Carnivals

The Disease Management Care Blog hosts this week’s edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.

On Wednesday, the U.S. men’s national soccer team upset Spain, the #1 team in the world (see video highlights).  They will play in the Confederations Cup Final on June 28th against either Brazil or host South Africa.

In honor of the surprising U.S. victory, this edition of the Health Wonk Review will examine some equally surprising findings in the world of health care from the web’s best and brightest bloggers.

LEADOFF

Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article on cost differences between similar Texas cities has garnered a lot of attention.  Daniel Gilden of The Health Care Blog investigates Gawande’s claimsof supplier-induced demand in McAllen: The Tale of Three Counties. 

Health Care Renewal: Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are offering to market particular drugs…for a fee.

HEALTH REFORM IDEAS

• A MANIFESTO:
  • What be included in any health reform proposals?  The Healthcare Economist weighs in with his Healthcare Economist Manifesto.
• Senate HELP Committee’s health overhaul bill:  
  • Kaiser Health News reviews CBO estimates that “The plan will cost $1 trillion and insure only an additional 16 million people.”   
  • The New America Blog gives some shortcomings of this “preliminary” CBO estimate.
  • Joe Paduda believes “The Finance Committee’s effort is a path to financial ruin; without cost controls we’re looking at a deficit creator that will make Part D’s eight trillion dollar ultimate liability look paltry in comparison.”
• PUBLIC PLAN:   
  • Budd’s Blog reviews opinions on the public health insurance plan from three experts: Jacob Hacker, Mark Pauly, and Victor Fuchs. 
  • Is this reform inevitable? It Takes Work Blog believes “We’ll get a public health insurance agency of some type. And we’ll be paying through the nose for it.”  
  • In a post titled “A Health Reform Agenda for Black America,” JudyLubin.com supports a public health plan.
  • InsureBlog: “Advocates of government-run health care should be embarassed – indeed, appalled – that their arguments are so weak that they can’t stand to be questioned.”
• AMERICA’s AGENDA:
  • David Harlow’s Health Care Law Blog talks with Dick Gephardt and Mark Blum about America’s Agenda health reform efforts and whether or not more preventive care will actually save money.
• WYDEN’s HEALTHY AMERICANS ACT:
  • Health Access Blog reviews a few reasons why Senator Wyden’s health reform plan won’t be adopted.
• BUNDLING PAYMENTS:  
  • BNET Healthcare reports on replacing Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement with bundled payments tied to outcomes, comprehensive services, and shared risk. 
• RESCISSION: 
  • Patients can have their health insurance rescinded if they lie about their pre-existing conditions. Colorado Health Insurance Insider believes that if health insurers had access to patients electronic medical records, rescissions would greatly decrease.  
  • Dr. Rich of The Covert Rationing Blog gives his take on the rescission debate and finds “UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. had retrospecively canceled the policies of 20,000 sick subscribers over the past 5 years“

HEALTH CARE in CANADA

• Can you rely on a government contract?  Canadian Medicine reports that the New Brunswick government broke a deal with doctors over wage increases in light of the latest recession. 
• The Ismological writes that “Canadian Health Care Doesn’t Suck“

PUBLIC HEALTH and WORKERS’ COMP

• What was life like without women workers and health & safety standards?  Workers’ Comp Insider finds some intriguing videos. 
• The Gormley Files: Opportunistic Peddlers of phony anti-Swine Flu products. 
• Health Business Blog: Are old drivers unsafe drivers?  Elderly drivers do get in more accidents per mile driven, but because elderly drivers drive less than younger drivers, accident rates per person are comparable for those under and over 65.
• Boston Health News has a video on health issues in the gay community.

TECHNOLOGY

• According to Healthcare Technology News, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) is extending its certification options for electronic medical records (EMR) developers.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Supporting Safer Healthcare.  My favorite posts include:

• Price pharmaceuticals like software licenses.
• DMCB on co-op health insurance.
• The NHS ponders mandatory, private long-term care insurance.

Sick and tired of today’s health care system?  Joe Paduda hosts this weeks Health Reform HWR, where scholars, professionals, and pundits all give their opinion of how to improve our healthcare system.

The third anniversary edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at InsureBlog.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Boston Health News.  It’s even Bruce Springstein themed.

The Sentinel Effect hosts a Spamalot version of the Cavalcade of Risk. Yours truly bats leadoff in this CoR.

The Workers Comp Insider hosts this week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review.  My favorite posts include:

• Skepticism on private health providers pledge to cut $2 trillion in costs: here, here and here.
• Wellcare is a publicly-help company whose revenues come from government contracts and who pumped $2.4-million into the Florida political system in the ‘04 and ‘06 cycles.  MedicaidFrontPage (Ppb) gets an “‘icky’ feeling when a contractor of one branch of government uses money to lobby another branch of government.“
• The typical primary care doctor may need to coordinate care with 229 doctors across 117 different practices.
• A hacker stole 8 million electronic patient records in Virginia.  This looks to be the downside of EMR.

The Tax Update Blog literally puts out fires in the latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.  My favorite posts include:

• Will the Swine Flu outbreak be “the defining moment for the idea of expanded Federal involvement in health care?“
• What’s the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic?
• The Wise Curve takes a ‘Don’t Worry be Happy’ attitude when facing H1N1.
• Is a company liable for your health care if you get swine flu at work?

Any my favorite, Arnold’s Kling’s quotation on Medicare reform:

Saying, “We don’t need to have any restraint on the use of medical services. Look at Medicare” is like saying, “We don’t have to worry about the fish population. Look at all the fish we just caught.”

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at My Wealth Builder.  My favorites are:

• InsureBlog: Will DNA tests replace the Pap smear?  A Bill and Melinda Gates study shows that a DNA test for cervical cancer outpreforms all other tests including the Pap smear. 
• Colorado Health Insurance Insider: Discusses the risk involved with having a Cesarean-section. 

Healthcare Manumission hosts the 75th installment of the Cavalcade of Risk.  

