DB’s rant:
[T]hose who champion P4P make an unfortunate assumption. They believe that you can push one button, and only impact the desired outcome. They are obsessed with measurement, and believe that measurement will improve health care. They are so dangerous.”
Brings to mind a phrase from the “Satisfaction Cult:”
they don’t care how much you know, until [...]
USA Today: Dr. Daniel Carlat sank into a choice seat at Lincoln Center, surrounded by other psychiatrists, all staying at the same four-star hotel in Manhattan and attending the same show for free. His deal with a pharmaceutical company to provide testimonials to other doctors had paid off well…[but] I stopped because I decided that [...]
Your Doctor’s Business Is Your Business | WSJ | 11.20.07
“There should be a discussion between physicians and patients about financial involvements,” says Dr. Zuckerman, chairman of orthopedic surgery at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. “As time goes on, patients will add this to the list of questions they have.”
In the end, patients shouldn’t be put [...]
Uwe Reinhardt eloquence:
[O]n 10 July 2007, President Bush casually shrugged off the plight of the uninsured with the remark, “I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room”—with nary a concern expressed over how these emergency rooms will cover their costs.
Absolutely without intending to do [...]
Doctor tried to avoid giving ER care to poor, state finds | Des Moines Register | 11.9.07
A doctor at Davis County Hospital in Bloomfield tried to avoid treating low-income people in the hospital’s emergency room by minimizing their concerns, a state appeal board has found.
In one case, police arrived at the hospital May 28 asking [...]
Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders | LAT | 11.9.07
Woodland Hills-based Health Insurance Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting [...]
Concierge medicine: Rx for stressed health care system? | AJC | 11.8.07
Concierge medicine — the name itself implying highly personalized services — has sprouted as a rebellion against what’s perceived as assembly-line medicine. The doctors flee the frenetic pace and hassles of traditional practices, and limit their practice loads. Patients, in exchange for $1,500 or [...]
Medicare docs can get bonuses for using EHRs and e-prescribing in 2008 | GHIT | 11.5.07
For the first time, the Medicare program will pay bonuses to doctors and other health care providers for using electronic health records and e-prescribing in 2008.
Use of the two technologies are among 119 quality measures that the Centers for [...]
Hospitals Screen for Germs After Medicare Threat | Bloomberg | 11.6.07
Threatened with financial penalties, U.S. hospitals are screening patients for drug-resistant germs and increasing the use of newer antibiotics, such as Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Cubicin.
Medicare, the U.S. health plan for the elderly and disabled, will stop paying for treatment of some infections that arise in [...]
Searching For True Innovators | Forbes | 11.5.07
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most innovative of them all?
Google?
Apple?
The answer to that question will be measured in the hundreds of millions–hundreds of millions of consumers, devices and eventually dollars–or, more appropriately, some other currency that isn’t falling through the floor.
The type of innovation required in [...]
