The Health Care Blog

Health 2.0 Consciousness Dawns - Even In Jacksonville, FL!

by BRIAN KLEPPER Today, Matthew, Michael Millenson and I are converging at a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation conference on public reporting of health care pricing/performance information in Amelia Island, FL, three short barrier islands north of my home in Atlantic...
May 15, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Hospitals, Policy, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (2)

More on Physician Reimbursement, CMS, the AMA's RVS Update Committee (RUC)

by ROY POSES, MD (Note by Brian Klepper: At Health Care Renewal, Dr. Roy Poses, a Clinical Associate Professor at Brown University's School of Medicine, writes a consistently excellent blog on health care financial conflict . Both he and I...
May 12, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Physicians, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (11)

Wal-Mart drops drug prices, shakes up market -- again

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn Wal-Mart continued its first-mover tactics in health by dropping the price of prescriptions again. This time, the target is maintenance meds, which Wal-Mart will price at $10 for a 90-days supply. This move puts Wal-Mart squarely in...
May 9, 2008 in Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (6)

The State of Employer-Sponsored Coverage - Brian Klepper

By Brian Klepper A detailed new study from the Economics Policy Institute confirms what many of us suspect but haven't had the data to easily nail down. This weightily-titled report by Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz - A Decade of...
April 28, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (4)

An Open Response To HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt - Brian Klepper and Michael Millenson

By Brian Klepper and Michael Millenson A few months ago, the two of us – both long-time advocates for transparency and accountability – posted separate comments on Secretary Mike Leavitt’s blog. Brian asked Secretary Leavitt to square his support of...
April 22, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Physician Rating, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tune Into The Kroll Webcast On The Security of Patient Data - Brian Klepper

By Brian Klepper Exclusive to THCB: A couple weeks ago I pointed to a new study, commissioned by Kroll Fraud Solutions and conducted by HIMSS Analytics, that makes startlingly clear the gap between what most health systems are doing to...
April 22, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Electronic Medical Records, Privacy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Legacy of Dr. Jerome Grossman

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn We've lost a major force for good in health care. Dr. Jerome Grossman, once CEO of Tufts-New England Medical Center, passed away yesterday. He was only 68, an example of another good-man-dying-too-young. Dr. Grossman's ideas made big...
April 21, 2008 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Security of Patient Data

By Brian Klepper EXCLUSIVE TO THCB: HIMSS Analytics, the research arm of the powerful, thoughtful and highly regarded Health Information Management Systems Society, has published a sobering study, Security of Patient Data - see here - that highlights the gap...
April 8, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Hospitals, Privacy, Technology, The Industry, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1)

Knowledge Like Clear, Clean Water: Muir Gray on Health Care's Progress

By Brian Klepper Over the last year or so, I've written a lot about how health care information will become increasingly available to consumers and health care business, and how this access will drive new decision-support capabilities that will profoundly...
April 7, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (4)

Rebuilding The Medical Home: What Walgreens Surely Sees

By Brian Klepper Though it probably went mostly unnoticed in the cacophony of health care stories, last week's news that Walgreen's had bought the two largest and most well-established worksite clinic firms, iTrax and Whole Health Management, was a harbinger...
March 27, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Physicians, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (10)

Entering Unfamiliar Territory

By Kristen Trusko If universal coverage mandates that employers provide health insurance or that people secure it themselves, it is highly likely that the majority will choose the lowest cost option, or “low premium” (aka HDHP or high deductible health...
March 24, 2008 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (12)

Loving Our Children

By Brian Klepper Among its many less-noticed accomplishments, this Administration has strangled funding for comprehensive sex education. Instead, it has thrown the immense weight of the US government behind abstinence-based education, an impractical ideological approach rooted in religious zealotry and...
March 14, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Patient Safety, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Myth of Health Care Consumerism

