by Kenneth Thomas Romney to Replace Obamacare with…Essentially Nothing Tommy Christopher (via @rcooley123) at Mediaite has a good catch on Mitt Romney’s health care proposals, from an interview Romney gave to Mark Halperin of Time magazine. Asked what would happen to people with pre-existing conditions after he were to repeal Obamacare, Romney said: If people […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Research on Defensive Medicine (Part 1) (Background – I have been an executive in two orthopaedic centers, and write and lecture for orthopaedic practice executives.) A Vanderbilt research survey of orthopaedic surgeons indicate that 24% of diagnostic testing is “defensive medicine.” This does not surprise me, as […]
Health Care Thoughts: Here We Go Again – SGR Edition Congress has passed a ten month patch of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula by which Medicare reimburses physicians. I have lost count, but I believe that is the 11th or 12th year since creation of the formula which has never been put into full […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Evidence Based Medicine Evidence based medicine is one of the center pieces of PPACA (Obamacare) and is generally viewed as THE enlightened way to practice medicine and to direct dollars more effectively. Problem is, there is a “whose ox just got gored” issue. The American Psychiatric Association […]
Uwe Reinhardt at Economix sums up health care policy proposals over the last decades(hat tip save the rustbelt) To describe the unifying theme running through these past variants, it is helpful to enumerate the major economic functions any health system must perform: Producing health-care goods and services. Financing health care, which involves extracting money from […]
by Mike Kimel American v. Brazilian Healthcare, a Continuing Series I spoke to my sister on Skype last night. She’s been in Natal, in Northeastern Brazil, for the past few months. Last week, she noticed a couple small warts growing on her leg. So she wandered down to a government run hospital and and had […]
There is a amazing piece in Forbes that Tim Worstall (also at Forbes) notes reporting on scary news that is misleading: I’m very confused by this piece from fellow Forbes contributor Rick Ungar. He tells us that there’s a bomb buried in Obamacare (or more formally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and that […]
Health Care Thoughts: Accountable Care Part II Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are the keystone of PPACA (Obamacare) as far as restraining costs and improving quality. Early this year there was great excitement about ACOs in the provider community, but the publication of the (first phase) Medicare ACO rules threw cold water on everything. The rules […]
By Michael Halasy Super Committee and GME funding SO, about that super committee. Surely you remember, the gang of 12 that was created by the showdown over the debt ceiling this summer. Well, they’re hard at work but among the proposals out there, is one that is causing some grave concerns. As a health workforce […]
Via Rusty, Centura Health uses Xtra Normal To Explain It All to You: