Something very odd is going on with health spending. Today’s significant downward revision to the first quarter GDP number is largely due to a massive rewrite of the contribution from health spending, from a 9% jump to an actual decrease. Who knows what is going on at the BEA, which produces the numbers, but an explanation would be nice.
A survey of physicians finds deep concern about their economic circumstances and increase burdens on the practice of medicine.
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House was right, patients lie. According to new research, however, they will lie less to a virtual physician. In an experiment reported in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, participants disclosed more fully in an interview they believed was conducted by a computer than one controlled by a human.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214002647The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality releases a Statistical Brief on attitudes toward health insurance that goes a long way toward explaining the failure of many Americans to sign…
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West Corporation, a public communications technology and services firm, has purchased Health Advocate for $275 million. Health Advocate provides wellness and care management services.
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/health-care/2014/05/health-advocate-acquired-by-nebraska-firm-for-265.htmlA Modern Healthcare analysis of 200 health system financial reports finds a significant narrowing of margins in the last year.
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140621/MAGAZINE/306219968&utm_source=AltURL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=am?AllowView=VXQ0UnpwZTVEUGFmL1I3TkErT1lBajNja0U4VURPUmNFQk1HREE9PQ==&mhResearch in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association studied the Veterans Health Administration electronic medical record system and found that EHRs are associated with frequent patient safety issues, some from poor user actions, but the majority from issues with the software itself.
http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2014/05/20/amiajnl-2013-002578KPMG is buying Zannet Commercial Solutions, which provides health care information technology consulting to the health care industry, according to the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/kpmg-expected-to-announce-deal-to-boost-health-care-practice-1403496324?KEYWORDS=health+reform&utm_campaign=KHN%3A+Daily+Health+Policy+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13262684&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9roIcY5TUCsRgq_9dT82djv4kHd7j9oaOUZOh4ZavGSSfbBj6VFhBNq9arwWyWNo8hZqeDt050XsdFVsha7eAswwIw6w&_hsmi=13262684About this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.