The Health Care Blog – Page 350 – Everything you always wanted to know about the Health Care system. But were afraid to ask.

Above the Fold

What’s Wrong With Medicine? You Decide.

Aug 29, 2016• 12

By ROBERT McNUTT, MD

I have practiced medicine for over 40 years. I have yet to find a physician without a chronic disease in question who is smarter than the person with that chronic disease. I have been impressed that a patient’s numeric insights and intuitions when they are ill surpass their skills when they were not ill. All a patient needs is information, in all its glory and messiness, to know if the information is worth anything to them when they face a medical decision. Patients, in my view, are the best information managers and evidence experts I have ever seen, and I know a bunch of evidence experts to draw upon for the comparison. My interpretation may be biased, but I have been doing shared consults with patients for twenty plus years and I have learned that patients are smart. Consider the following:

1. The man had been advised to have surgery. The man and his wife stared in stunned silence at the data on prostate cancer treatment outcomes with surgery. The study was described in detail including a description of the people who were studied. The wife finally spoke, “You mean to tell us you want my husband to have surgery when so few have been studied! You mean to tell us that not a single person of our cultural heritage has been tested in the study?” I responded and reminded, “I am not asking you to have surgery. We are going over information of potential benefit and harm that you must balance for your choice.” They were kind in response, refused to consider surgery or further discussion, and, instead, chose to enter a clinical study.

A Warning Label For Healthcare E-mail?

Aug 26, 2016• 3

BY JIM PURCELL

flying cadeucii Eric Jones, the CEO of a large hospital, is at the end of a long day. It’s 10 PM, he’s very tired, and has had his maximum of three drinks. He’s checking his emails and sees one from Ralph Smith, CEO of a small community hospital, rejecting Jones’ offer to joint venture hips and knees. The small hospital has rated tops in those categories, and Jones had hoped to achieve a quality and marketing coup by joining forces, perhaps as a prelude to acquisition. This rejection was the last straw, particularly since Smith and Jones never had gotten on very well. Immediately, Jones whipped off an email excoriating and libeling Smith and his hospital, misrepresenting what happened in negotiations, and threatening to “go to war” and “destroy” him and his hospital if they don’t “play ball.”

Think that far-fetched? Nope. Things worse than that have happened with astonishing regularity. Assume that when Smith opens and reads that email the next morning, he then forwards it to his senior staff and the hospital’s litigation lawyer. The lawyer confirms that it’s not only actionable for libel, but could constitute a violation of antitrust law, where damages can be trebled and attorneys’ fees recovered.

Hold on. Ready For It? EpiPen May Actually Still Be Too Cheap!!!

Aug 26, 2016• 15

By DAVID E. WILLIAMS

Screen Shot 2016-08-26 at 10.32.24 AM

Pick up a newspaper or surf the web and you’ll find story after story taking Mylan to task for EpiPen pricing practices. The list price of a 2-pack has soared from about $100 to $600 over the past decade. The price is deemed too high and the rate of increase is considered particularly unconscionable.

Let me offer a brief counterargument:

EpiPen is worth the price. A $300 pen regularly rescues children from anaphylactic shock that would otherwise be fatal, offering them the chance to live to 100 instead of dying at 10. (About 20% of patients need a second dose, which is why these devices are sold in 2-packs.) Meanwhile drug makers charge hundreds of thousands of dollars per year per hemophiliac, tens of thousands or more to give a cancer patient a shot at a couple or few more months of life, and thousands per year to modestly lower the chance of a heart attack. Within that context, and in absolute terms, EpiPen is indeed a bargain.

EpiPen Shock

Aug 25, 2016• 4

By STEVEN FINDLAY

The white hot EpiPen controversy is the latest signal—and it should be loud and clear at this point—that the pharmaceutical marketplace is dysfunctional.

To be sure, drug companies make medicines that save and prolong lives and ease suffering. And many drugs save money compared to alternative treatments, and yield productivity gains by keeping people alive, well, and working.

But over the past two decades, the industry has become the poster child for poor business ethics, flaunting the law, and profiteering. Just one example: Since 1990 drug companies have paid $15 billion in civil and criminal fines to the federal government for promoting the use of their products “off-label” – that is, for unapproved uses.

They have also been caught red-handed (a) testing drugs in illegal and unethical ways in third world countries, and (b) hiding study results from authorities worldwide that undermine claims for their drugs’ effectiveness and/or safety.

Most recently, they have been vilified for startling increases in the prices of both brand-name and generic drugs.

