“…a preliminary analysis of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act…” (PDF) http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10688/hr3962Rangel.pdf …and the text of the bill itself, for those of you who have plenty of time on your hands: http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf
July 8, 2009
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, June 2009 http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7924.pdf
July 6, 2009
A side-by-side comparison of the leading comprehensive reform proposals from the Kaiser Family Foundation: http://conyers.house.gov/_files/SidebySideComparisonofMajorHealthCareProposals.pdf
July 2, 2009
Institute of Medicine. (2001). Crossing the Quality Chasm. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press. Malcolm K. Sparrow. (2000). License to Steal–How Fraud Bleeds America’s Health Care System. Boulder: Westview Press (Perseus). Robert H. Blank and Viola Burau. (2007). Comparative Health Policy, 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan. Samuel Levey and N. Paul Loomba. (1984). Health Care Administration–A Managerial Perspective, 2nd… [Read more…]
July 1, 2009
MICHAEL NIELSON: Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted? http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/?p=629 via CShaffer (fb via twitter) Exploring the Harmful Effects of Health Care by Charles M. Kilo; Eric B. Larson JAMA. 2009; 302:89-91. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/302/1/89?ct State Licensure and Professional Monopolies in Medicine by Rebecca A. Harris JAMA. 2009; 302:35-a. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/302/1/35-a?ct both via JAMA Topic Collection… [Read more…]
June 17, 2009
The Science of Health Care Reform Author: Robert H. Brook, MD JAMA. 2009;301(23):2486-2487 (doi:10.1001/jama.2009.866) Available online: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/301/23/2486 Robert H. Brook has published nice summary of considerations that need to be made on the part of practitioners in choosing a side in the next battle over the specifics of health care reform. See a few key… [Read more…]
February 18, 2009
…otherwise known as “medical tourism;” from Bob Wachter’s blog: available at http://www.the-hospitalist.org/blogs/wachters_world/archive/2009/01/12/as-insurers-begin-to-offer-deals-for-overseas-surgery-the-battle-is-joined.aspx. He writes: Of course, sensitive to the politics, it is unlikely that any of them will flat-out force their customers/employees to travel to Thailand or Singapore. The pressure will be more subtle: with savings of tens-of-thousands of dollars per case at stake, there… [Read more…]
January 22, 2009
Authored by Deloitte and publically available from their global site. See the PDF here: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/Medical%20Tourism%20-%20Asia%20Report%20-%20Web(1).pdf See figure 2 on page 3 and tell me again that a true free market exists for most Americans seeking health care; considering the magnitude of cost differentials (with the relatively small effective “cost” of the travel burden aside), it’s… [Read more…]
January 20, 2009
A Conversation With Robert L. Martensen A Front-Row Seat as a Health Care System Goes Awry By CLAUDIA DREIFUS Published: January 19, 2009 Available online at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/health/policy/20conv.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink I think doctors should get comfortable with being realistic. If it is the case, the doctor should bring up the idea that this disease process might be fatal.… [Read more…]
January 15, 2009
Got this one for Christmas; it’s so far a solid read, if half-baked in discussion of the practical application of the authors’ theory. See official reviews and the public opinions in the links below: http://www.hbs.edu/rhc/index.html http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2007/03/23/health-reform-redefining-health-care/ http://www2.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=467830 http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2007/03/business_profes.html http://books.google.com/ http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/10/1103 …also see the energetic exchange of diatribes (off-topic but interesting nonetheless) in this posting on… [Read more…]
July 22, 2008
So, I have to admit that I’ve been really surprised by the VA hospital experience! Prep yourself by reading a brief article here: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html …which pretty well sums it up: the VA provides better than private sector care at lower cost and does it while existing within the context of a giant, ponderous bureaucracy subject… [Read more…]
July 22, 2008
…is nearing completion. Here’s a sample image. (You can have a copy of the real thing, sans data and formatting, for…umm…how about $40k. This was a tremendous amount of work!) Click it to see a larger version (about 220kb). JPEG compression has not treated it well; the real thing is much prettier. I tried to… [Read more…]
March 5, 2008
(image source: Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D.) An interesting study just published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine by Dr. A. Baldwin of the University of Iowa has shown that, at least for hypertensive white male veterans in the midwest US, an increased role in determining one’s own health care is not associated with an improvement in… [Read more…]
November 16, 2007
Read about how a group is employing process engineering know-how from racing pit stops to patient hand-offs. More on this topic here.
November 2, 2009
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