The Health Care Blog

Octopus and other Fishes

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 8:28pm
By Matthew Holt One of the most fun times at HIMSS last week was the MEDecision party at the Georgia aquarium. I took a few videos of the Fish and the humans—so something a little different for you all The...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Hospital Quality Group Obscures Hospital Quality Reports, Journalists Charge

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 12:23pm
By MICHAEL MILLENSON The Joint Commission, which accredits four-fifths of the nation’s hospitals, is being accused of misleading consumers about the quality of care at those hospitals and then ignoring suggestions on how to correct the problem. “The organization that...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

What Happens Next in MA?

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 11:21am
By PAUL LEVY What happens next in Massachusetts with insurance reimbursement rates now that many of the facts and figures have been made public? Here's what I see. The dominant parties in the state on whose watch the disparities in...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Policy for Equal Access Care: You Make It Possible

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 11:00am
At New York-Presbyterian Hospital, we’re building technology and influencing policy that will shape the future of health care delivery. Visionary executive leaders are driving momentum in the movement toward a connected health information technology environment—the next frontier in modern medicine....
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

What Good are Health Insurers?

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 10:20am
By BILL KRAMER As the health reform effort moves into the final stages, everyone seems to be taking a whack at health insurers. Some of the insurers’ wounds are self-inflicted, such as WellPoint’s announcement of 39% premium increase for individual...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Community Wars? WebMD launches Health Exchange

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 9:41am
By Matthew Holt Just when we thought things were calming down in the world of Health 2.0, it’s kicking off. WebMD has been watching Everyday Health take over its spot as top Health site ranking in the ComScore rankings (cue...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

The 2010 DiabetesMine Challenge

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 9:07am
By Amy Tenderich We have just opened the 2010 DiabetesMine Design Challenge. This year, we’ll be selecting THREE Grand Prize winners to EACH receive $7,000 in cash and a support package to help winners realize and commercialize their design ideas....
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Health 2.0 Europe--Webinar on Wednesday

Tue, 2010/03/09 - 1:47am
This Wednesday, March 10th at 4:30 CET / 7:30AM PST our FREE hour long webinar series will be highlighting the upcoming Health 2.0 Europe conference with our Parisian partner, Denise Silber of Basil Strategies. Joining in the discussion and presenting...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Why Rush Vendor Certification of EHR Technologies?

Mon, 2010/03/08 - 5:23pm
By David C. Kibbe and Brian Klepper A surprise move by ONC/HHS indicates the wheels may be falling off health IT reform at about the same rate they've fallen off Democrats' broader health reforms. David Blumenthal and his staff have...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

A Shout-out to our sponsors

Mon, 2010/03/08 - 10:00am
THCB would not exist without the support of our generous sponsors. So we'd like to give a shout to our friends at Eliza, our latest corporate sponsors. "Who says nerds can't talk to people? We use technology to engage people...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Last Helicopter Out of Saigon!

Sun, 2010/03/07 - 1:29pm
By JEFF GOLDSMITH In popular psychiatry, a classic passive aggressive gambit is “malicious compliance”- intentionally inflicting harm on someone by strictly following a directive, even though the person knows that they are damaging someone by doing so. In Washington, the...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Health Reform Could Harm Medicaid Patients

Sun, 2010/03/07 - 1:15pm
By EDWARD MILLER, MD Dr. Miller is the Dean and CEO of The Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Both the House and Senate health-care reform bills call for a large increase in Medicaid—about 18 million more people will begin enrolling...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Waiting for Dr. Godot

Sat, 2010/03/06 - 2:14pm
By MICHAEL TURPIN "If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it is for free.” – PJ O’Rourke On the eve of sweeping health reform legislation, it is hard not to notice the glowing skyline in Washington as policymakers...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

The Oxymoron Columnist

Fri, 2010/03/05 - 1:37pm
By MERRILL GOOZNER Charles Krauthammer's columns in the Washington Post are like the Wall Street Journal editorial page, must-reading for anyone who wants to keep up with the illogical fulminations and small-minded cruelties of what passes for intellectual discourse on...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Pioneer Speaks about MA Health Reform

Fri, 2010/03/05 - 1:30pm
By PAUL LEVY The Pioneer Institute is a public policy research center in Massachusetts. On the political spectrum, most people would call it conservative, or a least free-market oriented. In my opinion, regardless of your particular position along that spectrum,...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Why cameras shouldn't be let into bars

Fri, 2010/03/05 - 2:28am
By Matthew Holt Captions for a bubble above Jonathan Bush’s or Judy Faulkner’s head? In the comments please
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Bush & Palestrant--Live from HIMSS

Fri, 2010/03/05 - 2:17am
By Matthew Holt After days of technical gremlins holding me back, I'm getting my HIMSS interviews up online. I’ll start with one from two of my favorites. This is Daniel Palestrant of Sermo and Jonathan Bush of athenahealth, who are...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

HIMSS impressions

Thu, 2010/03/04 - 4:49pm
By Matthew Holt HIMSS is like a 4 day party with interesting conversations, meetings that I always miss (sorry RelayHealth & Ingenix—I owe ya both!), and usually a travel complication. This time I got there smoothly but missed my plane...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Dispatch from HIMSS

Thu, 2010/03/04 - 1:34pm
By JOHN HALAMKA I've just finished my day in Atlanta and am beginning a commute to Tokyo. Every year, I describe my top 10 impressions from HIMSS. Here's my summary of the event for 2010 1. Meaningful Use is everywhere....
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare

Antitrust Warfare

Tue, 2010/03/02 - 11:44pm
By Daniel Palestrant, MD Not since the days of monopoly busting and Standard Oil has anti-trust been such a contentious topic in American politics. Today, Teddy Roosevelt has been replaced by Nancy Pelosi and the oil barons have been replaced...
Categories: Health IT, Healthcare