healthblogs.net Blogs

Remember the 1980s and early 90s? That’s when HMOs successfully slowed or even reversed health care spending increases with tools such as prior authorization, gatekeepers, restrictive drug formularies, narrow networks and capitation. Employers were happy to save money and also…

Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt has a thought-provoking piece in the New York Times (How Much Fraud and Abuse Is There in U.S. Health Care?) in which he argues that there is inordinate attention paid to ferreting out fraud and abuse…

Received this interesting tip from medical writer Brian Bujdos:

U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies may see a subtle spike in revenue due to Google’s revised policies that no longer allow Canadian pharmacies, as well as many “rogue” pharmacies to advertise on Google through…

Sara Rosenbaum’s has an informative Perspective (Can States Pick up the Health Reform Torch?) in the current New England Journal of Medicine. She argues that reforming health care at the state level is not a realistic alternative to national health care…

Almost no one wants to enter a nursing home, yet sometimes it’s unavoidable. Since the 1980s a “culture change” movement has been underway. Its objective is to transform nursing homes from their hospital-like, institutional, clinical model, to a resident-centered home-like…

Anthem’s getting a lot of grief for planned increases on individual premiums in California of up to 39 percent. No doubt they deserve some blame. And yet those who decry the move as price gouging and point to Anthem’s multi-billion…

An oncologist friend spotted my blog post (Overuse of mammography in elderly women with cognitive impairment) and noticed that I’d been unable to access the full American Journal of Public Health article without paying for it. He shared his copy with…

When Charlie Baker began his run for Governor of Massachusetts, the Boston Globe critiqued his record and found it wanting (State aided Baker’s business triumph), a piece that struck me as weakly argued and unfair (Why is the Globe picking on…

Much has been made of recent guidelines recommending against routine mammography screening for women in their 40s. I tend to be more cautious than most in my approach to screening exams –more isn’t always better, especially when false positives set…

Sometimes bio/pharma companies cry wolf over regulations, for example when they claim that the emergence of bio-generics or bio-similars would devastate their businesses by lowering the incentive for investment. But other times they find themselves in a no-win situation and…