Primum Non Nocere: Congress’s Inadequate Medicare Physician Payment Fix
As Congress wrestles with how to end the Sustainable Growth Rate Fiasco, a bipartisan proposal has emerged which will probably make things worse than they are now. Read about Congress’ Inadequate SGR Solution.
Pioneer ACOs’ Disappointing First Year
The most controversial and heavily hyped healthcare payment reform idea in the Affordable Care Act has been the Accountable Care Organization. Thirty two high performing health systems participated in the Pioneer ACO demonstration, which reported its first year results in the summer of 2013. The blizzard of hype and press releases concealed a lot of problems. Read about the Pioneer ACO’s Disappointing First Year.
Health Industry Price Inflation At Historical Low
Health costs are slowed to a near standstill. What caused it? What does it mean? Is the pause durable or transient? Read: Health Cost Inflation at Historic Low.
Hospitals’ Twenty First Century Time Warp
The US hospital of 2013 is remarkably similar in technology and services to the US hospital of 1998. Have hospitals entered a 21st Century Time Warp?
Practice Redesign Isn’t Going To Erase The Primary Care Shortage
The largest problem the health system faces in the next decade is the retirement of the baby boom primary care physicians, just in time for boomers enrolling in Medicare and millions of newly covered by health reform. Younger physicians are not entering primary care because it pays so poorly. Can we design new primary care models to alleviate the impending shortage, or is something more fundamental required?
Where Is Health Spending Headed? Some Reactions To The CMS Report
For the third year in a row, health spending continues at pre-Medicare rates of cost growth. Is this new and welcome trend sustainable? Where is health spending headed?
Accidental Tourist: Visiting the Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok
In December,2012, Jeff Goldsmith journeyed to Thailand, and visited the storied Bumrungrad Hospital. He was really impressed with what he saw. Read about why in The Accidental Tourist.
Health Care: An Alternate Economic Universe
While the US economy continues to labor to create new jobs, the health system has added over a million jobs since the beginning of the recession, despite falling physician office visits, hospitalizations, etc. What gives? Is health care an alternate economic universe?
Roberts’ “Flying Squirrel” Maneuver Takes Down the Affordable Care Act
The Supreme Court unexpectedly affirms the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, however, it invalidates a key piece of the law, rendering the expansion of Medicaid “optional” for states. Why the Supreme Court may have dealt a serious blow to health reform.
Barking Up The Wrong Tree: Affordability, Not Cost Growth, Is The Policy Challenge
US health cost growth has reached a fifty year low. What does this mean for health policy? The key problem: nearly half the country cannot afford to use the health system without massive public subsidy. Why affordability, not cost growth, is the major health policy challenge.