Archive | August, 2011

Do consumers demand shiny new things in health care?

By on August 31, 2011 in Health Consumers, Health Economics, Medical innovation, Medical technology, Public health

In an important paper highlighting one of the key drivers of health care costs, Harvard researchers discuss patients’ preferences for high-cost health care versus plain old aspirin and flu shots. Aspirin, Angioplasty, and Proton Beam Therapy: The Economics of Smarter Health Care Spending addresses what it will take to bend the cost curve by changing incentives and [...]

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Your health system can kill you: the concept of amenable mortality

By on August 30, 2011 in Affordable Care Act, Chronic care, Global Health, Health disparities, Health engagement, Health literacy, Health Quality, Health reform, Hospitals, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA, Primary care, Public health, Safety net and health

Everyone knows what “mortality” is: a fatal outcome, or in a word, death. Then what is “amenable mortality?” It’s mortality that can be averted by good health care. Poverty, race, hospital readmission rates, and care for chronic disease are factors that can prevent death in America, according to a study by researchers from The Commonwealth Fund, [...]

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Health plans enter a new world of retail

By on August 25, 2011 in Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health Plans

Health plans are more aggressively managing medical costs, leaning out administrative inefficiencies, and looking for new customers. Plans are undertaking these strategies as they face uncertainties over the next couple of years leading up to the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to a paper from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Innovation, Diversification, and [...]

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Unemployed in America? You’re probably uninsured

By on August 24, 2011 in Affordable Care Act, Health Plans, Health reform, PPACA, Uninsured

3 in 4 U.S. adults who lost their job sometime in 2010 had medical bill problems, from having problems paying the bill to changing their way of life in order to pay that bill. This is the rationale for health reform –the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — notes the August 2011 paper from The Commonwealth [...]

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Why nuns are important to hospitals and health care

By on August 22, 2011 in Demographics and health, Health disparities, Health Economics, Hospitals, Public health, Safety net and health, Uninsured

Nuns and priests were CEOs at 770 of 796 Catholic hospitals in the U.S. in 1968. This year, there are only 8 of them leading 636 hospitals. Sister Mary Jean Ryan, who retired as CEO of SSM Healthcare, says, “We’re a dying breed.” Why has this happened, and why should we care — whether or [...]

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