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Kevin Roche

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 through Roche Consulting, LLC. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.

Jan 29 2014

A JAMA viewpoint discusses how to reconcile evidence-based medicine and patient preferences, with a focus on the importance of recognizing informed patient choices, even when they may conflict with the best research evidence represented by a guideline.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1763247
Jan 29 2014

A Wall Street Journal article discusses the reaction to the Veteran's Administration decision to let nurse practitioners treat patients without physician supervision, which many doctors oppose, largely in a bid to protect their turf.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304856504579340603947983912?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304856504579340603947983912.html
Jan 28 2014

TigerText, which does something related to using a mobile app to communicate between health providers, has raised $21 million in a Series B round.

http://medcitynews.com/2014/01/buoyed-byod-trend-tigertext-raises-21m-series-b-round/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c242a18946-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-c242a18946-67648197
Jan 28 2014

Quantum Health, which offers care coordination and patient navigation services, has received an undisclosed amount of financing from GE and other investors.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/01/ge-ventures-and-altaris-capital-partners-invest-in-quantum-health/
Jan 28 2014

MediSwipe, which provides software and equipment to the medical and recreational marijuana markets, has received a $1.1 million investment from a private equity fund.  To be blunt, not a high amount, but enough to keep them from going to pot.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/01/mediswipe-to-receive-1-1-mln/
Jan 28 2014

Hearst Corporation is bundling several companies it owns into a new health subsidiary, Hearst Health, which includes First DataBank, Zynx Health, the Milliman Care Guidelines, HomeCare HomeBase and Map of Medicine.

http://www.hearst.com/press-room/pr-977-20140127.html
Jan 28 2014

Provider population health software vendor Relatient announced that it has obtained an initial round of funding.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140124/BUSINESS05/301240082?nclick_check=1
Jan 28 2014

Noted health economist Uwe Reinhardt, in a JAMA viewpoint, suggests that price transparency is a "disruptive innovation" for health care, particularly when linked to reference pricing.  This assumes, however, that patients are more interested in price than in a relationship with a particular doctor, and that consumers have sufficient incentives to care about price.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1769895
Jan 28 2014

A viewpoint in JAMA looks at the tension between population health management approaches and individualized health care, suggesting that population health goals should take precedence over individual choices.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1763247
Jan 27 2014

Brightree, which provides billing and related services for home health providers, has acquired Strategic AR, which offers collection and similar services.

http://www.hmenews.com/article/moneyline-brightree-dhs-norco
Jan 27 2014

A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that application of the Medicare value-based purchasing program to hospitals serving more disadvantages patients punishes them financially, reducing their resources to improve care, which hopefully is an unintended consequence.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1312654
Jan 27 2014

Quest Laboratories is purchasing Solstas, another lab company, for around $570 million, to add to its presence in the Southeast.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/01/22/quest-solstas-idINL3N0KW4EK20140122
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