Author's posts
Clinicians shouldn’t be punished for taking care of needy populations
It has always been financially rewarding for doctors to take care of rich patients. People with more money … well, they have more money to spend on health care. But shouldn’t this more money/higher payment relationship go away in Medicare? It doe…
Patients alone cannot combat high health care prices
After three months of physical therapy, her doctor told her that it was time to get an MRI. She had already paid off her annual deductible, meaning the imaging test would “only” cost her the $150 co-pay. An imaging center near where she worked charged …
Is the FDA too slow to handle the pandemic?
The FDA plays a critical role in our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It helps decide which medicines are safe and effective to treat the disease. It evaluates the accuracy and reliability of laboratory tests. And it will play a central role…
Quality measures have gotten ahead of the science of quality measurement
Physician reimbursement increasingly depends upon measures of health care quality. Physicians who fall short on quality measures now face financial penalties. But it might be quality measures, themselves, that are falling short, according to a study co…
The key to happiness is not a mystery
Happiness doesn’t always come easily. Some people seem naturally happy, like they inherited the right gene or were born into the right circumstances. Many other people struggle to find happiness. Perhaps even more people hope to become happier than the…
How do you know if you have hypertension and need medication?
High blood pressure is the silent killer. It puts people at risk for heart attacks, strokes, vascular disease, kidney failure. It is basically really bad to have longstanding, undertreated high blood pressure. But it is also harmful to be told you have…
Does socialized medical care provide higher quality than private care?
Americans are not fans of socialized medicine. Sure, some people want socialized health care payment, including many people who are fans of Medicare for all. But even most Bernie Sanders supporters probably aren’t in favor of socializing the enti…
What if people were only allowed to use food assistance dollars to buy healthy food?
One of my elderly relatives was in line at the grocery store one day and saw the person ahead of him, charging what looked like a cart full of junk food to her food assistance card. My relative was incensed: Why, should his hard-earned tax dollars be u…
Expensive Medicare patients aren’t who you think
Over half of Medicare spending is concentrated in 10 percent of patients. With Medicare expenditures rising at an unsustainable clip, reigning in the costs of those patients is key to controlling health care spending. So who are those patients and what…
If you build a budget, hospitals will adapt
U.S. health care spending is maddeningly high. As in fifty percent higher than what other wealthy countries spend, with no evidence we’re getting any bang for all those additional health care bucks. In 2014, the state of Maryland took direct aim at thi…