By Brian Klepper Last weekend I heard several great presentations at a meeting convened by Jeff Goldsmith, but one contained a point I hadn't heard nailed down before. Kaveh Safavi MD JD, from Thomson Healthcare's Center for Healthcare Improvement, detailed...
March 13, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Health 2.0, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (21)

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...
February 29, 2008 in Brian Klepper, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (7)

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...
February 18, 2008 in Eric Novack, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (15)

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...
February 15, 2008 in PBMs, Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (7)

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...
February 13, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Physician Rating, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (2)

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...
February 6, 2008 in Hospitals, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

Families USA Health Action 2008: An Alternative Plan - Brian

A wonderful meeting (Full disclosure: They brought me in to blog my impressions.), The Families USA conference that ended Saturday brought together some impressive Congressional politicians - Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, Ken Salazar, Blanche Lincoln - and true health care...
January 28, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

Families USA Health Action 2008: Berwick on Everything Health Care - Brian

One of the pleasures of the Families USA Health Action conference was that the speakers represented a nice blend of top politicians and genuine health care experts. Tony Fauci MD, the wonderful head of NIH's National Institutes for Allergies and...
January 28, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Families USA Health Action 2008 Conference - Brian Klepper

Along with other familiar voices like Maggie Mahar and Ezra Klein, I'm in DC today writing from the Families USA Health Action 2008 conference. Families USA is a progessive (liberal) consumer advocacy organization dedicated to universal coverage, driven by mobilizing...
January 24, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Four Big Trends - Brian Klepper

Several events and trends emerged over the last year that will reverberate throughout the health care marketplace in 2008 and going forward. While none of these dominated the trade press like some other issues - electronic and personal health records,...
January 16, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Hospitals, Medicare Advantage, Patient Safety, Physician Rating, Physicians, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (8)

Health Wonk Review Is Up! - Brian Klepper

Our good friend Bob Laszewski is host of this edition of Health Wonk Review, which consistently displays a collection of the best, most insightful health care writing around the Web. Maggie Mahar and yours truly are represented from THCB. Drop...
January 10, 2008 in Brian Klepper, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Practical Reforms - Brian Klepper

Now that health care reform is once again an active, visible issue in state governments and the presidential campaigns, the ideas are flying fast and furious. Predictably, some ideas are better than others. Over at Health Care Policy and Marketplace...
January 9, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (11)

The Politics of Publicly-Funded Health Care - Brian Klepper

Over at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review, the always insightful Bob Laszewski walks us through the mechanics of the just-passed federal budget and its health care financing implications for SCHIP, physicians, hospitals, Medicare Advantage plans. This clear, common sense...
January 3, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Hospitals, Physicians, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

My Nomination For Health Care Quote of the Year - Brian Klepper

I was reading through other peoples’ blog posts yesterday when amazingly enough, I was here on THCB and came across this straightforward statement by Paul Levy, the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Of course, many readers...
December 22, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Hospitals, Physicians, Policy, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (6)

Business As Usual: California's Reform Proposal - Brian Klepper

In the world of health reform wonks - the writers on this blog qualify in spades - all eyes are on California at the moment. His Republicanism notwithstanding, Governor Schwartzenegger has developed a generous $14 billion bill that would extend...
December 21, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (18)

Bad Medicine: How The AMA Undermined Primary Care in America - Brian Klepper

On Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal website, Dr. Benjamin Brewer describes physicians’ reactions to the 10.1% cut in Medicare physician payments that will take effect January 1. He argues that the onus will fall, once again, disproportionately on primary care physicians,...
December 13, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (31)

If Grady Fails By Brian Klepper

In an extraordinary move earlier this week, the politically-appointed Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, the governing body over Atlanta's Grady Health System, unanimously and voluntary stepped aside, to be replaced by a new non-profit corporation. Projecting a $55 million deficit this year,...
November 29, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Hospitals, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (6)

What the Blogs are saying ...

