CMS Chief Answers to Congress, Provides Few Details on Reform’s Early Progress
The first opportunity for the House to fire questions at Obama recess appointee (to CMS head) Donald Berwick, MD took place yesterday. Berwick took the time to affirm that the…
Klein: Decision on Individual Mandate Could Come Down to Kennedy
Prognostications and general predictions aside, the often polarized nature of the SCOTUS lends itself to easy expectations of the high court’s decisions on many key issues. Hot buttons such as…
Concentra’s Dr. Tom Fogarty on urgent care (transcript)
This is the transcript of my recent podcast interview with Concentra Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tom Fogarty. David Williams: This is David Williams, co-founder of MedPharma Partners and author of…
Protocol Medicine – It Is Time For Doctors To Recognize Their Value
We hear that doctors do not like “protocol medicine” – they do not want to follow a “cookbook” when every patient is different. It is not a good understanding of…
More Evidence that Medical Malpractice Reform Wouldn’t Stop Excessive Testing
As discussed recently (Let’s not forget patient safety in med mal reform) I don’t buy the idea that excessive testing is mainly attributable to “defensive medicine,” i.e., doctors doing too…
Obesity Devices Gain From Drug Woes
It is a repeated theme in the history of medtech development. Drugs represent an alluring treatment alternative, since the option to swallow a pill to deal with a problem will…
SCOTUS to Hear Case Involving Governor’s Proposal to Cut Payments for Providers to California’s Medicaid Patients
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide if doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and others who provide services to California Medi-Cal recipients can have their payments cut by the state. Medi-Cal, the state’s…
Pay-for-Performance: An Overview
Pay-for-performance schemes have been attracting much attention of late. A RWJF policy paper from 2007 provides a nice overview of various P4P design considerations. Below, I summarize some of the…
Can Media handle the Healthcare news?
I enjoy reading Drew Altman’s Pulling It Together column, an easy that usually contains something of interest. Yesterday’s piece (Repeal) was a straightforward summary of the issues surrounding the House’s…
The Incidence Of Kidney Failure Due To Diabetes Is Down – But We Should Not Be Pleased
Diabetes mellitus is the most common cause of kidney failure that progresses to end stage renal disease (ESRD,) meaning that the person requires dialysis or kidney transplant. ESRD is chronic…
