Medicare
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Why Do Medicare, Medicaid And Veterans Affairs Deal With Drug Costs Differently?
Countries sometimes do things differently from other countries or gain reputations for doing certain things well or poorly. But within a country, within the same federal government, does it make sense to do things differently among departments or programs that are providing essentially the same service? Read More »
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Why Electronic Health Records Aren't More Usable
Federal government incentives worth about $30 billion have persuaded the majority of physicians and hospitals to adopt electronic health record (EHR) systems over the past few years. However, most physicians do not find EHRs easy to use. Physicians often have difficulty entering structured data in EHRs, especially during patient encounters. The records are hard to read because they're full of irrelevant boilerplates generated by the software and lack individualized information about the patient...
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Why Medicare Cuts Will Quietly Kill Seniors
The recent news that thousands of seniors with cancer are being denied treatment with expensive chemotherapy drugs as a result of sequestration-mandated budget cuts raises the question of whether other patients are being equally harmed, but less visibly. Read More »
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Why Some Docs Will 'Just Say No' To MU
Thousands of eligible providers are working diligently toward EHR incentive payments, but some practices are choosing a different route: abandoning meaningful use altogether in favor of their own solutions, and finding ways to make up for the penalties they’ll incur down the road...
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Why the Threatened AHRQ Is Vital to the Hospital Industry
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is on the chopping block — again — and supporters are gearing up for what could be their biggest fight yet to save the little-known agency. In his fiscal year 2018 budget proposal, President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating AHRQ’s funding and folding the agency into the National Institutes of Health, which itself is facing a proposed 18% cut to its current $31.7 billion budget, and a requested $1.2 billion cut in FY 2017 funding.
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Why There Will Never Be an Uber for Healthcare
You should walk away from anyone who says there can be an “Uber for healthcare.” It is the equivalent of someone saying they “have a bridge to sell you.” Or, more precisely, it shows a complete lack of understanding for how healthcare works and how positive health outcomes are actually achieved. Why do we keep hearing “Uber for healthcare”?...
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Why Your Doctor Feels Like A 'Beaten Dog'
Assembly-line patient visits, poor care for the chronically ill, stacks of paperwork, and endless red tape: This is the life of the American physician...
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Will Health IT Failings Foil Accountable Care?
Although healthcare is awash in data, getting it into the hands of clinicians so they can provide coordinated, quality care at the bedside remains a huge challenge. Just ask the 32 Pioneer accountable care organizations--including the nine Pioneer ACOs that may opt out of the program altogether. Read More »
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Wyden-Ryan Plan Won't Improve Health Care System
The Wyden-Ryan proposal is misleading and distracts from the best solution. Instead of "defined contribution" plans, let's define for Sen. Wyden what this country needs to save health care: single-payer, universal coverage. "Everybody in, nobody out."
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Your Health System Can Kill You: the concept of amenable mortality
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. Read More »
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‘Facility Fees’ Add Billions To Medical Bills
It was a minor skin infection. The visit to the dermatologist’s office at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center took just a few minutes. Before she left, Allison Zaromb paid $40 for her 4-year-old son’s care, the amount listed on her insurance card for an office visit to a physician specialist. Zaromb assumed she had settled the bill, until a shocker arrived in the mail: After paying for the doctor, she still owed about $200 for a “facility fee” [...]. Read More »
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