My favorite insight was from the Colorado Health Insurance Insider:

• “Patients are in the system because they have to be, but the same is not the case for doctors, nurses, and other health care providers.  Whatever health care reforms we consider…we need to make sure that we don’t create a system that is so distasteful to providers that they decide they’d rather spend their time doing something else instead of medicine.”

In honor of the beginning of the baseball season, Health Accesss Weblog presents this week’s Health Wonk Review with a Yogi Berra theme.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Wisdom from Wenchpoo’s Mental Wastebasket.

David Harlow’s Health Blawg is hosting the “Spring has just about sprung” edition of the Health Wonk Review.

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Reading this edition of the Cavalcade of Risk puts you at risk of certain side effects such as:

• a sudden increase in intelligence;
• gaining a basic understanding of how health care and health insurance works in the UK and at General Mills;
• nausea from recent economic news.  This news includes investigating the parallels between the current U.S. economic slump and Japan in the 1990s, and contemplating whether or not the U.S. should nationalize banks as the Swedish government did with Nordbanken;
• anxiety if you’ve participated in a workers’ comp avoidance scheme and are at risk for jail time;
• satisfaction from participating in a survey on risk preferences;

If you are willing to risk these serious side effects, please read on.

RISK PREFERENCES SURVEY

The Healthcare Economist asks you to take a risk…and participate in a survey on risk preferences.  By completing the survey, you will help advance the science of economics and be eligible to win a $25 gift card from Amazon.  For more information, click here.  

HEALTH

Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters presents How bad is the United Kingdom’s National Health Service? 

The Lancet says that privatization in post communist societies during the 1990s caused an increase in mortality. 

John Earle of VoxEU disagrees, providing evidence that privatization did not increase mortality rates.

Will the removal of a “moral exemption” clause lead to hospitals closing their doors?  InsureBlog’s Henry Stern reports that at least some providers are likely to shutter if forced to perform abortions, but wonders if the risk is really all that great.

The Disease Management Care Blog is shocked SHOCKED that the initial salvo of health care reform in the White House Summit promised everything to everybody. The DMCB, however, found that General Mills’ employee health insurance plan is a model to emulate.

The Health Business Blog believes the government should consider playing a direct role in venture financing of medical device companies, and let entrepreneurs direct those investment decisions.

Health reform need not reinvent the wheel, claims The Colorado Health Insurance Insider.  Louise advocates for expanding the current public health insurance programs (such as Medicaid and SCHIP) rather than creating a new public health insurance schemes from scratch.

Bargaineering reviews some of the different health insurance plan types: from HMOs to PPOs.

Two drinks a day is good for you…now it’s bad for you…A Western Heart weighs in.

OTHER INSURANCE MARKETS

From the “if it seems too good to be true” department, Jon Coppelman of Workers’ Comp Insider discusses a California workers’ comp avoidance scheme based on the idea of turning employees into stock-owning corporate officers.  The plan may backfire, however, since failing to have workers’ comp coverage is a criminal offense.

Will car insurance companies offer discounts to individuals who install tracking devices in their cars?  American Consumer News investigates the phenomenon of Pay as you go Car Insurance. 

Russell Hutchinson of Chatswood Consulting questions whether recent commentary on New Zealand’s Accident Compensation insurer is consistent with an insurance-based view of it’s role – or a social policy-based view.

ECONOMY

The Personal Financier compares and contrasts the current U.S. economic downturn with the Japanese banking crisis of the 1990s.

The Political and Financial Markets Commentator reviews the annual report of the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet.

Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket notes that because of tumbling car prices, if your car is stolen or totaled, you may not get enough from your insurance company to pay off your lease or loan.  On the other hand, Wenchypoo claims that housing prices are still overvalued.

At the Death and Taxes blog, Don the libertarian Democrat reports on a recent IBM Risk Governance Forum. While there, he picked up on an important risk dynamic which could indicate even further market woes.

On the Gnarl Side doesn’t believe we can manage risk.  Instead, we should focus on risk accommodation.

Chilean blogger Alejandro Rogers Bozzolo explains the because of “moral hazard,” bailing out big banks can lead to riskier behavior in the future.

Is the Swedish government’s bailout of Nordbanken in 1993 a good model for the U.S. to follow?  One Mint weighs in.

The “Anti-spam” edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Hank Stern’s InsureBlog.

The 71st edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at Julie Ferguson’s Workers’ Comp Insider.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at the always informative Health Business Blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at the Health Business Blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at American Consumer News.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at The Health Care Blog.

Should breast feeding be mandatory?  Find out in the New Year’s Eve edition of the Cavalcade of Risk at the Colorado Health Insurance Insider.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Insurance Copywriter.

The “Just the facts, ma’am” edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the e-CareManagement blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Political Calculations.  This CoR features a list of blog postings using a helpful and creative rating scale.  

• Investment Grade CoR.
• Whole Kit and Caboodle CoR.

The post-election edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the Colorado Health Insurance Insider.  There are a bunch of great articles analyzing how Obama and the Democratic Congress will change health care in America.

Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States.  Whether you are for or against Obama, this is a historic day.  It is the first time an African-American has been elected president.  Coverage of the election is below:

• Reactions from Around the World – N.Y. Times
• What the World Expects – BBC News
• Headlines from Around the World – Forbes
• World Press Reaction to Barack Obama’s victory – The Times
• “In a defining moment…change has come” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at David Harlow’s HealthBlawg.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at John Cogan’s Regulating Health Insurance.  Mr. Cogan even claimed that I’m “everyone’s favorite graduate student.”  Some of my favorite posts include:

• Blogging is a dangerous profession and may require blogging insurance.
• Lawrence G. Lux discusses the financial crisis.
• David Williams discusses physician bias in diagnosing patients.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters.

The Wall Street Wipeout Edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket.

