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)

Costs Are Not The Same As Rates

By PAUL LEVY Many "old" media outlets do not identify the authors of their editorials. Thus, when an opinion is offered, you have no way of knowing who wrote it or what their qualifications are. Your only recourse when there...
July 13, 2009 in Costs, Paul Levy, Policy/Politics, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (13)

A Dream of Reason

By BRIAN KLEPPER and DAVID KIBBE The dream of reason did not take power into account...Modern medicine is one of those extraordinary works of reason...But medicine is also a world of power. -Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine,...
June 22, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Consumers, David Kibbe, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (8)

The Health Industry's Achilles Heel

By BRIAN KLEPPER and DAVID C. KIBBE "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff Timing matters. The health industry has demonstrated steadfast resistance to reforms, but its recently diminished...
June 10, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Health Plans, Obama administration, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack

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)

An Open Letter to the New National Coordinator for Health IT: Part 3 -- Certification As The Elephant in Health IT's Living Room

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER In the first and second parts of this series we talked about how and why there is no universal definition for the term "EHR." Instead there is a legitimate, growing debate about the...
May 8, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Obama administration, Online Communities, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (20)

An Open Letter to the New National Coordinator for Health IT - Untying HITECH's Gordian Knot: Part 1

By DAVID C. KIBBE & BRIAN KLEPPER Congratulations to David Blumenthal on being named National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT). Dr. Blumenthal will be the person most responsible for the rules and distribution of the American Recovery and Reinvestment...
April 26, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (19)

An Open Letter to the New National Coordinator for Health IT: Part 2 - Opening the Aperture of Innovation

By DAVID C. KIBBE & BRIAN KLEPPER One of the important decisions before Dr. Blumenthal and his colleagues at ONC and HHS is whether the national health information network will be one of closed appliances that bundle together proprietary hardware,...
April 22, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (21)

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Continuity of Care Record Gains Ground As A Standard

By BRIAN KLEPPER We live in a time of such great progress in so many arenas that, too often and without a second thought, we take significant advances for granted. But, now and then, we should catalog the steps forward,...
April 10, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Consumers, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, Google, Health 2.0, Personalized Medicine, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (21)

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 AMA Wins a Round Against Accountability and Patient Information

By Brian Klepper On January 30th, a 3-judge DC appeals court overturned a lower court decision that would have forced public release of Medicare physician data. Writing for the majority in a split 2-1 judgment, Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson...
February 6, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Consumers, Current Affairs, Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (12)

Dr. George Lundberg for Surgeon General

By Brian Klepper The report that Mr. Obama's Surgeon General choice might be neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta produced an upwelling of strong opinion, particularly in the medical community. Some argued that Dr. Gupta has clearly demonstrated...
January 25, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Current Affairs, JAMA, Physicians, Policy/Politics, public health, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (17)

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)

Let's Reboot America's Health IT Conversation Part 2: Beyond EHRs

By DAVID KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER Yesterday we tried to put EHRs into perspective. They're important, and we can't effectively move health care forward without them. But they're only one of many important health IT functions. EHRs and health IT...
January 6, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Health 2.0, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, User Generated Content, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (9)

Let's Reboot America's HIT Conversation Part 1: Putting EHRs in Context

By DAVID C. KIBBE & BRIAN KLEPPER Kibbe & Klepper are back with an update to their pre-Christmas piece on EHRs and the forthcoming Obama Administration's investment policy towards them. Lest you think that this is just a small group...
January 5, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Health 2.0, Obama administration, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency, User Generated Content, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (7)

A new year's resolution for greater hospital transparency

By Paul Levy Just thinking, along the lines of a New Year's resolution. What if all of the hospitals in the Boston metropolitan area -- academic medical centers and community hospitals -- decided as a group to eliminate certain kinds...
January 3, 2009 in Hospitals, Patient Safety, Paul Levy, Quality, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (4)

America's CEOs set priorities for Obama Administration

By Brian Klepper This past Monday and Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal convened an extraordinary conference of about 100 CEOs to develop and recommend issue priorities for the new Administration. (See the participant list here.) This meeting brought together the...
November 21, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Conferences, Economics, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (11)

An Impending Hanging: Will Health 2.0 Be Compromised By The Economic Downturn?

By Brian Klepper Nothing focuses the mind like an impending hanging. -- Samuel Johnson I've been preparing for tomorrow's 3rd Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, where I'll join my pals Matthew, Indu Subaiya, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn and Michael Millenson amid...
October 21, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, evidenced-based medicine, Health 2.0, Online Communities, Quality, The Industry, Transparency, User Generated Content, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (3)

W(h)ither thy health benefits?

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn The headlines read that CFOs are having trouble accessing credit. What will that mean for health benefits? A survey of American CFOs and comptrollers from Grant Thornton has found that over half of CFOs have seen credit...
October 13, 2008 in Economics, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Genius Shines…And, Where the Light Doesn’t, Hospitals Don’t

By Michael L. Millenson It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that hospitals could dramatically reduce the hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries they unintentionally cause patients ever year, but it may take a genius to coax change...
September 25, 2008 in Patient Safety, Quality, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (0)

A long way to go in price and quality transparency

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn Providing price and quality information is viewed as a Holy Grail among health plans and providers, who see transparency as the key for igniting health care consumerism. However, that Grail remains elusive, as issues of tool usefulness...
September 2, 2008 in Health Plans, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Quality, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (4)

Health Systems' Ferocious Challenges

By Brian Klepper Lately, I've had interesting discussions with a thoughtful exec. at a major Western health system about the ferocious challenges facing hospitals and health systems. Her organization's internal conversations at the moment are centered, in part, on what...
July 22, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Hospitals, Medicare, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (3)

A message you hope to never send

By Paul Levy First, an email sent out on Thursday morning. My commentary follows. Dear BIDMC Community, This week at BIDMC, a patient was harmed when something happened that never should happen: A procedure was performed on the wrong body...
July 7, 2008 in Hospitals, Patient Safety, Paul Levy, Quality, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (6)

Consumer Reports on Health: Worse Than Average

By MICHAEL MILLENSON Maybe no one at Consumer Reports has a mother. The first rule of effective consumer information is “tell it to Mom.” That is, explain why something is important in the kind of language you would use when...
June 4, 2008 in Consumers, Health 2.0, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (9)

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)

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, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

Which way to go for health reform? From Birkenstocks to pom-poms

By Sarah Arnquist The methods proposed to clean up the health care mess in the United States that leading voices pitched to hundreds of journalists Friday unsurprisingly were as varied as their Birkenstocks and patriotic tie. David Himmelstein, co-founder of...
March 31, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Transparency | 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 (23)

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, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (2)

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)

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)

Say it Ain't So, Joe by Paul Levy

I heard a great presentation this morning by Joe Newhouse, from the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard Medical School. There was one point that he made that really caught my attention. It was a cite to a...
December 20, 2007 in Hospitals, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (1)