
April 1, 2008 in THCB | Permalink

An overdue change....THCB goes group

I've been writing THCB since 2003 and those first few years were great fun, if a little lonely. Back then I was a dotcom refugee getting to grips with the American health care experience after a year or so away....
March 14, 2008 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: At last, comment feeds

Apparently Typepad (which hosts this blog) is moving into the early 21st century and allowing comment feeds--a feature I've wanted for about 3 years which appears to be on every other blog. So now when you've commented on a post...
November 5, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

Evaluating the Quality of Quality Improvement Claims: The Population Health Impact Institute - Brian Klepper

Thomas Wilson PhD is on a mission that's important to health care. Tom, a respected epidemiologist particularly well-known in disease management circles, founded the Population Health Impact Institute (PHII), a not-for-profit devoted to establishing clear, objective rules to evaluate claims...
August 24, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Quality, THCB, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

THCB: Matthew's back, and many thanks to Brian Klepper

This is a photo of some of what I've been up to while I was away....and to those of you who asked, yes it was as wonderful as we'd hoped, in an "oh so on the beach in Northern California"...
August 23, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (1)

Can We Talk, Frankly? - Brian Klepper

Over at The Doctor Weighs In, Bill Bestermann literally grabs our attention and forces feeds us a highly informative, and, dare I say, USEFUL physiology lesson in If You Want To Get It Up - You've Got To Get It...
August 17, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Physicians, Quality, THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Broker Afterthought: An Acknowledgment, An Apology and A Criticism - Brian Klepper

In the comment section of my post on broker compensation, KWeller properly points out that 1) some states regulate broker commissions more stringently than Florida does and 2) I do a disservice to brokers who practice without financial conflict. He...
August 16, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics, THCB, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Managed Care Redux - by Brian Klepper

Like democracy, managed care is a great idea. It's just that its rarely been tried. Even so, my guess is that its about to re-emerge in a new, improved form, and possibly with some other name. If the signs around...
August 15, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Hospitals, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, THCB, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (7)

THCB: A little announcement, and the next week or two on THCB

For the next ten days or so THCB will be having a series of guest authors....please welcome them, and my thanks to them, and to all of you for reading! If you have any THCB, Health2.0 or business questions for...
August 13, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (1)

THCB: Tech section with UPDATE

Over the next few weeks or so you’ll see some changes at THCB. Most importantly, we’ll be launching the Tech Section, a new area of the site specifically focused on healthcare and technology. Stories on healthcare, technology and IT subjects...
June 14, 2007 in THCB | Permalink

THCB Sponsorships

THCB welcomes aboard our latest sponsor: HCA Healthcare. HCA-National Patient Account Services . www.npasweb.com- The largest provider of early out collection services in the US. Help support THCB. Give them a click.
June 1, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB Reader mail

In response to our post announcing Health 2.0 San Francisco, Matt Guldin writes: Regardless of whether or not we go to a single-payer system, move to a consumer-directed health care world, or stay pretty much status quo, the administrative and...
May 31, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: matthew@matthewholt.net is working again

My regular email is back up at last. Please go back to using matthew@matthewholt.net If you sent me email between Sunday midnight PST and Tuesday at 5.30pm PST it probably did NOT make it. If it’s important, please re-send it....
May 22, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

TECH/CONSUMERS/THCB: Health2.0 Agenda Announcement!

I am delighted to announce the line-up and agenda for Health2.0–User Generated Healthcare, which will be held on September 20th in San Francisco. After an introduction and summary of the Health2.0 report (from little ol’ me and my colleague Indu...
May 18, 2007 in Consumers, Technology, THCB | Permalink | Comments (4)

THCB UPDATE: Reader Mail

In response to yesterday's post on AthenaHealth's 2007 insurer ratings, Brian Klepper of the Center for Practical Health Reform writes: I suspect that AthenaHealth would be unwilling to publicly report physician performance. Who wants to antagonize their clients? But if...
May 8, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

TECH/THCB: Health2.0 Conference, September 20th, San Francisco

I am delighted to tell you all about a brand new conference that THCB is putting on with Etude Scientific , in conjunction with the World Health Care Congress. It’s a conference and report called Health2.0: User-Generated Healthcare. The conference...
April 24, 2007 in Technology, THCB | Permalink | Comments (2)

THCB Sponsorship announcement

I am delighted to announce that THCB is partnering with Silverlink, the automated interactive voice solutions company based in Burlington, Mass. Silverlink is now a platinum sponsor. I did a podcast with CEO Stan Nowak a few weeks ago that's...
April 18, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: THCB Job Board

After a good deal of pestering email from readers, I've finally decided to offer a healthcare job board on THCB. If you have a health care related job you'd like to advertise to a readership of 35,000 plus industry people,...
March 2, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: Advert

Business of Healthcare Conference Saturday Feb 3, 2007 Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley Panels will include topics on Health Care IT, Health Care Policy, Payor/Provider, and more. For further details, and to register please go to http://www.haashealthcareconference.org/
January 23, 2007 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: Fame and fortune and everything that goes with it....