With the Senate passing a $700 billion Wall Street bail-out last night, the Healthcare Economist wonders who else needs a bail out.  The best and brightest health bloggers have your answer.  In this edition of the Health Wonk Review, we will examine six groups looking for help:

• Wall Street
• Health Insurers
• Healthcare Reformers
• Doctors
• The Uninsured
• Kids

WALL STREET

• Julie Ferguson of Workers Comp Insider explains how the biggest insurer on the planet suddenly runs out of money.
• Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal: the board of the illustrious New York-Presbyterian teaching hospital included four corporate executives from Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Merrill Lynch and AIG.  None of these four executives had any particular knowledge of health care.

HEALTH INSURERS

• David Hamilton of Health Care Industry finds that the Wall Street meltdown will create huge losses for Aetna ($234m), Humana ($62m) and Wellpoint ($211m).
• David Kibbe of The Health Care Blog wonders if we will need a bailout of the health care system as well.
• Beth Capell looks at HMO insolvency at Health Access WeBlog.

HEALTHCARE REFORMERS

• Anthony Wright of Health Access WeBlog reminds us that the major social programs and leaps–Social Security, Medicare–happened during similarly tumultuous times.
• McCain or Obama? Joe Paduda analyzes the healthcare reform efforts of the two candidates.
• Obama vs. McCain? David Williams of the Health Business Blog evaluates the two candidates views on premium subsidies and tax changes.
• Colorado legislators may require individual/family health insurance to be guarantee-issue.  Will this attempt at “fairness” make health insurance unaffordable? Louise Norris of Colorado Health Insurance Insider weighs in.

DOCTORS [Especially those owning MRI machines]

• What is a sick physician to do: reveal the extent of his condition to his colleagues and have his practice suffer or keep his condition a secret.  Brain Blogger discusses.
• David Harlow of Health Blawg wonders if the Medicare reimbursement cuts for MRI imaging were too deep.

THE UNINSURED

• America has 47 million uninsured…or does it?  Henry Stern of Insure Blog argues the true number of uninsured is only 8 million since since “a quarter of Americans eligible for Medicaid choose not to sign up” and 20% of the uninsured are illegal aliens.
• America has 47 million uninsured…the Healthcare Economist takes a look at four of their lives as he reviews the PBS documentary Critical Condition.

KIDS

• Kara Rogers of Britannica Blog claims that childhood obesity may hinder educational attainment.

INTERESTING POSTS that I couldn’t tie in with the bail out theme

• Caterpillar employees now have a choice: retain the freedom of pharmacy choice and pay a high copay or go to Wal-mart and pay a low (usually $0) copay.  Adam Fein of Drug Channels explains.
• Vince Kuraitis of e-CareManagement Blog:  What’s the Best Way to Get Hospitals Involved in Care Coordination? Pay them to do it.
• Sam Solomon of Canadian Medicine reviews an article in the BMJ that claims that DTC advertising doesn’t really work.
• Annie of Home of the Brave discusses the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• What are the top 100 health care policy blogs? RN Central lists them for you.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at American Consumer News.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the Disease Management Care Blog.

Workers Comp Insider hosts the lastest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at InsureBlog.  Some of my favorite articles include:

• Joe Paduda on Sarah Palin’s health care record in Alaska,
• Health Care Renewal criticizes Carilion’s vertically integrated health system.
• The Disease Management Care Blog looks at Emergency Physician’s “NIMBY“-like attitudes.
• InsureBlog discusses the Dutch health care system.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Healthcare Manumission.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Workers Comp Insider. Here are some of my favorite posts from the HWR:

• David Williams’ Health Business Blog on the WSJ’s investigative reporting (a newspaper actually used the words “standard error”…amazing!)
• Bob Laszewski’s HC Policy and Marketplace Review on the UK’s NHS decision to not provide coverage for an expensive but life-extending drug.
• Joanne Kenen of New America Blogs on the tax-deductibility of employer-provided health insurance.
• Sam Solomon of Canadian Medicine interviews Dr. Brian Day, Canadian Medical Association’s outgoing president.
  

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Joe Paduda’s always excellent Managed Care Matters.

Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review has the latest edition of the Health Wonk Review.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at The Sentinel Effect.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at David Williams’ Health Business Blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is hosted by Michael Cannon at the Cato@Liberty blog.  Some of my favorite posts include:

• The Million Dollar Journey blog talks about the advent of Critical Illness (CI) insurance.  This is similar to the contingent claims insurance contract which economists have advocated–but has been difficult to apply in practice–for many years.
• What happens when a physician operates on the wrong side of a patient?  How do you fix these quality control issues.  Paul Levy explains.

The latest edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is up at The Budgeting Babe. Included is my post on the Buxfer software.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Colorado Health Insurance Insider.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at the Health Affairs Blog.  This edition of the HWR focuses on the healthcare reform, and mentions the annual research meeting of AcademyHealth, of which I am a member.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has a new BlogWatch feature.  Every Tuesday and Friday, the site will highlight some of the best health blogging on the net.  Check out the inaugural edition here.

There was this statistics student who, when driving his car, would always accelerate hard before coming to any junction, whizz straight over it , then slow down again once he’d got over it. One day, he took a passenger, who was understandably unnerved by his driving style, and asked him why he went so fast over junctions. The statistics student replied, “Well, statistically speaking, you are far more likely to have an accident at a junction, so I just make sure that I spend less time there.”

Maybe this isn’t the best way to minimize your risk. Our experts bloggers offer more profound risk advice in the 52nd edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.

Introduction to Risk (Baseball player, Nobel prize winner explain risk)

• For those interested in baseball, Rich Maltzman uses a baseball analogy to explain how people view risk in the A verse on risk article posted at Scope crêpe.
• The Cognition and Language Lab summarizes Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel-prize-winning model showing that “loss aversion” can better characterize how individuals react to risk.

Hot Jobs (Chief Risk Officer, Scuba Diver, Astronaut/Exterminator)

• With the world’s banks bleeding from their over-exposure to bone-headed investments and bad loans, Leon Gettler of Sox First claims that the latest hot job is Chief Risk Officer.
• How does a Scuba Diver conduct a risk assessment for a dive plan? Diving pro Jill Heinerth explains.
• NASA is battling an infestation of electronics-eating ants. The Risk Factor blog investigates the situation.

