Do We Want Income Equality?
I can’t think of any single act of government that creates more inequality than the lottery—at least per dollar raised and spent. Think about it. Thousands of (mostly below-average income)…
Dietary Fiber and Mortality
Scientists have proven that dietary fiber lowers the risk of coronary artery disease, diabetes and certain cancers. Surprisingly however, they had yet to show that fiber could impact overall mortality.…
Empowering Patients with Transactional Tools
NCR got its start in banking, but healthcare is benefiting from their success as hospitals respond to the needs of ePatients and empower them to do more for themselves. It…
Medicare Advantage Premiums
In 2010, one quarter of Medicare beneficiaries chose capitated plans through the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. According to MedPAC, “ coverage must include all Medicare Part A and Part B…
Romney Faces Health Reform Issue in 2012 Race
As the one year anniversary of the PPACA nears, the mother of President Obama’s top domestic achievement — Massachusetts’ guaranteed universal healthcare delivery — will get some ink this week.…
Hospital in Japan Struggling To Care for Patients
Fish are still swimming in the flooded basement and there’s only 2 small generators to pump water out. Some of the hospital staff have lost family but are there still…
Study Shows Need for Chronic Disease Prevention
A study released earlier this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds fifteen states in the southeast U.S. to have the highest prevalence of diabetes in…
Primary Care Workforce Situation: Not Hopeless
I sometimes observe that the only sector of the economy as messed up as health care is higher education, where the US has some great institutions but where costs are…
Getting Nurse Staffing Right Is Critical
When I was the CEO of a large academic hospital we were constantly concerned to properly balance nurse staffing. More staff than needed meant wasted money and too little staffing…
Kinect Technology Saves Having to Rescrub!
No this not using Kinect to do the surgery, but rather to use gestures (which means they don’t have to touch anything) and view patient images. This is huge and…