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Why we now need primary care, everywhere
With the stunning Supreme Court 5-4 majority decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), there’s a Roberts’ Rules of (Health Reform) Order that calls for liberating primary...
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Converging for health care: how collaborating is breaking down silos to...
On Tuesday, 9 July 2012, health industry stakeholders are convening in Philadelphia for the first CONVERGE conference, seeking to ignite conversation across siloed organizations to solve seemingly...
View ArticleSaid the EHR to the doctor, “you like me, you really like me!”
Over one-half of office-based physicians in the U.S. had adopted an electronic health record (EHR) in 2011. Among theese adopters, 85% were satisfied: 38% “very,” and 47% “somewhat.” Those are pretty...
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Employees will bear more health costs to 2017 – certainty in an uncertain future
Amidst uncertainties and wild cards about health care’s future in the U.S., there’s one certainty forecasters and marketers should incorporate into their scenarios: consumers will bear more costs and...
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Living paycheck to paycheck: what it means for health
While 50% of Americans feel they have a sound financial position, the other half is living paycheck to paycheck. 8% say they can’t even pay for essentials. The second annual Allstate “Life Tracks” Poll...
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Health consumers don’t understand overtreatment, and their role in driving...
Overuse of health care is defined as the delivery of health care services for which the risks outweigh the benefits, according to a study into the utilization of ambulatory care health services...
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Bill Clinton’s public health, cost-bending message thrills health IT folks at...
In 2010, the folks who supported health care reform were massacred by the polls, Bill Clinton told a rapt audience of thousands at HIMSS13 yesterday. In 2012, the folks who were against health care...
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Most consumers will look to health insurance exchanges to buy individual...
As the Affordable Care Act, health reform, aka Obamacare, rolls out in 2013, American health insurance shoppers will look for sources of information they can trust on health plan quality and...
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The need for a Zagat and TripAdvisor in health care
Patient satisfaction survey scores have begun to directly impact Medicare payment for health providers. Health plan members are morphing into health consumers spending “real money” in high-deductible...
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Let patients help: the BMJ covers an American ePatient’s learnings
In this week’s BMJ (British Medical Journal), an American patient tells his story about being equipped, enabled, empowered and engaged — the many “e’s” making up the prefix of “ePatient.” This...
View ArticleBending the cost-curve: a proposal from some Old School bipartisans
Strange political bedfellows have come together to draft a formula for dealing with spiraling health care costs in the U.S. iin A Bipartisan Rx for Patient-Centered Care and System-Wide Cost...
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10 Reasons Why ObamaCare is Good for US
When Secretary Sebelius calls, I listen. It’s a sort of “Help Wanted” ad from the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius that prompted me to write this post. The Secretary called for...
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The health care automat – Help Yourself to healthcare via online marketplaces
Imagine walking into a storefront where you can shop for an arthroscopy procedure, mammogram, or appointment with a primary care doctor based on price, availability, quality, and other consumers’...
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Consumers don’t get as much satisfaction with high-deductible health plans
Since the advent of the so-called consumer-directed health care era in the mid-2000s, there’s been a love-gap between health plan members of traditional plans, living in Health Plan World 1.0, and...
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Innovating and thriving in value-based health – collaboration required
In health care, when money is tight, labor inputs like nurses and doctors stretched, and patients wanting to be treated like beloved Amazon consumers, what do you do? Why, innovate and thrive. This...
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HIMSS14 Monday Morning Quarterback – The Key Takeaways
Returning to terra firma following last week’s convening of the 2014 annual HIMSS conference…taking some time off for family, a funeral, the Oscars, and dealing with yet another snowstorm…I now take a...
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The Season of Healthcare Transparency – HFMA’s Price Transparency Manifesto –...
As Big Payors continue to shift more costs onto health consumers in the U.S., the importance of and need for transparency grows. 39% of large employers offered consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) in...
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The Season of Healthcare Transparency – Chaos, then Creation, Part 5
The consumer demand side for healthcare transparency is hungry for the light to shine on health care costs, quality and information that’s relevant and meaningful to the individual. The supply side is...
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Novel concept: people + health pricing information = market competition
In the post-Recession American economy, people shop for value in all things. And that includes health care services like MRIs — when patients are informed of pricing differences among imaging...
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Health and financial well-being are strongly linked, CIGNA asks and answers
The modern view on wellness is “having it all” in terms of driving physical, emotional, mental and financial health across one’s life, according to CIGNA’s survey report, Health & Financial...
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