Health and Medical (Over-medicated? Over-treated? Over-weight? etc.)

• Are we over-medicating Chronic Conditions? Bob Vineyard of InsureBlog gives us some facts and statistics supporting the claim that that cutting back on med’s reduces your health risks and decreases medical costs.
• Medical tests have risks as well. David Williams of the Health Business Blog reports on WellPoint’s web-based patient exposure tool (Aimee) that provides information for doctors and patients about the amount of radiation associated with various scans.
• Louise of Colorado Health Insurance Insider discusses a heated debate in the UK about whether patients in the National Health Service should be allowed to privately purchase treatments that are denied by the NHS.
• Does being severely overweight increase the risk of depression? Therapist Unlimited weighs in.
• Can making physicians more at risk for a lawsuit increase the quality of medical care? Jason Shafrin of the Healthcare Economist investigates in his Tort Reform and Birth Outcomes post.

Housing Risk

• Buying a house is one of the most significant risks an individual takes in their life. Ernesto TIG of InsuranceYak.com warns that a “buyer beware” mentality is likely warranted in his Costner vs Maronda Homes post.

Computer Risk

• The Security and Risk Management Strategies Blog wonders whether Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)–the well-publicized security training every Microsoft developer went through–is actually decreasing working?

Personal Finance

• Is the average investor over- or under-estimating real estate risk in the declining market? Super Saver weighs in with Properly Assessing Risk posted at My Wealth Builder.
• Mag Herrera of ‘Life. Money. Development’ is a personal finance advisor who actually likes Credit Cards.
• What is the difference between market risk, inflation risk and management risk? The Blueprint for Financial Prosperity blog explains in their post titled Understanding Investment Risk Types.
• Investing Angel of Stock Tips explains that the “herd mentality” causes most investors to Buy High And Sell Low.
• Almost any investment you will make is risk. But in The Top 25 Low Cost US Money Market Funds, Larry Russell of the Skilled Investor Blog extols the virtues of maximizing the return on the component of an investment you can control: the fees.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Hill’s Personal Finance.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the Medical Humanities Blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Workers Comp Insider.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted on Maggie Mahar’s Health Beat website.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Early Retirement Extreme.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at The Health Care Blog by Brian Klepper.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Insurance Yak.

Some of my favorite articles include:

• InsureBlog finds a health insurance plan that costs $350 – $480 per year. Of course, there are $100 deductibles and 80%-90% coinsurnace, but this does seem like a good deal. This is pet insurance.
• The Fundmastery Blog cites a Financial Times article in which Alan Greenspan admits that “We will never have a perfect model of risk.”

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters website.

The very cleverly formatted March Madness edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at Regulating Health Insurance.

This website received both a #2 and a #6 seed. Henry Stern of Insure Blog deservingly received a #1 seed for his insightful piece on Alzheimer’s disease. Would you get a genetic test for a predisposition to Alzheimer’s knowing that there is no known cause of Alzheimers, and that there is no cure for Alzheimer’s?

My March Madness upset special is the fifth seeded Colorado Health Insider. This post discusses the pros and cons of Congress’ decision to compel insurance companies to put mental health coverage on equal footing with physical health coverage.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at the uniquely titled “Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket” blog.

Particularly interesting is the Colorado Health Insider’s finding that “Those with Medicaid were 80% more likely to have advanced-stage cancer when diagnosed [than those with private insurance].”  The blog supports universal healthcare but notes the early-diagnosis statistics would not likely change for these cohorts after universal healthcare was implemented.

“Does education level or social status have anything to do with delaying a medical check up? Perhaps Medicaid recipients as a group are less educated about things like colon cancer and breast cancer than their more affluent, privately insured neighbors.”

Also interesting is InsureBlog’s discussion of the health care shopping site Carol.com.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is available at Merrill Goozner’s GoozNews.

I noted in earlier posts (4 June 2007 and 2 Aug 2006) that email and telephone communication between doctors and patients is not compensated.  In this week’s edition of the HWR, I learned that this is about to change.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at  the “I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…” blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at The Digerati Life.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at e-CareManagement.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at Julie Ferguson’s Worker’s Comp Insider.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at Robert Laszewski’s  Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.

The New Year’s edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Consumer’s Health Insurance Blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at American Consumer News.

The Health Wonk Review is up at David Harlow’s HealthBlawg.

Of particular interest is the Sentinel Effect’s conversation with Harvard health economist David Cutler.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at Joe Paduda’s always insightful Managed Care Matters.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Roy Poses, MD.’s Health Care Renewal blog.

The Thanksgiving edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Colorado Health Insurance Insider.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at SuperSaver.

The Anti-Halloween edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Insure Blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at Hill’s Personal Finance blog.

This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is overflowing with useful information. Can there be too much of a good thing, you ask? Well for those of you who don’t have the time to read every article in this week’s HWR edition, I’ve narrowed the posts into a few, easy-to-use categories.

• BEST POSTS OF THE WEEK
• Politics: S-CHIP, the Candidates and Conservative Health Scientists
• From Aspen to San Francisco to México
• Health Insurance and WTC Safety
• Microsoft’s Health Vault
• Money’s Influence on Physicians: Comments on physician profit motive, the NIH, and managed care.
• Health care Effectiveness: Preventive Care, Midwives and Comparing American and European Health
• Who are you?

Enjoy…

BEST POSTS OF THE WEEK

Is P4P is really just a CMS (Medicare/Medicaid) scheme to save money, wrapped in the flag of quality? 79% of physicians believe so. This and other interesting commentary on P4P can be found at Wachter’s World blog by Bob Wachter.

The gold standard for Health Economics is the RAND experiment. But what if the conclusions from RAND were wrong? This is the question posed by John McDonough of A Healthy Blog. McDonough reviews an October 2007 article by John Nyman, stating that differential attrition rates between those assigned to the free plan and those assigned to the cost-sharing plan may be a cause for concern.