Adam Bosworth, describing life post-Google: "Well, as some seem to know, I’ve left Google. And now that I’ve left, that old entrepreneurial fever has struck me again and I’m off working on a startup. Google is a wonderful company and...
November 15, 2007 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Woodstock of the Wonks: The Health Policy Establishment Honors One of its Own - Michael L. Millenson

You might call it the Washington Woodstock of the Wonks. Hundreds of members of the health policy establishment gathered in the nation’s capital last Thursday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the premier health policy journal, Health Affairs, and honor...
November 4, 2007 in Featured Posts, Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

X2HN, Women's Executive Networking Conference

Want to go to a conference where there’s no chance that you have to meet Matthew? Gale Wilson-Steele (founder of MedSeek & CareSeek and one of my favorite people in healthcare) wrote to THCB about the conference that she co-founded...
October 26, 2007 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fire Burns Away the Fog of Ideology: Can Humane Health Care Reform Rise from the Ashes? - Michael Millenson

THCB welcomes back our solid pal, the erudite Michael Millenson, for whom the sun doesn't shine if there's no wisecrack in the wings. Now leading a consulting firm specializing in health care quality projects, Michael is a former Chicago Trib...
October 24, 2007 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (13)

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)

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)

Consultants to Hospitals: Prepare for Transparency - Brian Klepper

We must view and treat the community as the "owner" to whom we are fully accountable. Aggregate financial performance data, aggregate productivity performance and aggregate quality and patient satisfaction data belong in the public realm. How else can consumers make...
August 16, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Hospitals, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (4)

Podcast: Mello on Health Courts

Professor Michele Mello, an expert on the health care justice system at the Harvard School of Public Health, has an interesting 9.5 minute audio podcast on why health courts would be an improvement over the current medical liability system. The...
August 16, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Hospitals, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Presidential Candidates On Health Care

Over at the Huffington Post, Dr. Susan Blumenthal and her team at the DC-based Center for the Study of the Presidency, have released their third in a series of articles comparing the Presidential candidates positions on various aspects of health...
August 15, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, 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)

INDUSTRY: You can't buy publicity like this

The kids at AHIP and PhRMA must be holding their heads in their hands this morning. Everyone in health care knows that Michael Moore’s Sicko is coming out soon. But in case you thought there wasn’t going to be enough...
May 11, 2007 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (4)

CONSUMERS/QUALITY: HealthGrades awarded $3.6m from Hewitt

This is a weird one. Quality ratings company HealthGrades has been awarded $3.6m in a breach of agreement from benefits consulting giant Hewitt. Was Hewitt going to use Healthgrades ratings and then decided that no one cared? Anyone got any...
May 7, 2007 in Consumers, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/THE INDUSTRY: The Rx for the busy traveler

And now in the latest in niche marketing, pharmacies with NPs and pharamcists setting up shop beyond the security gates in airports.
March 23, 2007 in Pharma, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLITICS/INDUSTRY: Oooh, vicious but beautiful.

From my favorite Cal health care economist Pisano is an HBS professor, and for HBS professors books are consulting platforms. A strong consulting platform must demonstrate knowledge of the sector (check), stroke the egos of industry leaders (check), profess a...
March 23, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

The BerkeleyMBA Business of Healthcare Conference

The BerkeleyMBA Business of Healthcare Conference is tomorrow. It has a good line up and those of you desperate to see me in the flesh can find me on the IT panel in the morning. Also on that panel will...
February 2, 2007 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

TECH/PHYSICIANS/INDUSTRY: Now the Communists have infiltrated the officer ranks!

