This is the transcript of my recent podcast interview with Castlight Health President John Driscoll.David E. Williams:This is David Williams, co-founder of MedPharma Partners and author of the Health Business Blog. I’m speaking today with John Driscoll, who’s just been named president of Castlight Health.John, thanks for being with me. Congratulations on your new role.John [...]

Employees grumble every year when their employers make them pay more toward their health insurance costs and/or increase co-pays and deductibles. But most of the time employers absorb the bulk of the financial hit and only pass along a fraction of the overall increase. One result has been a stagnation in real wages, as a [...]

Under the Affordable Care Act, health plans have to issue rebates to policyholders if they don’t spend at least 80 or 85 percent of premiums on medical costs. (The 80 percent threshold is for individual and small group policies, 85 is for large groups.) Now that the law is in effect, about $1.3 billion is [...]

We’d like to think that the health care delivery system puts patient needs first and ensures that patients and families have the right information in mind before making momentous treatment decisions. Unfortunately, despite a great deal of awareness raising and education, this still is not the case. Radiation oncologists are publicizing a new study that [...]

Innovocracyprovides crowd funding for academic research. In this interview, co-founder Mikael Totterman explains the concept and describes the first project:a promising toilet-training method for autistic children.What is Innovocracy?Innovocracy was created to bridge the gap between powerful ideas and beneficial applications of those ideas. We offer a funding source that connects people who want to support [...]

This is a guest post by Barbra Rabson, Executive Director of Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), on the occasion of the release of MHQP’s latest clinical quality report.As Massachusetts policymakers debate what can be done to tame rising health care costs, let’s not forget that the overriding goal must be to improve the health and [...]

It has never made sense to me to that dental insurance is not included in comprehensive medical insurance. Maybe it’s because dental care was originally seen as mainly cosmetic or because dentists aren’t medical doctors. I suspect there’s also concern about adding dental insurance to medical coverage due to the added cost. In any case, [...]

Healthcare Finance News points out that despite the rhetoric, it’s not so clear that theinaugurationof a President Romney, Santorum, Gingrich or Paul would actually lead to the appeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or Obamacare. Why not?If you took middle school civics, you may recall that the President doesn’t repeal laws [...]

I’mexcitedthat four of the most conservative Senators are offering a serious plan to reform Medicare. They would end fee for service Medicare in 2014, place everyone in the plan currently offered to federal employees, increase the eligibility age and apply means testing. Here’s what I like about it:The plan is mainly focused on facing up [...]

Forcing welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving benefits is a hot button issue that’s up for debate in many state legislatures. The USA Today’s letter section does a good job of presenting different sides of the issue.On the pro side, Bruce Gary of Rhinelander, WI asserts that since many employees are subject [...]