From the category archives:

Health Care Politics

by: Larry Emmott at November 25, 2018.

Disruption is coming

December 6, 2018

Medicine (and by default dentistry) is an industry ripe for disruption. As usual the established players which in this case includes physicians, med schools, hospitals and insurance companies will resist the changes. However using history as a guide the disruption will start at the lower end of services and then grow. We are already seeing […]

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Considerations On Cost Disease

October 16, 2018

From Slate Star Codex: The cost of health care has about quintupled since 1970. It’s actually been rising since earlier than that, but I can’t find a good graph; it looks like it would have been about $1200 in today’s dollars in 1960, for an increase of about 800% in those fifty years. Source: Considerations On […]

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How Formerly Independent Doctors Were Pushed Out of Business

October 11, 2018

From Reason: “Is the independent doctor disappearing?” U.S. News & World Report asked earlier this summer. The answer is: yes—and to a significant extent, that’s a result of deliberate policy. Your doctors didn’t jump out of business; they were pushed. Source Reason According to the article only 33% of physicians own their own practice. That compares to 80% […]

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Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and others make health data pledge to Ease Patient, Provider Access to Health Data

September 18, 2018

From CNBC: There are many broken things about the U.S. health care system. But one of the biggest and most overlooked problems is that patients still find it too hard to share their medical information between doctors, especially those working in different hospitals. Source: Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and others make health data pledge This is […]

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CMS Head: We’re Working Toward Interoperability. Are You?

August 16, 2018

From Healthcare Analytics News: Healthcare is stuck in a 1990s time warp. That’s according to Seema Verma, M.P.H., who heads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)… …But in spite of these steps forward, healthcare organizations still depend on faxes, CD-ROMs and paper notes. Interoperability remains elusive, and patients still don’t have access to, never […]

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Trump Administration Requires Hospitals To Post Standard Prices Online

August 14, 2018

From The Daily Caller: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will require hospitals to update their online price list annually starting Jan. 1, reported The Hill. Before the new rule, CMS required that hospitals share prices with people who requested them.CMS said the rule was made to “encourage price transparency,” according to The Hill. […]

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The Cost Issue and Questions to ask Yourself

June 19, 2018

Patients do not care about cost when someone else (a third party) is paying for treatment. They do care about quality outcomes and the overall experience of a healthcare encounter. When paying themselves patients have different priorities. How many times have you had patients refuse treatment because their insurance will not cover it? Way too […]

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Dispute between California Dental Association, Delta Dental of California settled for $65 million

May 31, 2018

From ADA News: The San Francisco Superior Court granted final approval May 2 of a $65 million class action settlement between the California Dental Association and Delta Dental of California,… …The CDA filed the legal action in August 2013 in response to Delta Dental’s plans to reduce reimbursement rates for their Premier plan by 8 […]

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Good Trend

May 29, 2018

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Trump Administration Wants to Take On Medical-Records Puzzle

March 13, 2018

From Bloomberg via ADA News: “At a time when health-care data is being generated from so many sources, too often that data runs into the hard walls of closed systems that hold patients, and their information, hostage,” said Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, …“Patients ought to have control of their […]

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State launches Aetna probe after stunning admission

February 19, 2018

From CNN: Stunning? California’s insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after learning a former medical director for the insurer admitted under oath he never looked at patients’ records when deciding whether to approve or deny care. Source: State launches Aetna probe after stunning admission – CNN This is not stunning to anyone on […]

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What Hospitals Can Learn from Airlines About Buying Equipment

January 25, 2018

From Medtronic: One big reason why is that hospitals purchase technologies without requiring that they communicate with each other. The optimal air flow is based on a straightforward calculation using the height of the patient. Height data, however, resides in the electronic medical record, which typically does not communicate with the ventilator… …Because similar gaps […]

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‘Breaking new ground’ in standards development

January 22, 2018

From ADA News: For most dentists, the development of the guide means that when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services eventually publishes Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Claim Attachments regulation, there will be a tested and proven way to report dentist-defined periodontal examination data in a standardized, structured, electronic document, Source: ‘Breaking […]

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9 states with telehealth legislation taking effect in 2018

January 11, 2018

From MedCity News: But 11 pieces of legislation in nine states will officially take effect in 2018. Here they are: Source: 9 states with telehealth legislation taking effect in 2018 – MedCity News Related: Most of the new laws are intended to promote telemedicine. For example they remove rules requiring the practitioner to be in the […]

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Revisions sought for standard related to clinical terminology

January 8, 2018

From ADA: Dental professionals are invited to review and suggest revisions to a diagnostic code set developed in part by the ADA. Revised ANSI/ADA Standard No. 2000.1 SNODENT (Systemized Nomenclature of Dentistry) was approved by the American National Standards institute as an American National Standard in November 2017. The ADA has established a maintenance process […]

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Amazon may be quietly positioning itself to take part in healthcare

November 13, 2017

From USA Today: “It’s entirely likely Amazon will play a role in health care. They’re a company that’s been very disruptive to multiple industries,” said Wendell Potter, Source: Amazon may be quietly positioning itself to take part in healthcare Follow the link, read the whole thing. Dr. Alexa is on the way. Medicine (and by […]

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Why is Health Insurance so Complicated?

September 12, 2017

Dental insurance does not even pretend to be real insurance covering us from a catastrophic loss. It is purely a pre-pay of some very basic procedures. Why all of this is even an issue is that medical care is simply way too expensive. The best hope for reducing cost and improving care is technology.

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Business violated Americans with Disabilities Act with inaccessible website

July 11, 2017

From ADA News: For what is believed to be the first time, a court has ruled that failure to make a website accessible to people with disabilities violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Source: Court: Business violated Americans with Disabilities Act with inaccessible website The business cited in the linked article was not a dental […]

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How Did Health Care Get to Be Such a Mess?

June 30, 2017

The most significant issue facing medicine and dentistry is cost. It drives all the other issues that have led to Obamacare and whatever will come now that it is failing. The linked NYT article has some interesting history and outlook on what happened and why. From NYT: The problem with American health care is not […]

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