Bill Hayes of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio says that while conventional wisdom may assume deep divisions between red and blue states it turns out that, "given opportunities for honest dialogue, Americans agree far more than they disagree when it comes to health care reform."
Dr. Jeffrey Parks challenges the idea that American is spending too much on health care: "Maybe in America, we don't have so much a health care system as a health care industry. And this industry is an economic life force for many Midwestern cities in this post-industrial, post-manufacturing era of American hegemony."
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Mainstream medicine is slowly coming around to the realization that patients are getting too much radiation from diagnostic imaging. David E. Williams says that personal health records are a great place to store information on radiation exposure.
Dr. Jeffrey Parks thinks that physicians groups, which are more maligned than ever before, need to take a hint from the group formerly known as the American Trial Lawyers Association and "rebrand" themselves with more positive names. The American College of Cardiology could become "Healers for Hearts (H4H)."
Happy Hospitalist outlines his vision of "lifestyle insurance." He writes: "I want to get rewarded by having my premiums drop and the pool of expenses decline. I want a pool of premium payers who understand that health is not given to you. It’s earned. I want people to want to join my risk pool. To earn their way in and receive the benefits of drastically reduced premiums. Reduced premiums that are earned through hard work and dedication. I want everyone to strive for the gifted program, not settle for mediocracy."
Dr. Jeffrey Parks explains why so many people don't get tort reform, and offers his own solution: arbitration.
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Dr. Jeffrey Parks writes that it's wrong to label the wild health-care protesters at recent town halls "un-American." But they are unworthy of taking part in the debate. "A participant in the public debate of an issue of this magnitude has an obligation to arrive at the debate well-informed," he writes.
The Happy Hospitalist reviews the argument of two psychology and political science professors who argue against incentives, and concludes: "The authors seem to worry that bundled care would create an incentive for less care and eventually worse care."
Michelle Mahon writes that the case of two Texas nurses shows a problem in pursuing a culture of safety at many hospitals: Nurses around the nation who voice concerns about patient safety are frequently the target of unfair and unjust persecution.
Attorney Brian M. Murray warns that health providers who have "HIPAA fatigue" need to re-awake for new privacy and security rules in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). The deadlines are approaching sooner than you may think.
We will highlight Build My Health's revenue practice management tools, which could help physician practices add up to $250,000 to their practices.
The Happy Hospitalist outlines the speech he gives to any patient who smokes. Doctors should feel free to borrow it -- and he says he'll be happy to change it if physicians are properly paid for the problems smokers cause.
Sometimes, it's a good idea to provide chemotherapy to a 92-year-old woman. Dr. Jeffery Parks writes: "These are the scenarios we see all the time in the real-world practice of medicine. It isn't always cookbook easy. But who do we want making these sorts of tough decisions: doctors/patients or some faceless bureaucracy in Washington DC that mindlessly follows an arbitrary algorithm?"
Merrill Goozner sees two possible motives for the data-faking controversy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham: professional greed and personal greed. He reviews the evidence.
Ernest Boyd of the Ohio Pharmacists Association says simply getting chronic-disease patients to take their medications can reduce overall health care spending. The right incentives -- often through employers -- can get patients listen to their physicians.
World Product Centre executive John Strong writes that too much of the "medical mart" debate has focused on real estate. "Success lies in creating unique and sustainable value for participating companies and health care at large," he says.