Health Care
Commentary
Medi-Cal’s Fee Cutbacks are the Symptom; Medi-Cal is the Disease
Last week, I wrote about the malformation of health care financing that allows a federal judge to roll back Medi-Cal (Medicaid) fee reductions, which the governor and legislature had agreed to in order to buy some breathing room while they negotiate a budget to cover California’s out-of-control deficit. I don’t ...
Commentary
It’s a “Wrap”: Brokers Harm Consumer-Driven Health Care
For months now, I’ve heard stories about a technique that insurance brokers use to sell health insurance to small businesses, which want the lower premiums that come with a consumer-directed health plan, but are nervous about convincing their employees to face a deductible of at least $2,200 for a family ...
Commentary
California Tobacco Control Program Wants More Money
I have spent (undoubtedly too much) time today struggling with a new article from the tobacconistas at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, a group of scholars funded by tobacco taxes, which publishes research calling for more…..(you guessed it)…..tobacco taxes. But not only ...
Commentary
Health IT Initiatives Less Likely To Be Hijacked, Officials Say
This is a cautionary tale. The morals of the story may not apply to health IT applications the same way they do to other parts of the information technology world, according to some industry experts. Others say they do, indirectly. Either way, the saga of how a network administrator held ...
Business & Economics
Impact – August 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – August 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impactpublic policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
Commentary
New York Times’ Funny Math on Massachusetts Health Care
Only in government-run health care, or in the editorial offices of the New York Times, would it be considered a “success” to spend over $3 to solve a $1 problem. Dazzled by the lure of so-called “universal” health care, the NY Times editorial board enthuses that two thirds of the ...
Commentary
What you don’t hear about health care
Health care reform will be front-and-center in the presidential debates. It’s a topic that’s full of complicated issues, so it can be hard to cut through all the rhetoric and figure out exactly what each candidate is proposing. So here’s the skinny on five questions that you’ll likely hear many ...
Business & Economics
Medical Malpractice Update in Wisconsin, W. Virginia, & New York
The Kaiser Daily Health Report gave us an update today on med-mal developments in three states. In West Virginia, the number of med-mal lawsuits increased by 34 percent over a three year period. It looks like a warning sign that something is unravelling since the Mountain State capped non-economic damages ...
Commentary
The Promise of Telemedicine
The St. Louis (that’s the city Barack Obama he thought he was in a couple of days ago, before he figured out he was in Kansas City) Post-Dispatch ran a very positive article on the success of telemedicine in increasing quality and lowering health care costs. What impressed me was ...
Commentary
PhRMA’s New Marketing Code
Critics have accused the pharmaceutical industry of inappropriate marketing practices that inflate health-costs through inappropriate physician detailing that promotes new, branded medicines to the detriment of cheaper generics. High profile articles and editorials at leading medical journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, and some student medical societies have ...
Medi-Cal’s Fee Cutbacks are the Symptom; Medi-Cal is the Disease
Last week, I wrote about the malformation of health care financing that allows a federal judge to roll back Medi-Cal (Medicaid) fee reductions, which the governor and legislature had agreed to in order to buy some breathing room while they negotiate a budget to cover California’s out-of-control deficit. I don’t ...
It’s a “Wrap”: Brokers Harm Consumer-Driven Health Care
For months now, I’ve heard stories about a technique that insurance brokers use to sell health insurance to small businesses, which want the lower premiums that come with a consumer-directed health plan, but are nervous about convincing their employees to face a deductible of at least $2,200 for a family ...
California Tobacco Control Program Wants More Money
I have spent (undoubtedly too much) time today struggling with a new article from the tobacconistas at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, a group of scholars funded by tobacco taxes, which publishes research calling for more…..(you guessed it)…..tobacco taxes. But not only ...
Health IT Initiatives Less Likely To Be Hijacked, Officials Say
This is a cautionary tale. The morals of the story may not apply to health IT applications the same way they do to other parts of the information technology world, according to some industry experts. Others say they do, indirectly. Either way, the saga of how a network administrator held ...
Impact – August 2008
PRI Ideas in Action – August 2008 Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report PRI continues to impactpublic policy in California, the nation, and abroad. Click below to view PRI’s recent contributions. Read PDF
New York Times’ Funny Math on Massachusetts Health Care
Only in government-run health care, or in the editorial offices of the New York Times, would it be considered a “success” to spend over $3 to solve a $1 problem. Dazzled by the lure of so-called “universal” health care, the NY Times editorial board enthuses that two thirds of the ...
What you don’t hear about health care
Health care reform will be front-and-center in the presidential debates. It’s a topic that’s full of complicated issues, so it can be hard to cut through all the rhetoric and figure out exactly what each candidate is proposing. So here’s the skinny on five questions that you’ll likely hear many ...
Medical Malpractice Update in Wisconsin, W. Virginia, & New York
The Kaiser Daily Health Report gave us an update today on med-mal developments in three states. In West Virginia, the number of med-mal lawsuits increased by 34 percent over a three year period. It looks like a warning sign that something is unravelling since the Mountain State capped non-economic damages ...
The Promise of Telemedicine
The St. Louis (that’s the city Barack Obama he thought he was in a couple of days ago, before he figured out he was in Kansas City) Post-Dispatch ran a very positive article on the success of telemedicine in increasing quality and lowering health care costs. What impressed me was ...
PhRMA’s New Marketing Code
Critics have accused the pharmaceutical industry of inappropriate marketing practices that inflate health-costs through inappropriate physician detailing that promotes new, branded medicines to the detriment of cheaper generics. High profile articles and editorials at leading medical journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, and some student medical societies have ...
