How to Mayo Up
Integrated care produces better, cheaper medicine. If you're thoughtful, if you're thinking about how health care in the United States actually works; if you've been following the bouncing ball here about why it costs so much for such mediocre results, you're thinking: Integrate. Get the docs and the hospitals playing on the same team. Align the incentives…
The Mayo Clinic is a century old, its integration the product of the fierce and consistent philosophy of the Mayo brothers driving a very special culture—patient-centered, physician-centered, and built on teamwork. The nearly century-old Geisinger Health System was built by Dr. Harold Foss, fresh from 20 months of service as chief assistant to Dr. William Mayo, and guided by the same philosophy. The 88-year-old Cleveland Clinic was also founded on the Mayo model, by doctors who had worked together as a team in the army in the Great War.
Hospital and Health Networks by Joe Flower, 09/09/09
Physicians’ Beliefs and U.S. Health Care Reform — A National Survey
In an address to the American Medical Association on June 15, 2009, President Barack Obama acknowledged that he needed physicians’ support on health care reform and offered to work with physicians to achieve the reform he believes is essential. In recent months, commentators have called on physicians to be “our most credible and effective leaders of progress toward a new world of coordinated, sensible, outcome-oriented care” and to “find a brave voice” for changing health care’s funding structures in a way that “puts quality of care before financial gain.”1
NEJM, Ryan M. Antiel, M.A., Farr A. Curlin, M.D., Katherine M. James, M.P.H., and Jon C. Tilburt, M.D., M.P.H., 09/14/09
Health reform talk on WJCT’s First Coast Connect
A distinguished panel took to the airwaves on Monday, September 14th to discuss the hottest issue of the moment – health care reform. Dr. Jack Leventhal of the Mayo Clinic joined Dr. Yank Coble of UNF’s Global Health and Medical Diplomacy Center, Dr. Otmar Kloiber of the World Medical Association, Congresswoman Corinne Brown, and Lori Parham, Florida State Director for AARP to discuss the current state of reform legislation being debated on Capitol Hill.
WJCT Radio, 09/14/09
Milton Friedman Speech At the Mayo Clinic in 1978
The genius of Milton Friedman is that his economic insights are as powerful as they are timeless. Despite the fact that these comments were made more than thirty years ago in 1978 at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, they ring as true today as they did then.
Carpe Diem by Prof. Mark Perry (blog), 09/15/09
Additional Mayo Clinic health care reform coverage:
Top stories
Max Baucus Releases Health Care Bill
Politico
Sept. 16, 2009
Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) proposed an $856 billion plan Wednesday to overhaul the health care system, releasing a bill after months of bipartisan negotiations without any immediate Republican support.
Read the bill: America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 (PDF)
Related coverage:
Senate's 10-Year Health Fix Would Cost US $856B , AP/The New York Times
Senate Health Bill Draws Fire on Both Sides, The New York Times
Baucus's Bill Gets No Love From GOP, Politico
Some Democrats to Balk at Max Baucus's Bill, Politico
Baucus Releases Bill: No Public Option , Kaiser Health News
Democrats Worry Bill Will Cost Families Too Much , The Wall Street Journal
Baucus: The Senate Is Ready to Act on Health Care
The Wall Street Journal
Sept. 16, 2009
An op-ed from Max Baucus.
The Washington Post
Sept. 16, 2009
Columnist Ruth Marcus writes that when Ron Wyden balks at a Democratic health-care reform proposal, people should definitely listen.
Insurance
Mandated Health Insurance Squeezes Those in the Middle
The Wall Street Journal
Sept. 16, 2009
An examination of how difficult it could be to bring into the insurance pool the millions of consumers who make too much money to qualify for assistance, yet not enough to bear the full cost of new policies on their own.
Average Family Health Insurance Policy: $13,375, Up 5%
USA Today
Sept. 16, 2009
An average family health insurance policy now costs more than some compact cars, and four in 10 companies will likely pass more of that expense on to workers, according to a closely watched survey of businesses released Tuesday.
State news
State-by-State Analysis of Uninsured
Politico
Sept. 16, 2009
'The New Numbers – Health Insurance Reform Cannot Wait,” a state-by-state analysis of last week's U.S. Census numbers regarding the uninsured, will be released later today by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. This above document contains the 50 state reports that the administration will be sending to senators to arm them with fresh data, plus one for D.C.
Mass: Health Costs to Rise Again
The Boston Globe
Sept. 16, 2009
Major health insurers in Massachusetts plan to raise premiums by about 10% in 2010, prompting many employers to reduce benefits and shift additional costs to workers.
Medicare/Medicaid
Seniors in Medicare Advantage Receive Higher Quality Care, New Reports Show
America’s Health Insurance Plans
Sept. 15, 2009
Seniors in Medicare Advantage spent fewer days in a hospital, were subject to fewer hospital re-admissions, and were less likely to have “potentially avoidable” admissions, for common conditions ranging from uncontrolled diabetes to dehydration, according to a new analysis of publicly available AHRQ data released today by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
Study: Medicare Has Saved Virtually Nothing Through Non-Payment Policy
Fierce HealthCare
Sept. 14, 2009
In theory, Medicare hoped to both improve care and save significant amounts of money on needless illnesses when it instituted a policy of not paying for six hospital-acquired conditions. In reality, however, the policy has had little financial impact, according to a new study published in Health Affairs.
Medicare Demonstration Project
Today, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius, Director of White House Office of Health Reform Nancy-Ann Min DeParle and Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will announce a Medicare demonstration project in which the states will test practices in the program to improve the quality of care. Watch for coverage in tomorrow’s Health Care Reform News.
Reform efforts
Obama Rallies Labor in Fight for Health-Care Reform
The Washington Post
Sept. 16, 2009
The anxiety that has afflicted organized labor so far this year as it saw President Obama and congressional Democrats making concessions on some of its top priorities evaporated on Tuesday as Obama rallied a big crowd at the AFL-CIO's convention.
Health bill puts heat on Snowe
Politico
Sept. 16, 2009
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe may hold the key to Barack Obama’s health care agenda — and that’s starting to make top Senate Republicans nervous.
The Influence Game: Health Interests Fund Senators
The Washington Post
Sept. 16, 2009
Sen. Max Baucus, a leader in the troubled effort in Congress to write a health care overhaul bill, has received more campaign donations from the health industry than any elected federal official except President Barack Obama and three other senators.
Employers
Health Care Reform: The Perils of Inaction and the Promise of Effective Action
The Business Roundtable
Sept. 16, 2009
With health care expenses at an all-time high, and some of the proposed congressional health care reform bills threatening to add hundreds of billions to government spending, many are debating the cost of health care reform. In this paper, Business Roundtable turned that idea around and asked: What is the cost of doing nothing?