Politics: SCHIP, the Candidates and Conservative Health Scientists

Jon Swift: SCHIP will “turn more of our kids into little welfare princes and princesses.â€?

Michael Cannon of the Cato@Liberty Blog on SCHIP: “Expansion of access to care through insurance coverage, which is the focus of national health care policy related to children, will not, by itself, eliminate the deficits in the quality of care.â€?

Rob Cunningham of Health Affairs: while “children, on average, receive recommended treatment in only 46.5 percent of their ambulatory care encounters,â€?… “the current SCHIP reauthorization process offers the opportunity to make amends on this frontâ€?

Lisa Emrich at Brass and Ivory gives her thoughts on government (taxpayer-funded) programs from a patient’s perspective.

Jimmy Atkinson of NOEDb reviews how the 2008 presidential candidates propose to reform the health care system.

Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters says the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Health08 site compares all the Presidential candidates’ health care platform planks.

Robert Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review takes an in depth look at Hilary Clinton’s health plan proposal.

Health Access California looks at the Govern-ator’s latest revisions to his health proposal.

Although academics tend to be more liberal than the population in general, Greg Laden at the Evolution blog says that “Health Scientistsâ€? preferred Bush to Kerry in 2004.

From Aspen to San Francisco to México
Alvaro Fernandez presents 10 Highlights from the 2007 Aspen Health Forum posted at Brain Fitness Blog.

The Health 2.0 conference recently took place in San Francisco. Brian Keppler of The Health Care Blog gives his take on Health 2.0, a concept of Web-based platforms that allow users to reformulate data for their own purposes.

Need cheap medical care? In San Diego, many residents go to Tijuana for lower priced pharmaceuticals and physicians visits. David Williams of the Health Business Blog recently released a white paper analyzing the future of medical tourism in the U.S.

Health Insurance and the WTC Saftey

Bill Halper of InsureBlog may be developing a split personality. One the one hand, he sympathizes with the difficultly people have trying to purchase health insurance after a serious medical problem arose. On the other hand, “a substantial percentage…had made a conscience (and retrospectively stupid) decision to gamble [by not purchasing some insurance] and they lost that bet.â€?

It seems that there is an “appalling lack of any attention to safety in the mammoth WTC cleanup,â€? according to Julie Ferguson at Worker’s Comp Insider

Microsoft’s Health Vault

David Harlow of the Health Care Law Blog is skeptical of Microsoft’s HealthVault. It may just be “a band-aid for a problem that needs a more fundamental solution.â€?

Vince Kuraitis of e-CareManagement blog gives us “Four Misconceptions” about Microsoft’s Health Vault.

Money’s Influence on Physicians: Comments on physician profit motive, the NIH, and managed care.

Zagreus Ammon of the Physician Executive believes “The profit motive in medicine, while causing significant unanticipated problems (costs, insurance etc.), has been able to deliver some significant improvements in survival, lifespan and quality of life.â€? In particular, he examines declining cancer death rates.

In “The rise and fall of the NIH,â€? ScienceZoo believes that the NIH’s decision to increase funding for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) at the expense of basic research will decrease the number of revolutionary discoveries made in the U.S.

Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal explains why physicians have not been able to resist threats to their core values from ever more dominant health care organizations.

Health care Effectiveness: Preventive Care, Midwives and Comparing American and European Health

Daniel Goldberg of the Medical Humanities Blog laments that “tiny percentages of both care and research dollars going to preventive medicine and public health even while there is little dispute that such measures are far more likely to have a significant impact on population health than what we allocate the lion’s share of resources to (acute care and development of new technologies and biologics)â€?

My own post on Healthcare Economist examines whether or not Midwives provide higher quality care during pregnancy than physicians.

Ian Welsh of The Agonist analyzes why older Europeans are healthier than older Americans.

Who are you?

Author “Dr. J. C.â€? of Brain Blogger blog anonymously for fears of malpractice lawsuits and to protect his patients confidentiality.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Robert Laszewski’s Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the Health Affairs blog.

The 120th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is up at My Retirement Blog.  Included in this edition of the carnival is my review of the classic book A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Investments and Loans.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is available at Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at David Williams’ Health Business Blog.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at The Doctor Is In website.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at the Health Affairs blog.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at the Medical Humanities Blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Insurance Help Hub.  The posts by Joe Paduda and Michael Cannon are particularly interesting.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at Workers Comp Insider.

I am honored to host the 31st edition of the world-renowned Cavalcade of Risk. In a departure from some prior carnivals, I have tried to make this a more concise edition, highlighting the truly best articles of the past two weeks. Using this method, I intended to eliminate minimize the risk that you will choose an uninteresting article to read. Enjoy!

POLICY

Currently, the government is debating about whether or not to renew SCHIP. SCHIP was created in 1997 and gives government provided health insurance to children in households typically below 200% of the federal poverty line. Should this program be renewed? Congress generally says yes; the president says no. Paul Krugman of the N.Y. Times says yes; Michael Cannon of Cato-at-Liberty says no.

Jon Coppelman of Workers Comp Insider notes in “Trouble in Trucking” that when he is driving 70 miles per hour down an interstate, sandwiched between two rigs, he is hoping the other guys are tenaciously awake. The odds are a little more in his favor since the federal appeals court recently struck down a rule that increased the number of hours a trucker can spend behind the wheel.

Those of the political left often cite the need for government intervention in order to redistribute income from rich to poor. In “The new world of risk,” Leon Gettler of Sox First discusses a John Quiggin’s policy paper which claims that “the primary role of the welfare state is managing risk, not redistributing income.”

INSURANCE

Private health insurance companies are more streamlined, more efficient versions of their public sector counterparts…right? Over at InsureBlog, Bob Vineyard presents “Stupid Carrier Tricks,” demonstrating the private market isn’t always perfect (this is tough for an economist, like me, to admit).

