Physicians control most of the spending in health care. Understanding their practice patterns can be useful. New research demonstrates the difficulty of accurately attributing care to specific physicians.
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Telemedicine has been cited for its potential to improve access and lower costs for patients and providers. Several new articles discuss telemedicine use for various health needs.
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Summer is starting and you are just laying around at the beach or the lake, eager to get a few missed health care tidbits. Here they are! Telemedicine, health reform,…
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The stimulus bill and the health reform law provide a substantial uptick in funds for research to evaluate the best methods of treating diseases and organizing health services. Several recent…
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There is a lot of buzz about how the internet will affect health care and ultimately health. Research, including surveys, help keep us grounded with facts. As part of the…
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One alleged benefit of health reform would be less use of the emergency room by uninsured persons who had no other way to access care. A recent report from the…
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Boston College researchers have examined the expected remaining lifetime health costs for an average person at various ages and linked that expected spending to health status, finding that healthy people…
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Hospital readmissions are one area of health spending being studied intensively to identify causes and possible solutions to inappropriate or avoidable rehospitalizations. A California agency issued a report on readmissions…
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Yet another in our long series of weekend catchup on miscellaneous health care items that we missed in earlier commentaries, including telemedicine, smoking bans, engagement in wellness efforts, the cost…
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AARP publishes one of its regular updates on drug price increases, this one examining changes in pricing for brand name, generic and specialty drugs commonly used by Medicare beneficiaries in…
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The NCCI Annual Issue Symposium always provides useful insight on the state of workers' compensation insurance. The recently held 2010 version was no exception and the presentation and video of…
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Direct-to-consumer genetic tests are becoming more prevalent. Pathway Genetics strikes a distribution deal with Walgreens, but draws FDA scrutiny over whether needed regulatory filings have been performed.
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The California HealthCare Foundation surveys consumers to ascertain attitudes toward health information technology. The results suggest that there is a high level of interest in using HIT but that few…
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One of the regional telehealth resource centers has published a white paper on the inter-relationship between the growth of telehealth, electronic medical records and health information exchanges, particularly as they…
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About 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.