A health care reform protest video that rocks! (Hat-tip to ePatientDave)
Above the Fold
What Voters Really Think About Evidence-Based Health Care
By ROBERT LASZEWSKI
I want to call your attention to an important survey done by the California-based Campaign for Effective Patient Care. They surveyed California voters on their understanding of evidence-based medicine.The bad news is that patients think their health care treatment is generally evidence-based even though that assumption is highly questionable. The good news is that patients want it to be evidence-based.At a time when we hear anecdotal evidence, particularly from town hall meetings, that people don't want any "interference" between them and their doctors they do seem to appreciate they need to get all of the facts when making a treatment decision.Here is the survey summary. You can access all of it here.
Groupon, Livingsocial, and digital norms
Regular readers may have noticed that I am a bit of a social media junkie– this blog, Facebook, Twitter — but I am also intrigued by social media sites that are set up only for commercial purposes. It is fun and instructive to watch the evolution of these sites.
Along those lines, a few weeks ago, I wrote about Groupon. The concept: The retailer offers a discount deal in the city of your choice, but only if enough people sign up for it.
The viral power is amazing, because after you sign up for something you want, you contact all your friends asking them to do the same so you can get the deal. Meanwhile, the retailer gets noticed by people with an affinity for his/her product or service, and gets a bundle of cash in prepayments. The folks at Groupon get some kind of fee. Everyone is happy
Now arises a new site, soon to go into business, called Livingsocial. Like Groupon, you can sign up for the deal of the day, and if enough people sign up, the deal is on; but unlike Groupon, if you get three other people to sign up for the deal, you get your coupon for free.
Recently on THCB
10,000 US Physicians have something to say, and we’re not wasting time by Dr. Daniel Palestrant What Obama Must Demand from Congress on Health Care by Robert Reich Public Still Backs the Public Plan by Merrill Goozner Not Really An Option by Gary Nissen No Alternative: An Analysis of the GOP Plan by Harris Meyer“Winners and Losers – Strategy in a Post-Reform World” by Roger Collier“Betsy McCaughey’s Infected Advocacy” by Michael Millenson“The Health care cost shifting myth” by Austin Frakt“Health care reform good for the business of healthcare” by Robert Laszewski“Can the two Democratic parties get it together on healthcare reform?” by Jeff Goldsmith“Health Panels are a NICE way of controlling costs” by Adrian Baker “Winners and Losers – Strategy in a Post Reform World” by Bill Kramer“Our President is on the Ropes” by Dr. Stephen Kardos“Will Republicans be spoilers or problem solvers on health care reform?” by Brian Klepper and Dr. David Kibbe“The Right to Live” by David Shaywitz“Tweaking Medical Education to Leverage EHRS” by Glenn Laffel
Not Really an Option
By GARY NISSEN
To: Executives leading U.S. Hospitals
The public option appears to back in the national dialogue and I’m wondering how concerned you all are about that.
After all, many of you have been quite successful at minimizing the appearance of true profit by growing your cost structure on the backs of private insurers, right?
Thinking back over the last ten to fifteen years, many things have changed.Continue reading…
Reminding Washington of What the Health Care Debate is About
This summer, we witnessed countless demonstrations on the health care debate across the country. The media has broadcast and written about impassioned pleas from conservatives and liberals alike, each swearing, with an alarming level of certainty, that their way is the only way. As we enter the fall and as Washington returns to work, Americans must ask themselves what really matters when it comes to reform. From my standpoint, while I think it’s a good thing the country is discussing much-needed health care reform, there is one important element missing from this enthusiastic debate. The patients. Individual Americans, and their best interests, are, or at least should be, at the core of any health care dialogue. Some will be much more affected than others, regardless of what the makeup of the final language that is passed.
Joint Commission Apes Newt, Takes on IHI
Not content with handing out demerits for bad behavior, the Joint Commission has launched an effort to help those who misbehave change their ways.
As detailed in the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog, the mission of the Joint Commission’s new Center for Transforming Healthcare will be, in the Journal’s words, “to work on new collaborative programs with leading hospitals and health care systems to find a cause of the most deadly breakdowns in patient care, and put a stop to them.”If the name of the new group sounds familiar, you could be confusing it with Newt Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation. That center was launched by the former House Speaker to tout the benefits of health information technology and a changed reimbursement system and then show how those benefits could work in practice through demonstration projects. Of course, with the advent of the Obama administration, the for-profit center has changed its mission just a tad from Newt-the-Wonk’s, “Paper Kills” to Newt-the-Republican-Attack-Dog’s “Democrats kill.” Visitors to the Center’s site can now find helpful op-eds with titles like “Healthcare Rationing” and “Listen to Barney Frank or listen to America?”
The Speech: Could this have been what he planned all along?
A conventional look at The Speech: Obama over-learned the lessons of Hillary-care; he gave Congress too long a leash; he lost control of the message; the wacko’s attacked with a barrage of Socialist/Nazi/Plug-Pulling-on-Grandma-isms; not only was health reform on the ropes but the entire Obama Presidency was in danger of imploding (taking the Dems down with him in the mid-terms); Obama had his back against the wall, a make-or-break moment. Then last night, the President gave a great speech that staked out a thoughtful middle ground; Joe Wilson went rogue, horrifying nearly everyone; this led to real sympathy for Obama and the Dems and a shift in the political landscape. In the end, a mild version of health reform – with nearly-universal coverage, some regulatory protections against the most heinous insurance practices, fee hikes to pay for it all, and a little movement toward improving quality and efficiency – passes.
Another look at The Speech:
Obama, a student of history, realizes that health reform is a near-impossible sell since every special interest will come out swinging; he gives Congress the ball knowing that whatever plan emerges from their sausage factory will simply be red meat for demagoguing Republicans and special interests worried about preserving their Gravy Train; Congress obliges by developing plans that overpromise and under-resource, or that push predictable hot buttons (immigrant coverage, palliative care); the Right and its attack dogs go berserk throughout the Wacko Days of August; the left hunkers down, drawing a line in the sand on the Public Option, kyboshing malpractice reform, and avoiding the hard questions about financing.Continue reading…
The Speech: Could this have been what he planned all along?
By BOB WACHTER
A conventional look at The Speech:
Obama over-learned the lessons of Hillary-care; he gave Congress too long a leash; he lost control of the message; the wacko’s attacked with a barrage of Socialist/Nazi/Plug-Pulling-on-Grandma-isms; not only was health reform on the ropes but the entire Obama Presidency was in danger of imploding (taking the Dems down with him in the mid-terms); Obama had his back against the wall, a make-or-break moment. Then last night, the President gave a great speech that staked out a thoughtful middle ground; Joe Wilson went rogue, horrifying nearly everyone; this led to real sympathy for Obama and the Dems and a shift in the political landscape. In the end, a mild version of health reform – with nearly-universal coverage, some regulatory protections against the most heinous insurance practices, fee hikes to pay for it all, and a little movement toward improving quality and efficiency – passes.
Continue reading…Video: Obama addresses Congress on Health reform
TRANSCRIPT: Full text of Obama speechAUDIO: via NPR
POLITICO: Opponent’s “You Lie!” outburst may have unified Democrats.REBUTTAL: Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
