Jun
11

What’s your healthcare misery index?

After going thru a major spring office cleaning and overhaul, I found a really intriguing report buried under books and papers. Well, intriguing for health care geeks
The combination of two statistics adds a lot of clarity to the US health insurance picture. The two, health care inflation and the uninsured rate, have been combined into the HEMI (healthcare economic misery index). The HEMI is both descriptive and revealing, especially when tracked over time and used to compare states.

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Jun
8

Romney the spinmeister

And the award for “most factual errors in a debate” goes to…Mitt Romney, the dynamic (as in changes positions quickly) GOP presidential candidate! In the June 5 presidential debate Romney actually said:
“Every Democrat up there’s talking about a form of socialized medicine, government takeover, massive tax increase…. I’m the guy who actually tackled this issue. We get all of our citizens insured…”
There are at least three mistatements here.

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May
29

Choices and consequences

We can’t afford universal health care. It’s too expensive.
Actually, that’s not true. We just choose to spend our dollars on other things. For example, medical care and indemnity payments to American troops hurt in the Iraqi war. The latest projections have the long-term expense of caring for Iraqi war veterans totaling 1/3 to 2/3 of a trillion dollars.
So far.
We sure do make interesting choices. Why just the other day Congress voted enough money to fund the war effort for another few months. That expenditure could have provided every uninsured American with health insurance for a year.
Sometimes all you can do is shake your head…


May
22

You need a P&T Committee

Pharmacy and Therapeutics committees have been around for ages in the provider community – they are the “link between medicine and pharmacy”. In the managed care world, P&T committees take on a somewhat different role, establishing formularies, reviewing medical device reimbursement (at some health plans), contributing to coverage determinations and benefit design.
Mostly, they provide the health plan or insurer with an expert opinion on most things pharmacy-related. Without a P&T Committee, these decisions often are left to a medical director, or worse, claims adjuster (in the P&C world), individuals who are not equiped to make educated decisions about pharmaceuticals.

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May
16

The VA’s been cooking the books

Richard Eskow of Sentinel Effect reports on the latest revelations about a bit of book-cooking at the VA. Seems the VA has been a bit, or perhaps more than a bit, overly positive about its record.
More troubling than boosterism is the allegation that the VA selectively reported results, and even fabricated conclusions to make the system appear better than it actually is.
As a fan of the VA, I’m concerned about two things.

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