It has become an article of faith in some health policy circles over the past 20 years that the "solution" for our health care system's woes is to make us better health care consumers -- the so-called consumer-driven movement. After all, we've known for at least forty years that increased cost-sharing does influence how much health care we consume, so, in theory, higher deductibles and coinsurance, plus better cost/quality information, should give us the right incentives to shop. Most health care professionals are equally convinced patients aren't, and are never going to be, "consumers" in any meaningful sense. Health care is too scary, relies on too much specialized information, and is too often "consumed" at times when we are least able to make thoughtful decisions...
health policy
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$375 Billion Wasted On Billing And Health Insurance-Related Paperwork Annually: Study
Medical billing paperwork and insurance-related red tape cost the U.S. economy approximately $471 billion in 2012, 80 percent of which is waste due to the inefficiency of the nation’s complex, multi-payer way of financing care, a group of researchers say. The researchers – physicians and health policy researchers with ties to the University of California, San Francisco, the City University of New York School of Public Health, and Harvard Medical School – note that a simplified, single-payer system of financing health care similar to Canada’s or the U.S. Medicare program could result in savings of approximately $375 billion annually, or more than $1 trillion over three years.
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7 Healthcare Big Data Projects Get Knight Foundation Funding To Push For Public Health
An online portal connecting researchers with people willing to share their health data, a community health dashboard and a text-based counseling program for teens were the big winners of The Knight Foundation’s $2.2 million health data challenge. Read More »
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Andy Oram
I write and edit documents about many aspects of computing, with a scope ranging from blog postings to full-length books. For many years I worked as an editor at O'Reilly & Associates, a highly respected book publisher and technology information provider. My topics there covered a wide range of computer technologies: data science and machine learning, programming languages, Web performance, Internet of Things, databases, free and open source software, and more.
Dr. Noam Arzt named Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association
Dr. Noam H. Arzt, president ofHLN Consulting, LLC, has been named a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Dr. Arzt joins 129 of his colleagues in the inaugural class of fellows. The fellowship was created to recognize AMIA members who apply informatics skills and knowledge within their professional setting, who have demonstrated professional achievement and leadership, and who have contributed to the betterment of the organization. A member of AMIA since 1998, Dr. Arzt has been a leader in public health informatics for many years. He has been active in various AMIA task forces and workgroups, and has been a speaker at AMIA conferences, events, and webinars.
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Forget Obamacare: Vermont Wants To Bring Single Payer To America
"If Vermont gets single-payer health care right, which I believe we will, other states will follow," Vermont Gov. Shumlin predicted in a recent interview. "If we screw it up, it will set back this effort for a long time.
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How Being Poor Makes You Sick
Some patients are being "prescribed" bicycles and groceries as doctors attempt to treat the lifestyle consequences of poverty, in addition to its medical symptoms. Can it work?...
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New Book By Dr. Elaina George Offers Doctors & Patients Solutions On How To Navigate Through The Corporate Controlled Healthcare System
"Big Medicine: The Cost Of Corporate Control And How Doctors And Patients Working Together Can Rebuild A Better System" (Alethos Press July 20, 2015) is a new book By Elaina George, M.D. The book offers a unique perspective from a practicing physician who gives an inside view on how and why the healthcare system became broken and discusses solutions on how to fix it...In "Big Medicine" Dr. George explores these five reasons why the current healthcare system is unsustainable and why The Affordable Care Act will be unable to help as many Americans as it promised. They include: Read More »
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Open Access Africa: Showcasing African Research
In November 2012 the third Open Access Africa event, hosted by BioMed Central and the University of Cape Town, will discuss the implications of open access for African research. Read More »
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Patients Are Not Consumers...But Who Is?
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The End of an Era
It’s the end of an era in modern medicine. House is no more. The Fox show House ended last week. It was entertaining, but as far as health policy is concerned, we’re not sorry to see it go. The main character (Dr. Gregory House, played by Hugh Laurie) exemplifies the kind of “cowboy doctor” too many patients have come to expect.
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What The U.S. Can Learn From Brazil's Healthcare Mess
Here’s what it looks like when a sprawling, diverse nation tries to cover everybody....By a lot of measures, Brazil’s Sistema Único de Saúde—or SUS—has led to huge health gains.
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2018 Health Datapalooza
The gathering place for people and organizations creating knowledge from data and pioneering innovations that drive health policy and practice. Health Datapalooza sits at the nexus of ideas, evidence, and execution. Where Federal policymakers and regulatory leads take their seats beside Silicon Valley startups and the health system’s chief information officers. More than a meeting, Health Datapalooza is a diverse community of big thinkers and roll-up-our-sleeves-and-get-it-done problem solvers who share a mission to liberate and use data to improve health and health care.
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