Can a $3 Million Prize Solve a $2.5 Billion Dollar Problem?
If a health plan could predict which patients will incur the most costs, theoretically it could focus on those patients without wasting resources on its healthy enrollees. According to an…
Obama: Ryan’s Ideas Are Too Radical Unless They’re Also My Ideas
What is it about the Ryan plan that liberals find so appalling and unacceptable? What is it about the Ryan plan that liberals find so appalling and unacceptable? Well, according…
Could Bypass Surgery Become a Thing of the Past?
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario, led by Dr. Geoffrey Pickering … have found a solution: …. successfully regenerating the blood vessels, but doing so in a way that…
Employer-Sponsored Insurance after Health Reform
Much of health reform’s efforts has been focused on expanding coverage to those without employer-sponsored insurance (ESI). For instance, the ACA mandated expanded Medicaid eligibility and the creation of a…
Report: Branded Drug Use Sharply Down, Generics Way Up
A healthcare informatics company issues a report today that I really do not find surprising. The trends of Pharma of late are much fewer fast-tracked medications in the pipeline, decreased…
Medicaid Expansion a Real Budget-Buster
Cato scholar Jagadeesh Gokhale has a new study on the effect the Affordable Care Act will have on the Medicaid budgets in populous states. He explains: Unless it is repealed,…
FDA Panel Weighs-in on Menthol Cigarettes
A federal panel advised the FDA last week that menthol cigarettes are more harmful to the public health than regular cigarettes. However, it did not recommend or endorse any actions the…
Are Decision Support Tools Turning Doctors into Idiots?
A HealthLeaders article by Gienna Shaw notes that some physicians are reluctant to use computerized decision support (CDS) tools because they fear losing the respect of patients and colleagues. There’s…
Mitral Valve Repair Without Open Surgery – Exciting Development in Medical Devices
The mitral valve separates the heart’s left atrium from the left ventricle. When the ventricle contracts to send blood to the aorta and out to the body, the mitral valve…
Ablation in Ischemic Stroke
Ischemic stroke is a common condition: recent epidemiologic studies estimate that there are 750,000 strokes in the US each year, with an overall mortality rate of 27%. The annual cost…
