Paying kids to go to school

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…

Vaccine Logistics

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…

National Immunization Conference

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…

Pay first, evidence later.

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…

Pennsylvania works the system

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…

Darkness at Noon

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler is a unique novel which describes the imprisonment of Communist revolutionary Nicholas Rubashov. Rubashov was a loyal supporter of the Communist cause in Russia, but his subsequent imprisonment on bogus charges causes him to reflect on whether his fight to bring Communism to Russia was truly beneficial to Russian…

GoodReads

Are you a bibiophile? Are you always on the lookout for a good book recommendation? If this is the case you should try GoodReads. The website is a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace. Instead of using a social network to keep up with friends or the latest gossip, GoodReads allows users to list…

Minimum Insurance Benefit

Many reform advocates have claimed that the federal government should mandate a package of insurance benefits that all private and public health insurers would be legally compelled to provide. Switzerland is one country in which the government defines a what the insurance benefit will be for all standard health insurers. The National Coalition on Health…

March Madness Calvalcade of Risk

The very cleverly formatted March Madness edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at Regulating Health Insurance. This website received both a #2 and a #6 seed. Henry Stern of Insure Blog deservingly received a #1 seed for his insightful piece on Alzheimer’s disease. Would you get a genetic test for a predisposition…