Wrong on ObamaCare / shutterstock

What I’m about to show you is in my opinion an embarrassment to the economics profession and I wish more of my colleagues would express their strong disapproval. Paul Krugman is wrong about Obamacare -- again -- and here's how.[read more]

Difficulties in healthcare

New training promises to help healthcare providers meet new challenges. Drexel University College of Medicine is developing an online medical education program called WebPatientEncounter.com to help healthcare professionals learn practices and assess complex clinical skills.[read more]

Covered California™ announced 13 diverse health insurance plans in 2014 that will offer affordable, quality health care coverage to millions of Californians. The plans reflect a mix of large non- profit and commercial plan leaders, along with well-known Medi-Cal and regional plans.[read more]

marrow donation: moral dilemma (umjanedoan/photopin cc)

The federal government’s proposal to ban compensation for bone marrow collected in a less invasive manner touches a nerve for me, because a couple years ago I made a decision not to follow through as a bone marrow donor even after I had been told that I had matched with a patient.[read more]

Martha Wofford, Aetna

One of the brightest stars at the star-studded 2013 mHealth Summit is Martha L. Wofford, an Aetna vice president and head of the company’s new CarePass program. On a snowy day in the nation’s capital, I caught up with Ms. Wofford after her presentation on new developments in mobile health.[read more]

Health Start-Ups!

A VC-backed company called Atterocor, a University of Michigan spinoff co-founded by a patient, is conducting a Phase 1 clinical study of a drug that it hopes could prolong the lives of patients with adrenocortical carcinoma, and cause fewer toxic side effects, than the current treatment option.[read more]

John Traeger, Enterprise Solutions Consultant

The context in which we provide interfaces outside of hospital organizations is changing rapidly. The government and market pressures to form ACOs and HIEs have generated a high number of new participants and connections. These factors and others are creating a tsunami of interface work that is coming in at a rapid pace.[read more]

health and wellness / shutterstock

New research out of the UK emphasizes the important role physicians and other healthcare providers play in driving the lifestyle changes needed to lose weight. Specifically, the study found that appropriate weight loss advice from a physician almost doubled the likelihood of a patient’s attempting to lose weight.[read more]

Healthcare websites that shine

Hospital or healthcare websites aren’t always the easiest for customers to work with. Just look at the issues with Healthcare.gov. Many times, people simply don’t understand the language in them. Here are a few common problems with hospital or healthcare websites and ways to fix them.[read more]

healthcare marketing online

Curiously, the vast majority of all US hospitals do not participate in social media. We can’t help but wonder (and worry) if this at all reflects how some healthcare marketing pros are planning for the New Year. Having anything less than a first class Internet and social media strategy would be a large and painful shortfall.[read more]

US healthcare spending / shutterstock

In the United States, health spending accounted for almost 18 percent of GDP in 2011. The Netherlands comes next, at just under 12 percent. In dollar figures, the U.S. spent $8,508 per capita, versus only $5,669 in Norway, the runner-up. This certainly invites us to question whether we are getting our money’s worth.[read more]

Reinforce social connections

For some, the power of social connections is self-evident. Those of you in this category probably spend lots of time on Facebook and make sure you keep in touch with your close friends and family on a daily basis. But the impact of social connections goes much deeper than what is obvious on the surface.[read more]