David Williams of the Health Business Blog worries that rapidly rising premiums pose a risk to Massachusetts’ health reform plans.

Will businesses be able to charge employees different health insurance premiums based on their DNA? Shaheen Lakhan of GNIF Brain Blogger discusses whether this is a possibility in “Genetic Discrimination: A Real Threat?”

In his Personal Injury Law Round-Up, Eric Turkewitz of NY Personal Injury Law Blog reviews some risk related news. More interestingly, Mr. Turkewitz attempts to explain in another post why NY medical malpractice insurance jumped 14%” (hint: it’s not due to a huge increase in the number malpractice lawsuits or the amount of money awarded in these cases).

DATA RISK and Barry BONDS

Veterans Administration. TJ Maxx. ChoicePoint. What do these entities have in common? They have all experienced breaches of their customer’s personal data. Jimmy Atkinson analyzes the risk of data breaches in his article “How Many Times Has Your Personal Data Been Stolen This Year?” posted at Ask the Advisor.

Over at IowaBiz , Joe Kristan’s article on surety bonds wins the award for the most clever title: “Bonds – and I’m not talking Barry!”

ECONOMICS and FINANCE

Why did the vice-president of your company sell some of his vested options even though he expects the company to continue its success in the future? Learn why at The Digerati Life’s post “8 Different Ways To Diversify And Manage Risk.”

How do people make decisions when faced with risky alternatives? Typically economists rely on expected utility theory to explain an individual decision-making. Jason Shafrin of Healthcare Economist discusses “Prospect Theory,” proposed by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Prospect Theory claims that people value money not in terms of its absolute value, but measured as gains and losses from a reference point.

The July 26, 2007 edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at Robert Laszewski’s Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the Colorado Health Insurance Insider.

The 106th Carnival of Personal Finance has been posted at The Digerati Life blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Julie Ferguson’s Workers Comp Insider.

Particularly interesting are the comments by Robert Laszewski and Michael Cannon concerning a WSJ article which claims that Health Savings Accounts are faltering.

• Pro HSA: Michael Cannon of Cato-at-Liberty blog
• Anit-HSA: Robert Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at David Williams’ Health Business Blog.

The First Anniversary Edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted Hank Stern’s InsureBlog.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at The Sentinel Effect.

This week’s edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Colorado Health Insurance Insider.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Getting Green blog.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is available at Hank Stern’s InsureBlog.

The Cavalcade of Risk is up at The Digerati Life blog.  Not only do I really like the format of this Carnival, but there is a great picture that will make any surfer shake in their wetsuit.

Is Massachusetts’ Universal Coverage plan working? Is it better to compensate physicians on a fee-for-service or capitation basis? What happened to the £72 million the UK intended to use to fund the NHS University and what is the history of capitation payments? Expert answers to all these questions and more are just a few clicks away in this edition of the Health Wonk Review. Let’s begin…

INSURANCE, MANAGED CARE, and HSAs

In the Health Affairs blog, Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt takes A closer look at HSAs. Reinhardt writes that HSAs coupled with high-deductible insurance plans amount to “rationing by income class.â€?

Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters comes out in favor of United Healthcare’s decision to penalize contracted docs who don’t refer to UHC’s lab partner, LabCorp in his post Hooray for United Healthcare. His point? Physicians should be thinking about costs when they order tests.

Henry Stern, LUTCF of InsureBlog presents Sauce for Goose, Gander and Other… The article investigates how insurance companies treat domestic partnerships—both homosexual and heterosexual.

While health plans and physicians have traditionally had adversarial relationships, according to Vince Kuratis, it’s time to lay down arms. In his post Doctors and Health Plans: Can Care Management Opportunities Reconcile the Hatfields and the McCoys?, Kruatis’s e-Care Management blog states that Health plans need to rethink financial management practices that damage opportunities for collaboration.

PROVIDING EFFECTIVE MEDICAL CARE

In Two kinds of value: Revolution Health, what people want and what people need David Harlow of HealthBlawg is skeptical that social networking websites, such as Revolution Health, will create much health care information improvement.

Rita Schwab of MSSPNexus Blog presents a post about HCQIA Immunity for an Iowa Hospital posted.

GrrlScientist authors Insect Cells Can Grow Influenza Vaccine at Living the Scientific Life, saying, “One of the biggest challenges to producing flu vaccine lies in the fact that so far, scientists have had to grow it in hens’ eggs.”

MASSACHUSETTS and MORE

The bloggers from the Cato-at-Liberty have contributed a number of articles to this edition of the health Wonk Review. Sigrid Fry-Revere speaks about the possibility of federal stem cell funding, Michael F. Cannon wonders whether expanding health insurance will affect health and David Boaz presents Romney Embarrassed about His Health Plan?

Leif Wellington Haase of The Century Foundation sees the Massachusetts Universal Coverage Plan as a success story.

On the other hand, Robert Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review claims that “the only place there are more victories being declared than in Iraq these days is in Massachusetts.â€? This is due to the fact that new rules were established to exempt an estimated 20% of the uninsured from a state legal requirement to purchase health insurance.

At The Health Care Blog Mathew Holt is concerned that the arguments over US vs. European health care systems are stuck on the wrong issue. He asks Insurance–Huh! What is it good for? Holt’s comments on single payer systems continue on the TPM Cafe Book Club with his post Social insurance is the key–but it can handle competition, just not the type you’re used to!

In Increased Demand = Better Health, Louise Norris of Colorado Health Insurance Insider believes increasing the ranks of the insureds will lead to overall better health and a lower long term burden on the healthcare system.

What happened to the £72 million the UK’s NHS spent to fund the NHS University? The Informaticopia blog from Rod Ward quotes a government report stating that “the Department of Health is exposed to significant embarrassment if the value for money delivered by the NHSU were to be probed.â€?

David Williams of the Health Business Blog believes that we should regulate the prices of biotech drugs once their patents expire.