(Speaker adopts very pompous tone) You may remember a little while back that some left wing seditious journalist criticized the sanctity of our free and opaque market system. He claimed that a leading back surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic --...
January 30, 2007 in Physicians, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

BLOGS:/INDUSTRY/POLICY A little bit of mini-forecasting for 2007

For the first major post of the year, I usually do a forecast of the big issues that I think will be happening. Looking back at the last few forecasts, I noticed a couple of things. First, as ever in...
January 2, 2007 in Blogs, Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (6)

TECH/PHYSICIANS/INDUSTRY: Communists in press stirring up trouble

So a disgruntled reporter is stirring up trouble by daring to question the way medical advances happen in this great nation. Apparently this Joel Rutchick character is suggesting that when respected surgeon Dr. Isador Lieberman and his organization the Cleveland...
December 12, 2006 in Physicians, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (12)

TECH/QUALITY/THE INDUSTRY/HOSPTIALS: Transforming patient care, with UPDATE

Cisco has produced a video on transforming patient care which includes discussion from “Crossing the Chasm” author Geoffrey Moore, Jeff Rideout, Cisco’s head honcho Medical Director, several hospitals execs, and a cameo from me. Go to this site to register...
November 2, 2006 in Hospitals, Quality, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/THE INDUSTRY/HEALTH PLANS: Employers trying to be not so dumb

This is definitely one to watch. With help from THCB buddy Brian Klepper, the employers in Reno are interested in becoming smarter purchasers, and they held a forum without letting any plans or providers in the room. The results suggest...
October 27, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/TECH: Free International Calls! NOT Too Good to be True

This is damn interesting, about how modern technology is perverting an old world subsidy. Free International Calls! NOT Too Good to be True. I guess at some point this is what’s happening in pharma and may happen in surgery. Of...
October 23, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/THE INDUSTRY: Richard Reece does a smiley, happy Orwell

2020: The View from 2006 Ridiculous, but fun and funny. I will be the Al Capone/Joe Kennedy of the 20s again!
October 9, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

QUALITY/THE INDUSTRY: DM powerhouse nixed by spreadsheet error

First the merger was delayed for some vague reason. Now it’s off. LifeMasters and Healthways nix $307M merger basically because of over-reported value of a certain contract — presumably one of the larger ones, and my guess would be a...
October 2, 2006 in Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

TECH/INDUSTRY/POLICY: Out with the trash

Just some quick Friday cleaning up of stuff I never got to but you should look at. Intuit's Dan Levin on how they're going to fix the mess of medical billing et al. The head of the AMA bitching (with...
September 29, 2006 in Policy, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY/TECH/POLICY/HOPSPITALS: ID Theft Infects Medical Records

In an LA Times article called ID Theft Infects Medical Records Joseph Menn tells several terrifying stories of people who have had their identities stolen by other people who have used them to get medical care. Not only does this...
September 25, 2006 in Hospitals, Policy, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/THE INDUSTRY: Cutler used as propaganda--is that how he likes it?

So David Cutler’s piece which I mentioned in passing because I was asked about it yesterday is now out. (Abstract is here). And although I don’t have access to the whole thing (being a mere blogger and too damn cheap...
August 31, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLICY/THE INDUSTRY/QUALITY: Why health care costs so much, reason #498

Two angioplasty procedures on a 93 year old in one week. Former President Ford underwent his second heart procedure in a week at the Mayo Clinic when stents were placed into two of his coronary arteries to increase blood flow,...
August 28, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (10)

The Industry: Worth a look By John Irvine

Today contributor John Irvine reprises his role at FierceHealthcare with a guided tour of some of last week's top healthcare stories. Go have a read and I'll be back tomorrow with more.The FBI’s Upgrade that wasn’t Five years ago the...
August 21, 2006 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY/POLICY: Brian Klepper is still an optimist

In an excellent article at HealthLeaders, Brian Klepper believes that enough is enough and that transparency gleaned from large data sets is the key to solving the health care crisis. I think he's mostly right, but of course what he...
August 16, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (3)

TECH/INDUSTRY: Case the Revolutionary

A long and detailed story about Steve Case and Revolution Health is up on Bloomberg.com. It was kind of weird, I vaguely thought I recognized some stuff in it, then found myself being quoted. Then I remembered that I’d been...
August 1, 2006 in Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/THE INDUSTRY: Nice work if you can get it

