ANNOUNCEMENT

MedCity CONVERGE July 9-10 in Philly gathers payers, providers, medtech, pharma, digital health, policymakers & more.

David E. Williams

David E. Williams

David E. Williams is the co-founder of MedPharma Partners who writes regularly on the Health Business Blog.

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Are biosimilars ethical?

Are biosimilars ethical?

May 14, 2013 7:47 pm by | 0 Comments

Generic drugs have been an effective cost containment solution for traditional, small molecule pharmaceuticals. As large molecule biologics proliferate and take up a growing share of medical spending, we also ... Read more
Business opportunity: Create safe packaging for home chemo

Business opportunity: Create safe packaging for home chemo

May 2, 2013 4:06 pm by | 0 Comments

Medication mix-up’s are a well-known source of errors and harm in the hospital. So we shouldn’t be surprised that similar errors occur in other settings, including the home. Medication Errors ... Read more
Oncologists get serious about drug prices

Oncologists get serious about drug prices

April 29, 2013 7:28 am by | 0 Comments

A new article in the journal Blood shows that even doctors who have never worried about the price of drugs are starting to consider cost and effectiveness before prescribing. ... Read more
Medical device connectivity: Interview with Capsule’s Stuart Long

Medical device connectivity: Interview with Capsule’s Stuart Long

April 23, 2013 8:39 am by | 0 Comments

Hospitals have many devices collecting data on patients, but until recently information from those devices has not been routinely integrated nor stored in electronic medical records. In this interview, Stuart ... Read more
Of course hospitals make money from complications!

Of course hospitals make money from complications!

April 17, 2013 11:00 am by | 2 Comments

A new JAMA article (Relationship Between Occurrence of Surgical Complications and Hospital Finances) by a variety of health care wonks including some of my former Boston Consulting Group colleagues demonstrates ... Read more
Insurance brokers are barking up the wrong tree on Medical Loss Ratio reform

Insurance brokers are barking up the wrong tree on Medical Loss Ratio reform

April 8, 2013 5:10 pm by | 0 Comments

The current compensation structure has insurance brokers working on behalf of the health plans to sell coverage. If agents and brokers are really working as HR departments for small firms, ... Read more
Five reasons that provider consolidation is not the end of the world

Five reasons that provider consolidation is not the end of the world

March 18, 2013 7:55 am by | 1 Comments

More doctors are going to work for hospitals, but this started happening well before the ACA became law. There are several reasons that this trend is not as bad as ... Read more
RWJF leader on reducing readmissions: We need entrepreneurs because no one size fits all

RWJF leader on reducing readmissions: We need entrepreneurs because no one size fits all

March 5, 2013 10:42 am by | 0 Comments

Anne Weiss is Quality/Equality Health Care Team Director and Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explains the challenges of helping communities improve patient care and reduce readmissions. ... Read more
EHRs and improper billing: Why we shouldn’t worry?

EHRs and improper billing: Why we shouldn’t worry?

February 14, 2013 11:40 am by | 0 Comments

Concerns are emerging that the adoption of electronic health records is leading to inappropriate increases in billings to payers, including Medicare, and that these higher billings couldundermineor even overwhelm any ... Read more
Health insurance unaffordable for smokers? Here’s another way to look at it

Health insurance unaffordable for smokers? Here’s another way to look at it

January 28, 2013 8:12 am by | 0 Comments

Smoking penalty: Individual health care coverage could become unaffordable for many people is the headline of an Associated Press editorial masquerading as a news story. The gist of the piece ... Read more
What Amazon can teach us about telehealth adoption

What Amazon can teach us about telehealth adoption

January 25, 2013 3:34 pm by | 0 Comments

One reason Internet shopping got established and grew as quickly as it did is that online shopping sites have enjoyed a built in tax advantage over traditional retail stores. In ... Read more
Quick action: Health insurance exchanges have turned into marketplaces

Quick action: Health insurance exchanges have turned into marketplaces

January 22, 2013 2:29 pm by | 1 Comments

Thanks to David Kerrigan of the Massachusetts Health Connector for pointing out that the Obama Administration has suddenly switched terminology: health insurance exchanges are now health insurance marketplaces. I think ... Read more
Getting charged for rework in a hospital

Getting charged for rework in a hospital

January 4, 2013 4:33 pm by | 0 Comments

In Reducing surgical complications: How to make it happen faster, I contrasted the way a hospital gets paid for rework with what happens in a manufacturing environment. In short: when ... Read more
American Well CEO: Telehealth is becoming part of everyone’s medicine cabinet

American Well CEO: Telehealth is becoming part of everyone’s medicine cabinet

January 4, 2013 7:47 am by | 0 Comments

Telehealth is truly redistributing the available supply of healthcare and making it available to patients. That’s why it is perceived as such a radical change. ... Read more
Fiscal cliff dwellers: Don’t forget, you could always beef up IPAB

Fiscal cliff dwellers: Don’t forget, you could always beef up IPAB

December 19, 2012 7:17 am by | 0 Comments

Republicans are gunning for entitlement cuts as part of a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. Cuts in Medicare are high on the GOP agenda (despite campaigning on a ... Read more