I’ll be on a panel with Dimitry, Amy Hughes from Cisco and several non-bloggers talking about new media, blogs, podcasts, etc, etc in healthcare Date: Thursday, September 28, 2006 Time: 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. (includes light breakfast) Location: Jack...
August 23, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

JOBS: Wanna go to the middle east?

No, I'm not offering a one-way trip to Baghdad. This sounds a whole lot better. A colleague in the recruiting world is looking for 3 senior nursing directors and 3 medical directors to work in the United Arab Emirates. Salaries...
August 22, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (3)

Quiet today

I'm dealing with the not very nice condition of trigeminal neuralgia. I had it ten years ago and thankfully it went away after a few days. It seems to be getting better as the day goes on (possibly helped by...
August 18, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (4)

THCB: It's my birthday

And I'm at a conference on Disease Management in Boston. I'm talking about new tech for patients on Weds. If you're in the neighborhood, I can be bought drinks tonight! ...I am prepared to collect $5 from each player too!
August 1, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (3)

THCB: Tech stuff

If you've tried to sign up for the THCB Update email at any point in the past two or three days you may have encountered problems. THCB's intrepid techies are working to resolve matters. Meanwhile, If you'd like to sign...
July 27, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB Update

QUICK REMINDER CATEGORY: THCB's update service is up and online. Signing up only takes a minute. You'll get an email every few days notifying you of new content on the site. And special alerts for important posts. Go on. It's...
July 20, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB - You've got mail!

Or we've got mail. Or we've all got mail. Or something ... After much late night heroism by THCB's trusty (and highly sensitive) tech staff, the THCB email list is up and running. If you'd like to get a quick...
July 18, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

BLOGS: Start the weekend early

Busy today—see ya Monday
July 14, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

BLOGS/QUALITY: Big themes and signing off from FierceHealthcare

Here’s my last ever FierceHealthcare editorial. The FierceMarkets team is taking the editorializing of FierceHealthcare back in-house and I wish them luck. It’s been fun for me (and John Irvine who’s supported me all the way) to work on this...
June 30, 2006 in Quality, THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

OFF-TOPIC: Torture day 2006

Today is Torture day 2006. That’s not an invitation for people to do more of it despite what our current Adminstration thinks. instead it’s UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. I’ve supported a London Charity called The...
June 26, 2006 in Policy, THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: Back and in one piece...oh and there's football

I’m back from my vacation. My sister is married off and in Dubai on honeymoon, the Jerez region in southern Spain is full of cute bars serving Sherry and drunken policeman, and I’ve watched multo World Cup games, including perhaps...
June 20, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: My talk at PARC is up

Those of you keen to hear from me as well as read THCB (i.e. you gluttons for punishment!) may want click over to download the MP3 of the talk I gave at the PARC Forum last week. Don’t forget that...
June 1, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: Shhh...go back to sleep

Life will be vey quiet here today while I get some other stuff that’s been stuck in my queue done.
May 16, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

THCB: Thanks for coming, please keep it up!

Last month was the biggest ever at THCB with over 22,000 visitors and nearly 45,000 page views. Thanks for coming and please keep visiting and commenting. Meanwhile we have a new sponsor over on the right. Phreesia is a company...
April 3, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (1)

THCB: Crass commericalism

So THCB is making a little progress. Over to the right, that squirrel with a tough nut to crack is an ad from the Healthy Oregon Plan – a group supporting ballot measure 111 promoting universal health care in Oregon....
March 28, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

OFF-TOPIC: The ultimate theocratic fascist cashes in

And in my end of week rant….. Arianna Huffington nails John Ashcroft, now lobbyist. There’s no question that bible-thumping fascist John Ashcroft was my least favorite Republican of recent years. His Justice department converted the war on drugs into the...
March 24, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (1)

OFF-TOPIC: And in a sign that Texas really is a police state

Texas sting nabs people for being drunk in bars More than 2,200 people have been arrested in Texas bars in the six months since the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced a crackdown on public intoxication, primarily targeting bars. The arrests...
March 23, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: Any budding reviewers out there?

Dr. Robert McKersie has asked me to review his book In the Foothills of Medicine. Here’s what his web site says about it. In the Foothills of Medicine shares one doctor’s intriguing true story from the front lines of medicine....
March 15, 2006 in THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)

THCB: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

OK. I have two requests for people in slightly different parts of health care IT. Both are based on the west coast. One is for a senior level marketing Director at a large technology company to build a health care...
March 13, 2006 in Technology, THCB | Permalink | Comments (0)