So for rewriting Alain Enthoven’s lectures from the late 1980s and missing the main points, apparently Michael Porter is being paid $50,000 a day, and that is a discount from his apparently usual fee of $100,000! Damn, that’s nice work...
July 19, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHYSICIANS/INDUSTRY: Retail clinics

I recently met Michael Howe who is CEO of MinuteClinic, and he had the good graces to call me back and talk on the day that they sold out to CVS. Very classy as it would have been easy to...
July 19, 2006 in Physicians, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (6)

THE INDUSTRY: Rick Scott-a man who's career was barely alive, but he can rebuild himself. ($6 million will be cheap if that's all it costs the taxpayer!)

Via KevinMD I got to this story about the (lack of) take-up at a new in-store clinic run by TakeCare—kinda surprising as I think I’d be happy to go to one. But then with a bit of Googling around I...
June 6, 2006 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

QUALITY/INDUSTRY: Healthways buys Lifemasters

Over in the disease management world, a little piece of consolidation late yesterday. Healthways is buying Lifemasters for some $307m. Healthways is running at a $400m annual revenue rate and has a $1.75 billion market cap, so that suggests that...
May 30, 2006 in Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/INDUSTRY: Money-driven Medicine, a sorta review

I must be getting vaguely famous as I was sent (unsolicited) a copy of a new book by Maggie Mahar called Money-Driven Medicine. On Sunday it was reviewed in the Boston Globe, which fairly accurately portrayed it as an indictment...
May 30, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (3)

CONUSMERS/INDUSTRY: Consumer health care conference in SF coming up next week

Next week I’ll be at some of the Consumer Directed Health Care Conference in SF. It’s a weird match of the business guys trying to extort the last dollar out of the HDHP/CDHP buzzword before it dies its inevitable death,...
May 5, 2006 in Consumers, Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack

POLICY/INDUSRY: Scenarios and planning for them

In this pretty impressive article, The Consequential Divide: Which Direction Healthcare?, Preston Gee points out that too many people face the future in health care by "wishing would make it so". This was something that we had to contend with...
May 1, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

POLICY/INDUSTRY/TECH: WHCC--GE and leadership

More from the World Health Care Congress. Keynote is from Bill Castell, head of GE healthcare. He says that we need to bring “Care to the individual rather than the patient to the Institution” Ten realities of global health care...
April 19, 2006 in Policy, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/INDUSTRY: WHCC2006 Employers and plans

I’m at the WHCC as the official blogger! First up is a session with big employers and their vendors from the plan world (although apparently George Halvorson from Kaiser had a minor heart attack and has been replaced by Jay...
April 18, 2006 in Health Plans, Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/THE INDUSTRY: Ethics 101, we've failed

Fred Goldstein, a health care veteran who believes in the free market, calls a spade a spade in a hard hitting call for ethical improvement in health care over at HealthLeaders. Go read his list of transgressions which we all...
April 18, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (11)

POLICY/INDUSTRY: Posting prices is all we need--yeah, right. Paul Ginsburg on transparency

Paul Ginsburg from HSC doesn't quite have Uwe's ability to damn but stay "just this side ofthe line". On the other hand he has a solid base in very sensible research. When they start talking about price transparency someone in...
March 21, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (9)

POLICY/INDUSTRY: HSC on 10 years of change

Whe I was first figuring out the private sector in health care about 10-12 years ago while Hillary was trying and failing to get reform done, I heard a gazillion people, usually in the strategy or policy dividions of big...
March 14, 2006 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHYSICIANS/HOPSITALS/INDUSTRY: Customer service: are new market entrants showing the way?

Interesting piece from a marketing consultant called Chris Bevolo from boutique firm GeigerBevolo Inc., in Minneapolis. The report looks at new entrants into health care services and responses to improve the patient experience at Mayo and Park Nicollet. The new...
March 13, 2006 in Hospitals, Physicians, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/POLITICS/INDUSTRY: Confessions of a Health Care Hitman?