WORKER MEMORIAL DAY

Among other news items, Julie Ferguson of Workers Comp Insider reminds us that Worker Memorial Day will be observed on April 28. This is a day of commemoration and mourning for workers who suffered on-the-job fatalities.

PHYSICIAN FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

There is a supremely interesting post from Richard Eskow of The Sentinel Effect which gives A Brief History of Capitation, From Medieval Days to 21st Century Reform.

In Medical Schools to Faculty: “Show Me the Money,” Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal blog notes how the main criterion for judging faculty is their production of “external” money, that is, money from clinical practice or external research grants.

What’s Happening? blog investigates a Health System Run Down By Doctors. The post claims that “The surgeons are using the public health system as a feeder into their private practice.â€?

Jason Shafrin (that’s me) of reveals his latest working paper “Operating on Commission.â€? The research examines how financial incentives affect the level of specialist service provision by comparing surgery rates between specialists compensated on a fee-for-service and capitation/salaried basis.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Inurance Help Hub.

This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is posted at the Health Affairs blog.

The Cavalcade of Risk is posted at The Sentinel Effect website.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Matthew Holt’s The Health Care Blog.

This week’s edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at MSSP Nexus Blog. 

This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Joe Paduda’s always informative Managed Care Matters website.

Cavalcade of Risk #20 is posted at Renthusiast.

This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at HealthBlawg.

The Cavalcade of Risk #18 is up at one of my favorite websites: Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters blog.

The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at David E. Williams’ Health Business Blog.

• Check out an interesting post at InsureBlog which asks why there are so many uninsured when Medicaid supposedly covers most individuals who earn less than 2 times the poverty line.
• I also enjoyed the clever idea of Bryan Fleming’s million dollar savings club.  My own back of the envelope calculation find that if you save $1/day, invest $1/day and give away $1/day, you will reach $1 million dollars in financial asset in 37 years (with a 4% savings return and an 8% investment return) or in 32 years (with using 5% and 10% returns instead).
• Finally, if you need some motivation to try something new, Brian Kim’s article explains how an old dog can learn new risks.

This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is available at the Health Care Renewal Blog.

In this New Year’s edition of the Cavalcade of Risk, the Healthcare Economist will make four New Year’s resolutions.  They are: 1) to get better Health Insurance, 2) to promote better Public Policy on health issues, 3) to improve the Health for individuals around the world and 4) to increase society’s wealth.

What does better Health Insurance or better Public Policy mean?  How can you best improve your physical and financial health?  Well that of course depends on which of the authors from this Cavalcade of Risk which you choose to agree with.  Let the Cavalcade begin!

Health Insurance

The Workers’ Comp Insider blog looks at how universal health insurance would alter the manner in which Workers’ Comp insurance is currently provided at the state level.  The post points out three drivers of cost differentials between workers comp and traditional health insurance.  These factors are: 1) because they have more free time, people treated under the comp system go to doctors and physical therapists much more often than those injured away from work, 2) people treated under the comp system have many more diagnostic tests run, and 3) the prices paid for medical services under comp tend to be higher than those paid under general health insurance. 

Benchmarking is defined as providing guidance to a buyer that the terms, including coverage and cost, are reasonable relative to other similar organizations.  The Specialty Insurance Blog reviews some of the studies regarding this costly process and ponders whether benchmarking is just a fad or will change the insurance landscape of the future.

The Insure Blog looks at the jump in the number of employers who use HRAs.  No, I don’t mean a Health Reimbursement Arrangement, I am talking about health risk assessments.  These employer health checks are often linked to reduced health care plan contributions or free gifts. 

For Colbert Report fans out there, check out Jon Swift’s attempt to lower health care costs in “John Derbyshire’s Wonderful Lifeâ€? post. 

Public Policy

Is government provided health insurance a good thing?  Colorado Health Insurance Insider discusses whether or not Gov. Elect Bill Ritter of Colorado will be able to fill his promise of health insurance for all of the citizens of Colorado by 2010.  Michael Cannon of the Cato-at-Liberty blog criticizes Gov. Richardson’s proposal to expand Medicaid in New Mexico.  In another post, Cannon looks at the possibility that Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) could be an unlimited tax-deferral mechanism.The Healthcare Economist analyzes Matt Miller’s plan for a government controlled health system in the U.S. and his criticism of big company health plans as “socialized health republics.â€?Health

 

This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the Cato@Liberty website.

The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review has been posted at David Williams’ Health Business Blog website.

 “Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body – the producers and consumers themselvesâ€? - Herbert Hoover

When economists analyze any industry, their first step is to look at the incentives facing the producers and the consumers. Next, an economist will examine the manner in which the government is regulating the industry. In this week’s Health Wonk Review we will focus on each of the 3 entities – producers, consumers and the government.

 

PRODUCERS: BIG PHARMA

Pharmaceutical firms make money when patients purchase drugs.  Thus, it is in their interest to push physicians to prescribe pharmaceuticals to their patients.  In his post “Disease mongering or saving lives,” Fard Johnmar of Envisioning 2.0 looks at a Seattle Times special report detailing how the pharmaceutical industry promotes medications for a range of conditions, including hypertension and obesity.  David Williams looks at a specific pharmaceutical company at the Health Business Blog.  Mr. Williams claims that although Massachusetts politicians are celebrating the building of a new Bristol-Myers Squib (BMS) facility in their state, the financial future of BMS may not be as joyful.

 

In “Drug-induced dissonance”, Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters is confused. Drug company profits are way up, primarily driven by increased prices in the US, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concludes that Democratic Congress’ efforts to reduce Medicare drug spending by negotiating directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers will not work. 

 

Big business is not all bad, however.   Bob Vineyard of InsureBlog notes that Walmart is offering prescription drugs for as little as $4 for some generics.   

 

ILLITERATE CONSUMERS

Craig Lefebvre of On Social Marketing and Social Change claims illiteracy is a major problem in the U.S….health illiteracy that is!  Mr. Lefebvre cites a 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy study which shows that that fewer than 1 in 8 (12% ) American adults are proficient in health literacy skills.  These figures bode poorly for the effectiveness of the consumer-directed health movement.

