HEALTHY ONLINE

Interoperability in health care is all the rage now. After publishing a ten year interoperability plan , which according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is well position to protect us from wanton market competition and heretic innovations, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) published the obligatory J'accuse report on information blocking , chockfull of vague anecdotal innuendos and not much else. Nowadays, every health care conversation with every expert, every representative, every lobbyist and every stakeholder, is bound to turn to the lamentable lack of interoperability, which is single handedly responsible for killing people, escalating costs of care, physician burnout, poverty, inequality, disparities, and whatever else seems inadequate in our Babylonian health care system.  When you ask the people genuinely upset at this utter lack of interoperability, what exactly they feel is lacking, the answer is invariably that EHRs shou...

According to OECD data , Americans see doctors less frequently than people in any developed nation. We are hospitalized less frequently and we stay in the hospital less time than citizens of other nations. The vast majority of Americans, more than any other nation, describe themselves as healthy, and America has the largest percentage of young people in its population. So why is health care in America so much more expensive than it is in all those other developed countries? In the US, we spend more than twice as much as the nearest nation on administrative activities (over $200 billion per year). We also pay a lot more for each hospital stay, in spite of it being shorter. We pay orders of magnitude more for each imaging test and we are paying a hefty price for medications we probably shouldn’t be taking. All of these things amount to one major difference between America and the (largely socialist) developed nations: our unit pricing for medical services is completely out of whack. Ign...

Health care in America is a perfect example of the Pareto principle, because 80% of our gargantuan expenditures on health care are due to only 20% of us who are very sick, elderly, disabled and vulnerable in many other ways. If we genuinely wished to reduce health care expenditures, common sense dictates that we would leave the 80% alone and zero in on those 20%, trying to care for them better than we currently do, and hopefully as their health improves, we would see a spectacular bang for our buck, not to mention the moral gratification of having helped our neighbor, because there but for the grace of God go we all.  I have a better idea. Following the tried and true philosophy of John D. Rockefeller, why not turn the health care disaster into an opportunity to create the magnificent Standard Oil of our times? The 20% of people, who burn through 80% of our $3 trillion of health care money, are known as high-utilizers, frequent-flyers, hot-spotters, train-wrecks, million-dollar-bab...

On March 20, 2015 the stars aligned to produce four simultaneous events that will never again coincide during the life of human civilization. The first three, the vernal equinox, a total solar eclipse and a new supermoon, were brought to us by the stars themselves, and the fourth one was thrown out there by the government. The regulations for Meaningful Use Stage 3 were finally published. Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) was presented to us back in 2009 as part of a stimulus bill to help the crashed economy and to improve the quality and affordability of health care services for all Americans. The program is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and implemented by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). In its first stage, the meaningful use program delivered billions of dollars to technology companies that specialize in manufacturing EHR software, and ensured that clinicians of all types are no lo...

One of the most revolting pleasures in life is to read learned opinions and in-depth analyses of consumers’ behavior written by beautiful people clad in designer clothing, dining at eclectic chic trattorias or enjoying the occasional canapé under crystal candelabra at their favorite charity gala. These wondrous creatures, having pored over a few disjointed numbers selectively allowed to escape from our struggle with health care, are informing us that there are good news worth celebrating at tonight’s black tie fundraiser event.  If you happen to be one of the uninvited or just invisible for all practical purposes except exploitation, you are welcome to go ahead and break out a can of Bud Light and a new bag of store brand Cheesy Poofs for the occasion. Obamacare is working better than anyone dared to hope. Following the astounding news that some 30 million people have Obamacare, we are now told that the way we buy Obamacare insurance on the public exchanges is good news for the ca...

Whether you like it or not health care financing is transitioning from payment for discrete services to global payment for value. Whether you agree with this trend, or comprehend its meaning, if it has one, is largely irrelevant in the short term. The government of the United States, the Chamber of Commerce, both political parties, all health care stakeholders, and even your own medical associations are fervently supporting, and actively promoting, paying you for value instead of work. Value is defined by a set of statistical metrics calculated across the spectrum of services you provide, and some that you don’t. So for example, if Starbucks were to be paid for value, they would get say, $2 for a venti latte, plus a fluctuating amount based on the average temperature of their lattes, the ratio of espresso to milk, the percent of air in the foam, the time from door to latte, etc., over a representative period of say 90 days in year one and maybe 12 months in subsequent years. To enable ...

America is spending $3 trillion on health care every year. Does that number include toothpaste? Surely toothpaste is very important to your health. How about baby powder, diapers, condoms, soap, lip balm, nail clippers, detergents, mops, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, smoke detectors, air filters and air bags? How about everything Nike sells, diet books, your gym membership, bicycles, skateboards, everything Sports Authority carries in its stores, and all Weight Watchers products? And then there is quinoa and edamame, spelt, flax, organic kale chips and those scrumptious gluten-free kelp smoothies. You can also count the entire budget of the EPA, the FAA, the CDC, the FDA and the USDA, and while at it let’s not forget the war on drugs, the war on poverty and the war on terror, and of course education and vacation, sunscreen, traffic lights, firefighters, police and those weirdly bluish ice-melting crystals for your driveway. It sure looks like we are spending all our money on carin...