Over at Spot-on, I'm musing about whether or not I'm a Health Care Hitman. Peter Rost, late of Pfizer, is more or less singing the same tune.
February 10, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Health Care Mergers up

Jonathan Cohn is very excited that health care mergers are up strongly in the third quarter. I suspect its a blip, as Wellpoint's got no one left to buy, and who'd want Merck in its present state? But who knows...
October 13, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

HOSPITALS/INDUSTRY: How stupid is Navigant really?

So Navigant Consulting has been gilding the lily on its expenses in the apparently somewhat shoddy consulting job it's doing at King-Drew. Their basic excuse is that their private sector clients (almost all non-profit hospitals by the way) are quite...
September 26, 2005 in Hospitals, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (5)

PHARMA/INDUSTRY: Hurricane Katrina Direct Relief!

I was contacted late last night by Grace Davis who is one of "two moms" who is running a blog helping support relief for Katrina victims. The other mom is Victoria Powell, a doctors wife, who is visiting health clinics...
September 13, 2005 in Pharma, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY/TECH: More ways to help Katrina victims: An open source response

Healthcare IT journo Neil Versel has a podcast up on his site of an interview with Jordan Glogau, chief technology officer of Preferred Health Resources, a medical billing services company in Nanuet, N.Y., made the following suggestion: "Why don’t people...
September 9, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

TECH/POLICY: Things to think about in Katrina's aftermath

Here's my FierceHealthcare editorial today: In Katrina's wake the inquests are beginning after the tragic failure to get help to where it was needed, especially in New Orleans. For healthcare organizations there are some immediate lessons, wherever in the country...
September 9, 2005 in Hospitals, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (16)

HOSPITALS/POLICY/INDUSTRY: Katrina and the response

We have all been shaken by the devastation in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. After a couple of days to reflect, three thoughts come to my mind. First has been the absolute heroism of health care workers in New...
September 2, 2005 in Hospitals, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (20)

TECH/THE INDUSTRY: Helppie sues ACS

After being booted from his baby Superior only 5 months after selling it to outsourcer ACS, Richard Helppie is claiming that he retired and that he's not even a little miffed. However, there's touchy feely niceness and then there's business....
August 16, 2005 in Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: What would you read?

So I got an email from a student asking for a basic primer on the US Healthcare system. He's at Northwestern, so I might recommend him Edward FX Hughes as a go to guy. But my two favorite books about...
August 12, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (11)

TECH/INDUSTRY: Top 10 Consultants

Modern Healthcare just printed a list of the Top 10 Consultants in health care. I was staggered to find that Matthew Holt Consulting was not on that list, but then I realized that it was top 10 by revenue rather...
August 8, 2005 in Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (11)

INDUSTRY: HealthcareRenewal skewers Health Affairs

John Iglehart's rather soft questioning of Guidant's CEO in Health Affairs comes under most excellent and accurate fire from Roy Poses over at Health Care Renewal. A prominent editor of a prominent health policy journal devoted considerable effort to and...
July 6, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Scrushy verdict is in--He walks

So after about 15 years of deliberation, the biggest fraud in the history of health care is coming to its zenith. The news is that the jury has reached a verdict in Scrushy trial. Now we'll see if all that...
June 28, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (5)

A Mistrial in the Scrushy case?

