By Evan Falchuk
Sometimes you need a published study to tell you what should be obvious in the first place.
This time, researchers have discovered that:
When physicians have more personalized discussions with their patients and encourage them to take a more active role in their health, both doctor and patient have more confidence that they reached a correct diagnosis and a good strategy to improve the patient’s health.
Really?
But wait, there’s more.
By Evan Falchuk
Well, Jenny McCarthy. You know her, the actor and model who is sure she knows more about the medical science of autism than actual scientists. She spreads her sadly confused views through all kinds of channels.
Which brings us to Ezra Klein of the Washington Post.
By Evan Falchuk
Unconstitutional? How can the mandate to buy health insurance be unconstitutional?
It must be some kind of misguided resistance to progressivism. Or maybe it’s someone finally taking a stand against a power-grabbing government program.
But it’s actually about something else entirely.
And if you don’t know what it is, you won’t understand why the Virginia court ruled the way it did.
By Evan Falchuk
Here are eleven things that are absolutely going to happen** in 2011.
They are in no particular order….or are they?
By Evan Falchuk
This is not a post about predicting the future.
I was asked to speak at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Dallas Fort Worth Business Group on Health. This group is one of a number of similar groups around the country that don’t get anywhere near the amount of attention and recognition they deserve.
And they should, because groups like this, and their leaders and participants, are building the future of American health care. (more…)
By Evan Falchuk
Dr. Wes connects the news of the Wikileaks document dump to the privacy of health care data:
While a single individual’s private health care information may not carry the gravitas of wartime communiqués, each of us deals with famous patients who might not want their diagnosis, HIV status, or drinking history spread far and wide. For them, this private information might be just as personally damaging as anything disclosed by WikiLeaks.
Wes raises a good point. To which I would add a bigger point.
All of the laws and security systems and everything else don’t mean your health information will remain private. No, the extent to which your health information stays private depends on the honor, reliability and trustworthiness of the people who have it.
Almost everyone who touches health information has those morals. But not everyone. And for them, there is no law, no security system that can stop dishonor. What we can do is call this kind of behavior what it is, and root it out. Leaking confidential health information is despicable.
Good on Wes for taking this opportunity to remind us of that.
By Evan Falchuk
The government is remaking the health care system in order to pull money out of it.
So what do Americans do?
Look for ways to make money.
By Evan Falchuk
Here’s my weekly look at things I’ve read that maybe you haven’t.
1. Health Insurance, Hospital Industries: Don’t Repeal Reform Law. Hospitals and health insurers aren’t keen on seeing the health care reform law changed very much. It’s probably got something to do with the fact that hospitals are going to get lots of new money from millions of newly insured Americans. And that health insurers like the idea that they will end up like utility companies- with secure market shares and predictable profits. Large employers – least affected by the law – also seem to want to avoid opening this can of worms.
2. Will Government Web Site Make it Easier to Pick Doctors? I hope so. But, if it’s anything like the way healthcare.gov says it helps you pick hospitals, I am skeptical. At some point, consumers will figure out the serious limitations of these tools and get upset about how they are being handled. Ask the TSA what that’s like.
3. Medical Tourism: Not What You Think It Is. I don’t think there is much of a market for Americans to travel abroad for care, no matter how much cheaper it is. But there is a market for Americans to travel to other cities in the US for higher-quality, or lower cost care. I call it “domestic medical tourism,” and it is one of the emerging trends in U.S. benefits design.
4. Higher Deductible? You Probably Think Reform is Bad. Well, it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but a study showed that employees who were in higher deductible plans were more likely to be worried about the impact of health care reform. Does this mean that once you’re in a higher deductible plan you tend to like it better?
5. Never Hesitate to Get a Second Medical Opinion. File this one under “damn straight.”
6. Google’s Unintentional Weight Loss Program. A friend of mine recently wondered if the people in news stock footage of obese people ever recognize themselves. Well, when a very overweight man in the UK recognized himself on Google Street View, he was shocked by how he looked and decided to do something about it. He lost 100 pounds.
By Evan Falchuk
Did you know there actually is a “public option” in the health care reform law? It’s true – it’s called the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, and it’s designed to cover people who who have been unable to get insurance because of a pre-existing condition. To hear the stories about how big of a problem this is in America, you’d think a product like this would be a big hit.
Except, it’s been a big flop.
By Evan Falchuk
Here’s a quick round-up of interesting reads from this week:
1. Why Public Support for Health Care Reform is Falling. At KevinMD, health care consultant Roger Collier says that as reform takes hold, people pay more for health care than they do now. Will that make it even less popular?
2. Insurance Commissioners Loom Large in Health Care Law. It’s something I’ve been writing about for more than a year. NPR is now on the case, too. They now see how much power state insurance commissioners have over health care reform.
3. Survey: 90% Feel Their Benefits Are Important, But 36% Fear Losing their Job. At TLNT, John Hollon writes about a recent study by benefits powerhouse Mercer on employee attitudes about benefits, the economy, reform, and a whole host of other issues. His money paragraph sounds a message which people ought to hear:
But, the ongoing anxiety and frustration of workers about the economy, their jobs, and the overall stability of their lives is clearly part of what drove the big election changes we saw on Tuesday night. People are worried — about their job, about their ability to provide for themselves and their families, about making it to a comfortable retirement — and both employers and politicians would do well to understand this, because it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
4. Employee-Benefit Costs Concern CFOs Most. At the WSJ Health Blog, Katherine Hobson writes about a Grant Thornton Study on CFO concerns going into 2011. High on the list? Employee health care and pension costs.
5. Election Day Could be Benefits Game-Changer, Expert Speculates. At the Daily Diversion, Kelley Butler talks with a benefits expert who says that with the new Congress, health care reform may turn into “Zombie legislation.” That’s a terrific double-dip of Halloween and the election packed into one post. Nice job.
6. Co-payments for Many Preventive Services for Most Workers Are About to Disappear. The LA Times reports on one of the big new changes under reform. It raises an interesting related question. People who work for companies that are self-insured are seeing deductibles go up, while people who work for companies that buy health insurance are going to see their deductibles going down. Reform is going to create two different approaches to employee health benefits.
