Estimating Lifetime or Episode-of-Illness Costs Under Censoring
How can you estimate an individual’s total lifetime cost of medical care? For people who die in your sample, this is simple. In most data sets, however, not all individuals…
Health in a Networked Life
Markle identified some interesting social and cultural findings in their survey Health in a Networked Life. They include: Many doctors and patients surveyed believe key information is lost in their…
How PPACA fixes some of the problems of Part D
One of the most infuriating and hypocritical elements of the GOP’s attack on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is the complaint about its cost. The non-partisan Congressional…
CMS Chief Answers to Congress, Provides Few Details on Reform’s Early Progress
The first opportunity for the House to fire questions at Obama recess appointee (to CMS head) Donald Berwick, MD took place yesterday. Berwick took the time to affirm that the…
Klein: Decision on Individual Mandate Could Come Down to Kennedy
Prognostications and general predictions aside, the often polarized nature of the SCOTUS lends itself to easy expectations of the high court’s decisions on many key issues. Hot buttons such as…
Concentra’s Dr. Tom Fogarty on urgent care (transcript)
This is the transcript of my recent podcast interview with Concentra Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tom Fogarty. David Williams: This is David Williams, co-founder of MedPharma Partners and author of…
Protocol Medicine – It Is Time For Doctors To Recognize Their Value
We hear that doctors do not like “protocol medicine” – they do not want to follow a “cookbook” when every patient is different. It is not a good understanding of…
More Evidence that Medical Malpractice Reform Wouldn’t Stop Excessive Testing
As discussed recently (Let’s not forget patient safety in med mal reform) I don’t buy the idea that excessive testing is mainly attributable to “defensive medicine,” i.e., doctors doing too…
Obesity Devices Gain From Drug Woes
It is a repeated theme in the history of medtech development. Drugs represent an alluring treatment alternative, since the option to swallow a pill to deal with a problem will…
SCOTUS to Hear Case Involving Governor’s Proposal to Cut Payments for Providers to California’s Medicaid Patients
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide if doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and others who provide services to California Medi-Cal recipients can have their payments cut by the state. Medi-Cal, the state’s…