Could the jury in the Scrushy case be on the verge of deadlock? It certainly sounds that way from this report in today's Wall Street Journal: "Jurors in the corporate-fraud trial of HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard M. Scrushy told the...
May 25, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

THE INDUSTRY: Down to the wire for Scrushy

Well the jury is out at the Scrushy Trial. Don't really want to spend a whole lot of thought about it, but I'm a little intrigued to see if the preaching at the black Churches and the sponsoring of the...
May 19, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: A little on the Advisory Borg

I have a lot to say about the Advisory Board, not all of it bad by the way. But before I do, go read HISTalk Blog on the subject here and then here (scroll down). Back tomorrow (am way crunched...
May 12, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY/TECHNOLOGY: How GE Medical helped boost offshoring to India, with UPDATE

This is a great article from the WSJ (but reprinted in another paper so you can see it) about how outsourcing to India was in part driven by the medical products group of GE. I am not in general an...
March 24, 2005 in Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: The Birmingham kid is innocent!

As the trial begins of Healthsouth CEO Richard Scrushy for the largest outright health care fraud ever, it's good to know that in America you can start a huge company from nothing, be totally responsible for all its success, pay...
January 26, 2005 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/INDUSTRY: Costs -- The rate of increase decreases, but not enough to spoil everyone's party, with UPDATE

There's a confusing little piece in the WSJ about how health spending continues to rise at (a) worrying pace. It's based on a HSC report and an EBRI report about the first half of this year, which suggest that last...
December 2, 2004 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Is nothing sacred? Cardinal admits sinning

OK, not really, but serious bad news at what has been one on the health care industry strongest performers and best run companies. Cardinal Health anounced that it would miss profit forecasts, and was being investigated by the SEC. The...
July 1, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: JSK on transparency in health care

Just a quick one for today. Go read Jane Sarasohn Kahn's article on "transparency" in her iHealthbeat column. Then consider if the recent Supreme Court decision not allowing health plans to be sued by their members increases or decreases their...
June 28, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Consolidation in the health care sector

Today looks like a big day for more consolidation. Big drug chain CVS is getting bigger by buying part of the Eckerd chain owned by JC Penny. The other part is being bought by Canadian chain Jean Coutu Group. In...
April 5, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

CONSUMERS/INDUSTRY: Reggie's back and the intellectual slop goes on

Regina Herzlinger is back and has now moved from Market Driven HealthCare (which in my view produced one of the best letters ever to Health Affairs from Jamie Robinson following her disputing of his review) to a new tome called...
April 1, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (3)

INDUSTRY: PPM evolution--US Oncology to be bought

Buy-out fund Welsh, Carson has bought the biggest for-profit physician group US Oncology. This suggests to me that the market is unlikely to be rewarding oncologists while the whole issue around reduced fees for oncology drugs gets sorted out. THCB...
March 24, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY/POLICY: Humphrey Taylor on the big debates in healthcare's future

Take time this weekend to read and savor this lecture from Harris Poll Chairman, Humphrey Taylor. A witty and excellent presentation on where the system is, where it's going and what we're likely to be talking about in the coming...
March 19, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Scrushy goes on TV with Roy Moore to proclaim innocence

It's so hard to resist, and I've been good for so long, but I had to re-open the Healthsouth file. The story so far. 15 execs admit years and years of fraud. CEO Richard Scrushy claims he knew nothing about...
March 8, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

GENERAL: Monday morning grab-bag

I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) with some interesting stuff about the argument around drug prices, but for now, here's a varied few shorts that you can look at. TECHNOLOGY: Physician to patient communication online continues to make slow but visible...
February 9, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY/QUALITY: Better Health Technologies DSM e-Newsletter

Just in case you haven't seen it before take a look at the e-Newsletter from Better Health Technologies. It's written by a smart veteran of the DSM wars, Vince Kuraitis, and this month's has a particularly fine analysis of recent...
January 30, 2004 in Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/INDUSTRY: The value of health care--interesting issue, but appalling analysis

An interesting report was issued yesterday with loads of fanfare by The Value Group. The actual study was done by Medtap, a technology assessment shop for the pharma industry, which was spun out of the Battelle Institute (a kind of...
January 29, 2004 in Policy, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Healthsouth soap opera reaches ridiculous stage

