In response to our post announcing Health 2.0 San Francisco, Matt Guldin writes:

Regardless of whether or not we go to a single-payer system, move to a
consumer-directed health care world, or stay pretty much status quo,
the administrative and clinical tools & infrastructure that are
being generated as part of "Health 2.0" will be here to stay.

Chad Markson liked the podcast interview with AthenaHealth CEO Jonathan Bush. He had this to say:

"This guy is a rock star – just what are industry needs. What a great
interview – took a while to get going but what a great exchange. I
think Bush nailed the current market dynamics. Will be interesting to
see how things play out."

 NDDB responds to this week’s post on the physician rating site’s
spat with Revolution Health:

 “Please don’t play this off as a competition squabble. Like
I said, NDDB is not the only site out there, RateMDs and many others are as
well, and I think they all do a great job. I’ve not seen one I had a problem
with. They do what they say they are doing, they don’t make outrageous claims,
and they don’t claim to be "revolutionary," even though some of them
could.”

 Thomas Goetz, the author of the New York Times op-ed on WorldVista, had
a reaction to yesterday’s   "Put this one down in the somewhat bizarre
category" critiquing his piece on the open source system.  He writes:

“Sounds like you didn’t quite read the piece – the whole
point is that WorldVista has been certified as ready for the market, meaning
it’s available now. Not sure why you think a 2 year old story disproves that…”

To which Matthew responds:

“Yeah but … WorldVista isn’t ready for prime-time for a physician’s office.
There isn’t really a support network to put it in place, and as I mentioned the
office-ready version isn’t — unless it snuck by me somehow.  AND the biggest cost of the ambulatory EMR is
not the software, it’s getting it up and running. Which is harder with these
open source models.

I am with you in spirit (honestly! whatever my other commenters think). I
just think we need to pay and force doctors to use the EMR. Telling them to get
on VistA isn’t going to do it."

In response to the debate set off by Healthcare Partners of Southern California’s recent decision to
publish prices for certain procedures, frequent contributor Dr. Eric Novack writes in to say:

Many physicians have recoiled against the idea of insurance companies
publishing contracted rates for services.  I disagree.  As I believe I stated at THCB previously, once
all rates are truly transparent, a remarkable thing will happen: Doctors no
longer need to be a part of insurance plans. They can just publish their own
rates, eliminate much of their billing staff, and go simply assist patients in
filing claims when the dollars amount is high enough to warrant it.And the
total cost of healthcare would decrease.

Lastly, in response to an earlier post on the Edwards plan,
Ryan writes: “Americans pay more per person for healthcare than socialized
countries. Sadly, many of our increased costs are because the rest of the world
is socialized.”