February 28th, 2010 by DavidHarlow in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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The Massachusetts health reform law, Part II – enacted in 2008 – laid the groundwork for cost control and quality improvement, as a follow-on to the initial legislation’s emphasis on achieving near-universal coverage. The legislation authorized several studies — including a report published a few months back on global payment strategies — and set the stage for hearings on health care cost containment to be held before the state Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP), which are scheduled to begin March 16, 2010.
Update 2/18/10: Paul Levy posted a series of questions DHCFP would like hospitals to answer at the hearings at Running a Hospital. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog*
February 23rd, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Should hospitals send twitter “updates” on patients undergoing complicated catheter ablation procedures using “pre-approved” scripted story lines?
In a far corner of the operating room Thursday, a Web producer and a cardiac expert with St. Vincent’s huddled over a laptop. They chronicled the procedure largely from a script that Oza had signed off on a day earlier.
The procedure uses radio frequencies to scar parts of the heart. The scars block signals sent from a quartet of veins in the left atrium, signals that cause the heart to go haywire. The entire procedure is done using a catheter inserted into a patient’s groin while the patient is anesthetized. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
February 16th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Doctors have been coming under increasing scrutiny for their relationships with pharmaceutical companies.
Many hospitals and medical schools have outright banned any involvement of their physician staff with drug companies. This isn’t a contentious issue most of the time.
But a recent case at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital raised some eyebrows. Apparently, an asthma specialist was so dependent on drug company money, that he chose to quit the hospital instead. According to the Boston Globe, “Out of thousands of US doctors hired by drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline to talk about its products, [this physician] was the highest paid during a three-month period last year, the company recently disclosed: He made $99,375 for giving 40 talks to other physicians last April, May, and June, almost one every other day.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
February 15th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced this week he has had enough of rising health care costs.
So he is proposing a novel solution: make them illegal.
Well, it’s not fair to call this idea “novel.” Governments have tried price controls for 40 centuries. And even though they don’t work, they keep trying. The explanation isn’t complicated. It’s an easy way for a politician to seem to do something about rising prices. In this case, it won’t do much about the underlying problem, but it is a terrific way for a governor to look like a man of action. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
February 15th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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It’s an age-old problem, made more complicated by our new era of electronic medical records: optimizing collections in a time of unprecedented price pressures on our health care complex. With the economic downturn and declining government payments for services, everyone in health care is feeling the pinch.
It is no secret that work not billed will ultimately be work not paid. Hospitals and practice managers, adept at business principles, know this. Deep down inside, doctors know this, too. Historically, doctors dictated when they billed their patients, even if it meant waiting over a week to do so. If a doctor was to take a vacation, some of those billings could wait until his return.
Not so any longer. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
