November 10th, 2011 by PreparedPatient in Expert Interviews
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This interview is the ninth and final of a series of brief chats between CFAH president and founder, Jessie Gruman, and experts—our CFAH William Ziff Fellows—who have devoted their careers to understanding and encouraging people’s engagement in their health and health care.
Trudy Lieberman is concerned that despite all the rhetoric, choosing the best hospital, the best doctor, the best health plan, is simply not possible. Some of the so-called best might be good for some people but not others, and the information available to inform/guide choices is just too ambiguous.
Ms. Lieberman is a CFAH William Ziff Fellow.
Gruman: What has changed in the past year that has influenced people’s engagement in their health and health care?
Lieberman: Costs have risen a lot, and employers and insurers have made consumers pay higher deductibles, co-pays and coinsurance. The theory is, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
November 6th, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Opinion
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Like Christmas season advertising, the holiday crunch for procedural medicine is coming earlier every year.
Perhaps that’s why the posting on this blog as suffered: we’re busier than ever.
Why is this?
I suspect it’s because of a variety of forces that are coming together to create the great procedural “perfect storm” this time of year.
Perhaps the most important contributor to the holiday rush is the patients themselves. Patients are Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
November 2nd, 2011 by KennyLinMD in Health Policy, Opinion
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Last month, my family was involved in a scary traffic accident en route to the Family Medicine Education Consortium‘s North East Region meeting. I was in the left-hand eastbound lane of the Massachusetts Turnpike when a westbound tractor trailer collided with a truck, causing the truck to cross over the grass median a few cars ahead of us. I hit the brakes and swerved to avoid the truck, but its momentum carried it forward into the left side of our car. Strapped into child safety seats in the back, both of my children were struck by shards of window glass. My five year-old son, who had been sitting behind me, eventually required twelve stitches to close a scalp laceration. Miraculously, none of the occupants of the other six damaged vehicles, including the truck driver, sustained any injuries.
Family physicians like me, and physicians in general, like to believe that the interventions we provide patients make a big difference in their eventual health outcomes. In a few cases, they do. But for most people, events largely outside of the scope of medical practice determine one’s quality and length of life, and Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Common Sense Family Doctor*
November 1st, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in Opinion, Research
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Why doesn’t the US have the best health care system in the world? That’s the question The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System asks in its report, “Why Not the Best? Results from the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011.” Excerpt:
“U.S. health system performance continues to fall far short of what is attainable, especially given the enormity of public and private resources devoted nationally to health. Across 42 performance indicators, the U.S. achieves a total score of 64 out of a possible 100, when comparing national rates with domestic and international benchmarks. Overall, the U.S. failed to improve relative to these benchmarks, which in many cases rose. Costs were up sharply, access to care deteriorated, health system efficiency remained low, disparities persisted, and health outcomes failed to keep pace with benchmarks. The Affordable Care Act targets many of the gaps identified by the Scorecard.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
October 23rd, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Opinion
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As Occupy Wall Street spread across the nation, I can’t help but wonder if the same movement could occupy health care. After all, the basic tenants of the movement involve protesting against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government. In the “Occupy” movement, there is a feeling there’s an inside game and the game is rigged.
It would seem, then, that our new health care law, written by corporate interests and heavily influenced by lobbyists, could become a ripe target for the movement. We are beginning to see Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
