Who goes to retail health care clinics?

The Carpe Diem looks at who is going to retail health care clinics. “Roughly 90% of the patients came for one of 10 relatively simple treatments… ‘Most of the conditions cared for in retail clinics likely do not require the level of training of a physician.’” Insurance companies are starting to support these retail health…

Off to Seattle

I will be taking a brief vacation to Seattle.  Blog posting will resume on Monday.  Below are two fun tours my fiancee and I took while in Seattle: Savor Seattle. Seattle Underground Tour.

Wal-Mart reduces obesity

Wal-Mart increases real incomes by lowering prices.  The purchasing power increase makes buying fresh fruit and vegetables more affordable for the average consumer.  At least this is what Charles Courtemanche and Art Carden found. HT: Marginal Revolution

Fragmented Medical Care III: Policy Options

Continuing with yesterdays theme of fixing America’s fragmented health care system, I will review some of the Commonwealth Fund’s policy suggestions to improve health care quality. Expansion of P4P.  While I support P4P in theory, in practice, it will be very difficult to apply.  P4P rewards only measurable components of health care quality.  Since much…

Fragmented Medical Care II: The Models

Yesterday I wrote about the problems with fragmented medical care in America.  Is a single payer system the only solution?  A Commonwealth Fund report shows that the single payer system is not the only path towards improved, more integrated care. What we want The report outlines six general improvements that need to be made to…

Google Health on Marketplace

NPR’s Marketplace Money discusses the pros and cons of allowing Google Health to store your private medical records. [Dr. John Halamka, the Chief Information Officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center]: A patient can put privacy flags on any of this record that they wish. They can not change the facts in the record however.…

Fragmented Medical Care I: America’s Problem

The U.S. healthcare system is one of the more fragmented systems in the world. Traditionally, economists believe that a splash of decentralized planning with a heap of free markets is a recipe for efficient outcomes. In the case of health care coordination, however, information sharing, and collaborative work are needed if quality is to improve…