Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Are you friends members of the Marathon Runner’s of America club or the Bratwurst and Philly Cheesesteak club? If the answer is the later, you are much more likely to be obese than the former. This is the finding of a 2007 NEJM paper by Christakis and Fowler. Obese individuals are more likely to be…
With the stock market in decline, the credit crunch hovering over, and the fear of a recession growing, I think its time for some Friday humor. I’ll let personal finance guru Michael Scott of the TV show The Office show us all how to declare bankruptcy.
According to Insurance and Technology, health insurer WellPoint has partnered with Zagat’s Survey to allow WellPoint’s members to rate their doctors. Zagat’s will use its 30 point rating system to evaluate all doctors. According to Spirit magazine, patients can grade doctors based on “including doctor availability, office environment, trustworthiness, and communication.” Other websites, such as…
People who are sick are not able to shop around for medical care. This statement may be true in some cases, but not for the majority of illnesses. Those without insurance are especially sensitive to the price of medical care and are in fact very likely to shop for the combination of the lowest price,…
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters website.
In Mexico there is a government program named Oportunidades which gives families cash payments if their children go to school, get vaccinated, and have regular health checkups. The program has been a success and similar conditional cash transfers (CCTs) programs are being run in Nicaragua, Brazil and New York City. New York City? Should the…
Vaccination is one of the most cost effective medical treatments we have. It is important that providers vaccines in a timely manner. In attempt to streamline vaccine distribution systems, the CDC created Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project (VMBIP). Instead of having providers place orders with the grantee (i.e.: state health department), and then having the…
I will be in Atlanta for most of this week attending the National Immunization Conference. If you are interested in seeing me present my work regarding the efficiency of the Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project‘s new distribution system for the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, my talk will be on Wednesday at 9am. Blogging will…
Merrill Goozer reports (“CMS okays heart scan…“) on how Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has reversed a policy to stop paying for heart scans. There has been no clinical evidence to show that these expensive heart scans identify heart disease any better than less expensive procedures (i.e.: stress tests). Physician revenue, however, would…
Michael Cannon reports (“Pennsylvania Proposes to Defraud Non-Pennsylvanians“) that Pennsylvania is manipulating the Medicaid system. Pennsylvania is increasing Medicaid payments to hospitals (thus increasing the amount of federal matching funds) with one hand, but with the other is creating a tax on “profits of general hospitals in two counties, Allegheny [Pittsburgh] and Philadelphia.” Thus, the…