November 30th, 2011 by GruntDoc in Opinion, Research
1 Comment »
I really like this idea, but … well, see after the quote.
It’s easy to compare prices on cameras, vacations, and homes. But in the United States, patients fly blind when paying for health care. People typically don’t find out how much any given medical procedure costs until well after they receive treatment, be it a blood draw or major surgery.
This lack of transparency has contributed to huge disparities in the cost of procedures. According to Castlight Health, a startup based in San Francisco, a colonoscopy costs anywhere from $563 to $3,967 within a single zip code. EKGs can range from $27 to $143, while the price for a set of three spinal x-rays varies from as little as $38 to as high as $162.
When someone else is picking up the tab, mystery pricing is not much of a problem. But these days, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
October 9th, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Opinion
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If you want to grow the expense of health care delivery in America very quickly, then create two government agencies to do the same job.
From the 28 September 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, we read about a small paragraph in our new health care law that created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). From that same article, here’s the PCORI’s mission:
PCORI responds to a widespread concern (eds note: emphasis mine. Really? What about the internet?) that, in many cases, patients and their health care providers, families, and caregivers do not have the information they need to make choices aligned with their desired health outcomes.
PCORI funding is set at a total of $210 million for the first 3 years and increases to approximately $350 million in 2013 and $500 million annually from 2014 through 2019. With more than $3 billion to spend between now and the end of the decade, PCORI will support many studies encompassing a broad range of study designs and outcomes that are relevant to patients, aiming to assist people in making choices that are consistent with their values, preferences, and goals.
We should recall that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
September 9th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in Health Policy, Opinion
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In a comment left on my blog, Jamie Bearse, the chief operating officer of Project Zero – The Project to End Prostate Cancer, showed how quickly and deeply discussions about screening tests can devolve into ugly rhetoric. Bearse wrote:
“Your comments along with Otis Brawley’s vendetta against the PSA sentence men to die from prostate cancer testing. Shame on you. It’s important to know your score to make a proper diagnosis and decision of if and how to treat prostate cancer. Groups that create screening guidelines for cancer such as American Urological Association and National Comprehensive Cancer Network say get tested. In fact, Brawley is at odds with his own organization. ACS supports testing as well. Otis Brawley has killed more men by giving them an excuse to not be tested. Don’t follow that path just because of your own bad experience.”
I responded:
“Jamie,
My comments policy states that I will delete comments that make personal attacks. You certainly did that with your statement that the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society “has killed” and that he has “sentenced men to die.”
Nonetheless I have posted your comment because I think it’s important for other readers to see how some pro-screening rhetoric so quickly and completely devolves into ugliness.
…
YOU ARE WRONG Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
June 14th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion
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Just when I’ve lost hope that mainstream media will stop perpetuating the myth the more medicine equals better care, the Associated Press came up with this excellent piece. The article states, rightly, that “anywhere from one-fifth to nearly one-third of the tests and treatments we get are estimated to be unnecessary,” and that, “it may lead to dangerous side effects.”
Regular readers of this blog should be familiar with those concepts. I wrote recently that patients often reject evidence-based medicine. One reason is that there aren’t enough clinical guidelines available for patients to make an informed decision. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
May 17th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
1 Comment »
Let’s face it, the best way to cut healthcare costs is to say “no.” That means denying unnecessary tests that most patients in the United States are accustomed to having.
The New York Times‘ David Leonhardt has the best take on this issue that I’ve read. He acknowledges the difficulty of telling the American public “no,” and cites examples ranging from the breast cancer screening controversy to the managed care backlash in the 1990s:
This try-anything-and-everything instinct is ingrained in our culture, and it has some big benefits. But it also has big downsides, including the side effects and risks that come with unnecessary treatment. Consider that a recent study found that 15,000 people were projected to die eventually from the radiation they received from CT scans given in just a single year — and that there was “significant overuse” of such scans. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