And just when you thought the Healthsouth mess couldnt get any more bizarre, the new management have decided that the fraud was worse than they were letting on, $4Bn rather than $2.5Bn. One "victim" is ex-child actor, star of the...
January 21, 2004 in Hospitals, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHYSICIANS/INDUSTRY: Notes from my wanderings on EBM and malpractice

Apologies for the lack of posting. When you read the first paragraph you'll figure out why. I've been touring around the East Coast talking to various people in the health care business and then on Thursday went to the UK....
January 19, 2004 in Physicians, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Malpractice & EBM, a modest proposal from Matt Quinn

Over at DB's Medical Rants and at the Bloviator there's been a continued interesting debate on Malpractice. I suggest that you read DB's post here, which as a bonus gets you two long comments from Ross (who writes the Bloviator)....
January 12, 2004 in Physicians, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Malpractice at Wampum, with UPDATE

An interesting little storm is brewing over at Wampum about malpractice and its role in the latest Tort reform issue. There's a lot of lefty and righty rhetoric in the comments, and I stuck my 2 cents in about the...
January 6, 2004 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: First Healthsouth sentence is a juicy one

OK. I give in and I'm talking about Healthsouth again. An assistant controller, Emery Harris, gets 5 months at Club Fed and has to pay back $100K in the first sentence of the HealthSouth scandal. Extrapolating up, my guess is...
December 11, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Tom Scully's had enough

The New York Times is shocked, "shocked!" to find that a senior administration official is going to retreat to a bigger salary in the private sector. Even more amazingly the official concerned is Tom Scully the head of CMS. Frankly...
December 3, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Better fewer, but better!

This barely needs repeating but, just in case you weren't sure, the New England Journal of Medicine article called Surgeon Volume and Operative Mortality in the United States confirms that the more surgery surgeons do, the better they are at...
December 1, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

GENERAL HEALTHCARE: A run-down of interesting stuff

I've been a bit mesmerized by Medicare drug coverage in the last week or two and I've let a lot of stuff build up in my "draft folder" -- so I'm going to do brief comments on many of the...
November 21, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: New HealthSouth management blames Scrushy

I know that you're tired of hearing about it and I promise that this will be the last article I ever write about Healthsouth--but I couldn't let go the little fact that, surprise, surprise, the new management that's been in...
November 6, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Merger Mania Monday

This morning two big mergers in the health plan world. The two biggest (ex-)Blues merge (Anthem and Wellpoint), and United buys MAMSI, the big commercial HMO on the mid-Atlantic states. In the Blues case the market has marked down the...
October 27, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: The ever-growing power of Wal-Mart

There's been plenty written elsewhere about the influence of Wal-Mart in America's economy. For instance, this about Wal-Mart and the recording industry and this critical view of its influence on local communities. Somewhat under the radar Wal-Mart has been growing...
October 17, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Major healthcare M&A deals this year

This Reuters report shows major healthcare M&A deals this year. I found this after looking at GE's further incursions into the health care business. Most recently GE last week bought Amersham. Amersham makes reagents and fits in with GE's MRI...
October 17, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Employer health costs moderating slightly

Hewitt Associates report on their annual survey on health costs for employers. They found that the 2004 premiums will be up an average of 12.6% next year as opposed to 14.7% in 2003. They also note that HMO costs continue...
October 16, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

INDUSTRY: Healthsouth--Scrushy speaks out

I've commented (perhaps too much) about the Healthsouth affair and how the vagaries of Medicare reimbursement led many different types of for-profit (and probably also non-profit) providers to go well over the top in attempting to cash in. The difference...
October 13, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

THE INDUSTRY: Price Discrimination lives--Only the poor pay full price in U.S. healthcare system

In an article on CBS Marketwatch, titled Only the poor pay full price, Michael Collins points out from a business point of view, the crazy pricing scheme in the U.S. healthcare "system". I had a similar experience last year when...
October 2, 2003 in The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)