Health Care and The Gathering Storm

The economy appears to be floundering. What’s the meaning for health care? Here are two very interesting and frightening charts that my good friend Warren Brennan, the CEO of SMA Informatics in Richmond, passed along this AM, with this question, aimed at the CFOs of hospitals and other health care organizations: What do these mean […]

Can Leavitt Explain Medicare Physician Data Schizophrenia at HHS?

Its time to demand accountability and an alignment of words and actions at HHSRegular readers will know that, last Sunday, I posted a column that pointed to HHS’ schizophrenic behavior when it comes to the release of Medicare physician data. First they fight the consumer advocacy group Checkbook.org’s lawsuit demanding the release of data in […]

What’s HHS’ Real Position on Releasing Medicare Physician Data?

A New HHS Program Gives “Cognitive Dissonance” New Meaning Here’s a really classical example of a federal regulatory agency holding fast to two opposing ideas at the same time. I wonder what it means? Last week HHS posted an interesting notice announcing a new program that recognizes 14 (presumably) forward-thinking health care coalitions of providers, […]

Plumpy’nut

We could mostly end global malnutrition with a simple, ready-to-use food The NY Times has an important op-ed today by Susan Shepherd, a pediatrician and medical advisor to Doctors Without Borders. The core of her message is that as the farm bill progresses through Congress, we should focus not only on the quantity of food […]

An Alternative Plan

Some closing thoughts about Families USA Health Action 2008 A wonderful meeting (Full disclosure: They brought me in to blog my impressions.), The Families USA conference that ended Saturday brought together some impressive Congressional politicians – Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, Ken Salazar, Blanche Lincoln – and true health care experts – Don Berwick, Tony Fauci […]

Berwick on Everything Health Care

Can we manage the health of populations while improving the experience for individuals? One of the pleasures of the Families USA Health Action conference was that the speakers represented a nice blend of top politicians and genuine health care experts. Tony Fauci MD, the wonderful head of NIH’s National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, […]

Tom Daschle on Reform

Former U.S. Senate leader is well aware of the health care challenges aheadFormer Senator and Majority/Minority Leader Daschle gave the opening address on the 2nd day of the Families USA Health Action conference. Mr. Daschle has a new book coming out in March on America’s health system and our past efforts to fix it. I […]

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