Reversing Misinformation

July 16, 2024 / Michael D. Miller MD / Health Policy and Communications Blog / No Comments

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 book to help people have productive conversations with misinformed people they know because that is a gap in the communications efforts to combat misinformation. The plan is to have the book available in August, and below is information about:

The book’s contents, including some of the tips and strategies for reversing and preventing misinformation;
The Kickstarter campaign; (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reversing-misinfo-24/reversing-misinformation

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U.S. Healthcare – Moving Forward

US Healthcare System Talk - ACA Importance

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 say. You are the first person who could speak to [the] ACA in which people listened and engaged.”

Some of the key points I made included:

Focus on the future. Don’t relive the past.
Move forward from today’s strengths and weaknesses. The slide below describes health insurance coverage for 2015 showing dramatic increases in coverage in individual insurance and Medicaid, and a decrease in the uninsured.

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Health, Healthcare, and Government Spending (and a Culture of Health)

November 29, 2016 / Michael D. Miller MD / Access to Healthcare, Delivery of Healthcare, Economics & Financing, Federal Healthcare Reform, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Health System Reform, Information & Communications, Innovation, Medicaid, Medicare, Politics, Private-Employer Based Health Insurance, Public Health, State-Level Healthcare Reform / 1 Comment

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 policy analysts and advisers with a framework for understanding those issues so they will be able to provide useful recommendations to their future decision making bosses. (See the slide below for the topics covered in the presentation.) Links to videos of the talk are below, along with short descriptions – I think that Part 6 is particularly good.…

Medicaid Fiscal Issues, and Changing U.S. Healthcare System

June 28, 2016 / Michael D. Miller MD / Health Policy and Communications Blog / No Comments

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 MACRA, the launch of CMMI’s Oncology Care Model, and the steady expansion of value-based arrangements in the private market.

Overall, I hope the the background information and perspectives from this guest lecture will be useful for people looking for a better fundamental understanding of the fiscal and operational dynamics of the evolving U.S.…

Challenges Estimating Future U.S. Healthcare Spending

June 23, 2016 / Michael D. Miller MD / Economics & Financing, Federal Healthcare Reform, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Health System Reform, Medicaid, Medicare, Politics / No Comments

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 of Medicaid, and the Changing U.S. Healthcare System will be posted next week. The five subjects covered in the video segments from the guest lecture are:

U.S. Spending on Health and Healthcare
Medicare and U.S. Healthcare Spending
Challenges for Estimating Future Healthcare Spending
Medicaid: Federal and State Fiscal Issues
Changing U.S.

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Medicare and U.S. Healthcare Spending

June 22, 2016 / Michael D. Miller MD / Access to Healthcare, Economics & Financing, Federal Healthcare Reform, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Health System Reform, Medicare, Politics / No Comments

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 lecture that I’ll be posting over the next week or so will be on the following subjects:

Challenges for Estimating Future Healthcare Spending
Medicaid: Federal and State Fiscal Issues
Changing U.S. Healthcare System: New Payment and Delivery Models

Enjoy. pass along to your colleagues and friends.…

U.S. Spending on Health and Healthcare & Update

June 16, 2016 / Michael D. Miller MD / Economics & Financing, Federal Healthcare Reform, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Health System Reform / No Comments

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 2015 we did a culminating meeting for officials from all the states. Right after that I joined Foley Hoag as their Senior Health and Life Sciences Advisor.

All that has kept me rather busy, but in February I again guest lectured at George Mason about Health Reform and Fiscal Challenges (a.k.a…

Health Reform Book

July 30, 2014 / Michael D. Miller MD / Access to Healthcare, Delivery of Healthcare, Economics & Financing, Federal Healthcare Reform, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Health System Reform, Politics, State-Level Healthcare Reform / No Comments

Williams College Hopkins Gate - Accelerating Healthcare Improvements

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 a brief overview of the background about the book, which can also be found on my main website.

Comments, suggestions, and general inquiries about this project are welcome.

Overview – “Pivoting the U.S. Healthcare System: A Guide to Making Health Reform Work”

In my very first class in medical school, one of the first things the Professor said was, “Half of what we’re going to teach you is wrong.…

Now on Twitter @HealthPolCom

June 19, 2014 / Michael D. Miller MD / Health Policy and Communications Blog / 1 Comment

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 free to Follow and Retweet.

Thanks, Mike…

Sovaldi® and Curing Hep C – Myths and Other Facts

June 16, 2014 / Michael D. Miller MD / Access to Healthcare, Delivery of Healthcare, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Innovation, Medicaid, VA/DoD / 7 Comments

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: How Medicines are Priced

One of the perpetuating myths about biopharmaceuticals is that medicines are priced to recoup research and development costs.¹ It’s a myth. As I’ve written about elsewhere prescription medicine prices are set like everything else in a regulated free market: Companies set prices to maximize revenues and profits based upon the market opportunities and the value the new medicine provide compared to the consequences of the disease and other treatment options – including no treatment at all. …

CER, HIT, and Women’s Health Research

June 19, 2013 / Michael D. Miller MD / Access to Healthcare, Comparative Effectiveness, Delivery of Healthcare, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Information & Communications, Innovation, Public Health, Quality of Care & Safety / 5 Comments

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 efficient/better healthcare? And if so, how soon?

FYI – The SWHR’s July 18-19 meeting mentioned in the video is “What a Difference an X Makes: The State of Women’s Health Research.”…

Health Reform and Transformation in San Diego & California

June 10, 2013 / Michael D. Miller MD / Delivery of Healthcare, Federal Healthcare Reform, Health Policy and Communications Blog, Health System Reform, Medicaid, Medicare, State-Level Healthcare Reform / 1 Comment

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. An example of this may be California’s 2006 Hospital Fair Pricing Act, which addressed very high hospital bills for the uninsured. This month’s Health Affairs includes an article that analyzes the impact of this law, and the authors’ findings contrast markedly with Steven Brill’s Time magazine article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us.”…

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