The Self-Care Rx

Aug 25, 2016• 5

BY LEONARD KISH

“The system only changes if we empower the one person who cares about their health the most – the patient. Over the next decade, I believe people will become the CEOs of their own health.” Vinod Khosla

Self care is the future for the simple reason that nobody wants to be a patient. Of course we want care when we need it. We want to be well. We want a good life. We want independence. We want control, and we certainly don’t want to need care nor to lose control.

And becoming a patient, for better or for worse, implies giving up control. Being a patient implies there are gatekeepers, there are limits, there are constraints, there are decisions we can’t make for ourselves. We can’t always get the access we want. Talk to patient advocates and you’ll find people fed up with the lack of control, lack of ownership and the lack of help from the health care system.

Open Letter to President Obama About His JAMA Paper

Aug 24, 2016• 18

KIP SULLIVAN, JD

Dear President Obama,

If I were to tell you that alligators and southern accents are correlated and that alligators cause southern accents, what would you say? You’d say, “Yes, Kip, there is a correlation, but it’s weak. But more importantly, even if the correlation were strong, there is no plausible mechanism by which alligators could influence accents. Therefore I reject your conclusion.”

I offer the same rejoinder to your argument in your August 2 JAMA article that the Affordable Care Act has reduced health care inflation. In that paper, you claimed the ACA has “contributed to a sustained period of slow growth in per-enrollee health care spending,” and you cited the low average inflation rate of the five-year period 2010 to 2014. But that period correlates only loosely with the period of very low inflation that began in 2008 and ended in 2014. The fit is even worse if we define the “sustained period of slow growth” as 2004 or 2005 to 2014 as some do. To give you the benefit of the doubt, I’ll assume you were referring to the 2008-2013 inflation lull.

Of far more importance, even if the correlation were strong, there is no plausible mechanism in the ACA that could have caused more than a tiny fraction of the 2008-2013 slowdown.

My Ideal EHR

Aug 23, 2016• 19

By NIRAN AL-AGBA

flying cadeucii Give me technology which improves my life and that of my patients, or give me death. Medical records must be informative, efficient, and flexible; like the physicians they serve. For me, a medical record does not contain just a collection of problem lists, prescribed medications, and immunizations; it is a noteworthy account of the health care provided to another human being over a lifetime.

Recently, I attended a baby shower of a patient who is now an adult. (I am a pediatrician.) I brought her medical chart wrapped with a satin bow as one of her gifts. I was her physician for many years; my father had taken care of both her and her mother as children. Her growth, development, immunizations, and illnesses were all recorded; but so were 25 years of life experiences, trials, triumphs, and tribulations. The back section contains drawings she had given me, newspaper articles of her achievements, graduation announcements, and her wedding invitation. Obviously, medical records register growth parameters, vital signs, and sick visits; but they also encompass my relationship with my patients.

Self-Driving Health

Aug 22, 2016• 1

By JACOB REIDER, MD

Screen Shot 2016-08-22 at 10.39.39 AM

Lots of news about this recently. Five years ago, you would shake your head and say “no way – not in my lifetime.” Now you know that this is our future. It will be safer, will save billions of dollars, and will be have positive consequences we can barely imagine. The kids need to go to soccer practice? Send them. Get the dog to the vet for his check-up? Plop him in the car and off he goes. It’s real. It will happen. Soon.

So why is it so hard for us to imagine self-driving health? Do we have a crisis of under-supply of primary care? Yes. Today we do . But I wonder if that’s because we’re asking the wrong question.

Aetna’s Obamacare Surprise

Aug 21, 2016• 14

By STEVEN FINDLAY

Screen Shot 2016-08-21 at 10.41.37 AM Did Aetna just pull a nasty, Trump-like move and up the ante on the Obamacare debate in advance of the election and exchange open enrollment for 2017?

The allegation is that the company withdrew from 11 state insurance exchange marketplaces for 2017 after the Justice Department failed to heed Aetna’s warning that it would do so if Justice didn’t approve its $37 billion purchase of Humana. The Justice Department announced last month that it was challenging that deal and Anthem’s proposed merger with Cigna, saying both deals threaten to sharply reduce competition in the health insurance marketplace.

A July 2016 letter from Aetna to Justice, unearthed by Huffington Post, contains the threat. But in announcing its exchange pullback this past week, Aetna made no mention of the letter and insisted its action was prompted by existing and expected future financial losses in the exchanges.

More Than a Lollipop: Helping Kids Get Through the Hospital Experience

Aug 21, 2016

By CARE LOGISTICS

Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 7.03.56 AM In the latest installment of the Who Cares: Hospital Talk podcast we chat with Kristin Colby, a specialist with Children’s Hospital of Atlanta about the challenges of preparing kids for the uncertainty and trauma of hospital care. Could working with kids just maybe teach something to the rest of us? Maybe. Just maybe ..