Health Care Industry

Selling Physician-Assisted Suicide For Big Savings

David P. Hamilton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:08:58 +0000

Somehow I managed to miss the fuss back in July when the Oregon Health Plan — the state’s medical-coverage plan for low-income residents — told cancer patient Barbara Wagner that it wouldn’t cover the expensive drug Tarceva, but that it would pay for palliative care, including “physician-assisted suicide.” (In the glare of subsequent publicity, the [...]

Health 2.0: American Well and the Advent of Paid Telemedicine

David P. Hamilton — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:07:27 +0000

If, like many people, you find it difficult to see a doctor without making an appointment weeks in advance and sometimes wonder why you can’t ask quick medical questions by phone, email or some other means short of turning up at the office, the startup American Well has a solution for you. Well, the solution [...]

Hospital Ads — The Whys and Hows of Perverse Incentives

David P. Hamilton — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:52:41 +0000

Hospital advertising is, by and large, a baleful influence on healthcare, not least because it so often bolsters demand for expensive but unproven procedures that inflate medical bills and insurance premiums without any guarantee that they’re making anyone better. Whew. Now that I’ve got that out of my system, let me direct your attention to two [...]

“Never Events” and Hospital Infections — An Impossible Goal?

David P. Hamilton — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:30:57 +0000

I’ve written sympathetically about the efforts of Medicare and private insurers such as WellPoint to eliminate avoidable medical errors — particularly so-called “never events,” such as surgery on the wrong side of the body or operations that leave sponges or instruments inside the patient — by refusing to pay for follow-up care. The plan still seems [...]

Seven Long-Term Healthcare Trends To Worry About

David P. Hamilton — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:30:56 +0000

For a short break from our normal diet of current healthcare challenges and problems, I thought I’d draw your attention to Richard Eskow’s recent post on seven long-term medical and healthcare trends that should be on the radar of anyone concerned about healthcare issues. His post over at The Sentinel Effect is definitely worth reading [...]

More on Hospitals vs. Insurers: Carilion Edition

David P. Hamilton — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:15:04 +0000

A few days ago I noted Joe Paduda’s argument that hospitals have regained some pricing clout against health insurers, enabling them to pad their bottom line at the expense of health plans. After some further scouting around, I still think the picture isn’t entirely clear. So let’s lay out the data points and take a [...]

Overtreatment in Action: $30 Billion Wasted on Unnecessary MRI, CT Scans

David P. Hamilton — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:01:52 +0000

The news here is a few weeks old, but I was still struck by the fact that large insurers are apparently starting to crack down on the overuse of medical imaging. According to Bloomberg, companies like WellPoint and Magellan Health Services believe that expensive and unnecessary CT and MRI scans cost them roughly $30 billion [...]

Columbia Pacific: Exporting U.S.-Style Healthcare to Asia

David P. Hamilton — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:30:56 +0000

Hand this off to the Bureau of Questionable Ideas: Columbia Pacific, a Seattle investment firm has raised $325 million to bring “U.S.-style healthcare” to nations such as Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. The fund’s current focus is India, where it hopes to own more than 26 facilities by the end of the decade, up from [...]

Are Hospitals Grabbing a Bigger Share of the Healthcare Pie?

David P. Hamilton — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:15:00 +0000

The U.S. healthcare system is sometimes best thought of as a three-way tug-of-war between payers (private insurers and the feds), providers (hospitals and doctors) and suppliers (drug and medical-device makers). No, patients don’t really figure into this analogy — at best, they’re trussed up in the middle somewhere. Most big changes in the system result when [...]

The Blues Still Have the Blues

David P. Hamilton — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:34:45 +0000

Times just aren't getting any better for nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans. Not only has operating income hit the skids, but pressures to merge or convert to for-profit status keep rising.