I know it has been a LONG time since I’ve posted to my blog, but things have been a bit busy. As you some of you may know, I’ve spent most of my time over the past 4 years on vaccine confidence and misinformation. What you may not have heard, is that I’m writing a […]
Last week I gave a presentation to the leaders of some women’s health advocacy organizations about where the U.S. healthcare system is heading, i.e., where we go from the current situation with the A.C.A. We had a great discussion, and the organizer of the event emailed me afterward to say, “Amazing is all I can […]
Why governments care about health spending and healthcare, how they are connected to overall government spending and priorities, and why addressing social determinants of health is so important for making lasting improvements, were the subjects I covered in a presentation at George Mason’s graduate policy school in September. My goal was to provide the soon-to-be […]
Medicaid Fiscal Issues and the Changing U.S. Healthcare System are the topics for the final two videos from my George Mason guest lectures, which are now posted. (See below.) Discussing the evolution of U.S. healthcare delivery and financing was particularly challenging because of the many ongoing and approaching changes, such as the Medicare Part B Drug Payment Model, the implementation of […]
The challenges of estimating future U.S. healthcare spending (and why projections are so often so inaccurate) is the focus of the third video segment from my guest lecture at George Mason University about Health and Budget Policy – see below. (The first two are in previous blog posts and are on the HealthPolCom YouTube Channel.) The final two video segments on the topics […]
The second video from my guest lecture at George Mason University about Medicare and U.S. Healthcare Spending in now available – see below. (The first was an overview of Health Spending in the United States, and is in the previous blog and also on the HealthPolCom YouTube Channel.) The other video segments from my guest […]
Sorry to have been so delinquent in publishing new posts. For most of 2015 I was busy working with the National Governors Association and the Institute of Medicine organizing State Health Leadership Retreats for the Governors of 4 states. Those retreats were modeled on a pilot retreat we conducted in late 2013, and in late […]
The cost of so-called specialty drugs has become a major health policy issue largely because of spending projections for new medicines for chronic hepatitis C infection and cancers. Having worked on issues related to the development, approval, availability, use, and cost of medical treatments for more than 25 years, I’ve noted with concern and bemusement […]
In 2005 I started writing a book about health reform. As I was working on it, the structure and framework of the U.S. healthcare system kept shifting. I am now returning to work on this book, with the new working title, “Pivoting the U.S. Healthcare System: A Guide to Making Health Reform Work.” Below is […]
The 2014 Medicare Trustees’ Report was released yesterday. Amidst all the reporting was how the revised projections for the Medicare Trust Fund (for Part A) increased by 3 years from last year’s report. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a great summary of Medicare financing and projections for future spending, but below is another chart that […]
I recently guest lectured on Medicaid and state level health transformation at a George Mason University public policy class. To start, I led the class through a discussion of how states differ from each other around 14-plus factors related to healthcare delivery, financing, policy, and politics. In this discussion we talked about the importance of […]
I’m now on Twitter – @HealthPolCom. Consistent with the goals of this blog, I’ll try to only tweet items and information of substance and analysis, and to keep “look here” items to a minimum. I recognize the challenge of doing that with only 140 characters, so I might try haiku formats. In any case, feel […]
The introduction of new oral medicines that can cure chronic hepatitis C infections (including Sovaldi®) have led to some intense discussions permeated with misleading information about the pricing of new medicines, how such medicines are “game changers,” and the implications for budget-crunched payers. Below I summarize some key points about those issues. 1. Myth #1: […]
Below is a video of my discussion with Phyllis Greenberger, President and CEO of the Society for Women’s Health Research, about the implications of comparative effectiveness research (CER) and information technology for women’s health and quality improvement. What are your thoughts about CER and HIT? Will they lead to higher quality, lower cost, or more […]
I recently sat down with Kevin Hirsch, MD, President of Scripps Coastal Medical Group* to talk about health reform and transformation in the San Diego region. (See video below.) Dr. Hirsch’s insights are interesting and timely because California often precedes the rest of the country in adopting new approaches to healthcare delivery and financing problems. […]
I recently sat down with George Jones, Bread for the City’s CEO, to talk about health reform and the challenges low-income people in Washington DC have accessing healthcare. The video of our discussion is below. A couple of notes: 1. George’s title changed from Executive Director to CEO about a year ago. I’ve known George […]
I recently had the opportunity to give guest lectures at Georgetown University and the University of Virginia. At Georgetown I focused on employer’s perspectives on health promotion and disease prevention. (Videos of portions of that discussion are below.) At UVA’s Batten School of Public Policy I discussed fiscal issues and policies for government healthcare programs, e.g. […]
Zocalo Public Square asked me to write a short answer to the question “What has been your favorite health propaganda campaign in world history–whether for its success or for its other qualities–and why?” I wrote about the positive contribution of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative, and the negative […]