 

Leif Wellington Haase of The Century Foundation claims that high American health care costs are driven by the high intensity by which most diseases are treated in the U.S. compared to other countries.  Mr. Haase states that “when patients and their families are fully briefed about their condition and about treatment alternatives, they tend to be more conservative than physicians”.  Yet, Mr. Haase agrees with Mr. Lefebvre and writes that putting the onus on patients to reduce costs-such as under a health savings account-is a short sighted solution.

 

BIG GOVERNMENT

Election Day is November 7th and the hot topic political issues are Iraq and homeland security.  In a post by Drew Altman and Robert Blendon at the Health Affairs blog, the authors ask why health care is not a major issue for most races in this fall’s election.  Adam Fein of Drug Channels looks at the possibility that a Democratic victory in the election and a subsequent repeal of the current Medicare prohibition on direct negotiation with drug makers may actually help one of the Democrats’ supposed enemies: Walmart!

 

Interested in seeing how government regulation can often fail?  If so, look no further than Michael Cannon’s examination of the FDA’s record on folic acid in the Cato@Liberty blog. Also see Roy Poses’ post at Health Care Rewewal which finds that the body which regulates organ donation (United Network for Organ Sharing) “has never recommended that the government close an active transplant program.”

 

On the positive side, Marcus Newberry commends HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt in his Fixin’ Healthcare blog for the ”development of science-based comprehensive guidelines to assist Americans include adequate physical activity into their lives.”

 

CAPITALISM and the MANIFESTO

For an interesting perspective, go to The Health Care Blog and check out Matthew Holt’s interview of David Gratzer, a practicing psychiatrist who has written a new book called The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care. 

 

Shahid Shah, The Healthcare IT Guy, offers practical advice to life science companies trying to bring their products to market.  Jason Shafrin (myself) has written at Healthcare Economist (this site) that when Medicare reduces physician fees, the quantity of medical services supplied by doctors may actually increase.

 

For all those interested in the health blogging community, please read Dmitriy Kruglyak’s proposal “HealthTrain: An Open Healthcare Manifesto.”

 

MISCELLANEOUS

And finally, for those who also value the importance of a healthy environment, Vreni Gurd’s Wellness Tips on how to reduce e-waste may be of interest.

 

“The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body, is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind” – G.K. Chesterton

Health Wonk Review #15 is posted at Henry Stern’s InsureBlog. 

FYI: While Mr. Stern refers to me as Dr. Shafrin, I have not yet completed my PhD and thus a title of “Mister” is the only one I can currently claim.

In the healthcare field, as well as for most interesting areas which merit investigation, economists and policy analysts are faced with tradeoffs.  Reducing the cost of healthcare often comes with a sacrifice in the quality or quantity of medical services provided; increasing the quality or quantity of medical services usually increases the price of healthcare. 

In this edition of the Health Wonk Review, our pundits look at both sides of the issue.

REDUCING COST

Consumer Driven Health Care (CDHC) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) have been the the most recent policy initiative to hold down healthcare costs.  Dr. Hébert, a Louisiana blogger as well as a physician, believes that HSAs favor the wealthy, that they only help the young and the healthy, and that they will lead to worse health care.  In “HSA Gumbo” Michael Cannon of the Liberty-at-Cato responds to the doctor’s criticisms of HSAs with some very salient points.  

How has CDHC worked in the ’real-world?’  In “Adventures in (Consumer Driven) Health Care“, Henry Stern of Insure Blog draws on examples from Aetna and United Healthcare to show that CDHC is gaining popularity.  He even cites an eHealthInsurance report which claims that almost half the individuals who bought HDHP had been previously uninsured.

In “Speed Surgery“, Jason Shafrin (myself) at the Healthcare Economist tries to show why a UK initiative to give physicians incentives to complete surgical procedures faster may be a short-sighted policy.

INCREASING QUALITY

One problem with healthcare analysis is measuring quality.  Did my health improve because of a high-quality operation at top-rate facility or was the improvement simply a result of a natural healing process?  In “Is rating the ‘best’ hospitals ‘good’?“, Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters ponders whether or not the recent release of a US News ranking of hospitals is a good thing.  Joe contends that while the rankings are a step in the right direction, they are significantly biased in favor of teaching hospitals and many “great” hospitals do not appear on the ranking. 

Increasing the importance of patient satisfaction is another way to improve the quality of medical services.  David Williams of the Health Business Blog contends that quality will truly improve once healthcare providers get serious about Customer Service.

TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENT and MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY 

Sometimes it is possible to increase quality and reduce cost.  In any industry, this phenomenon most often manifests itself in the form of technical progress.  In “Digital Health Coming to Grandma’s House“, Dale Hunscher of FutureHIT describes how in-home wellness monitoring systems could provide constant vigilance for the elderly as well as reduce care costs through fewer nurses visits and hospitalization.  The problem is that providers and payers face a Prisoner’s Dilemma regarding who will pony up the capital needed to implement this style of care.

Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) standardize medical record keeping in a given metropolitan area, leading to more accurate records and cheaper overhead costs.  In “RHIO business models“, Gary Mark Levin of Inland Empire RHIO News examines a report by the Healthcare IT Transition Group which presents some difficulties that a RHIO have in achieving financial self sufficiency.

Rita Schwab of the Medical Staff Service Professionals (MSSP) Nexus Blog offers simpler solution: Hire passionate healthcare professionals.  She also offers some ‘new rules’ management can use in order to improvement employee performance.

HEALTHCARE BLOGGING CONFERENCE

Dmitriy Kruglyak of The Medical Blog Network informs us of a great opportunity: The First-Ever Conference on Healthcare Blogging.  The conference is December 11th in Washington, D.C. and has a great list of speakers.

In ending, I would like to thank all of you for submitting interesting posts.  I would also like to thank Joe Paduda, Julie Ferguson, and Dmitriy Kruglak for their assistance while I have been the host.