Simon Nath
The Health Care Blog
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Past articles by Simon:
The Mess That is MACRA
MACRA (the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act) is a mess. It is extremely difficult to comprehend, it is based on assumptions that defy commonsense and research, and it may raise costs. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) would never say what I have just said, but MedPAC definitely understands MACRA’s defects. The transcripts of MedPAC’s October 8, 2015 and January 15,… → Read More
Data Parasites?
By DAVID SHAYWITZ, MD The latest assessment is courtesy of an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), written by editor-in-chief Jeff Drazen, along with Dan Longo. Essentially, Longo and Drazen argue that while the Platonic ideal of rich data sharing is lovely, reality is not so pretty. First, Longo and Drazen allege, researchers who weren’t involved in gathering the original… → Read More
The Patient-Centered Health Record
By PETER ELIAS, MD The other night I participated in a very useful Google+ hangout with Adrian Gropper, Michael Mascia and Michael Chen. The discussion focused on a subject I think is incredibly important: the patient-centered health record. Unfortunately, this topic is hard to discuss without drowning in technical terms and acronyms. I consider myself fairly tech-savvy and still struggle. A (55… → Read More
Don’t Fall for this OTC Pain Reliever Scam; Make it Yourself and Save 99%!
By DEVON HERRICK A recent New York Times article profiled a pair of ultra-expensive pain medications designed to go easy on the stomach. Common pain relievers, like aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen are prone to irritate the stomach if taken repeatedly throughout the day. A newer class of pain medication, called cox-2 inhibitors, are the preferred pain relievers for those who cannot take… → Read More
Crowdfunding: Careful What you Wish For
By DAVID HARLOW The SEC has finally finalized its crowdfunding rule (presser) under the JOBS Act. The health innovation crowdfunding crowd has been waiting for these rules for quite some time, as has the rest of the crowdfunding fan club. (It’s only taken three and a half years.) So, was it worth the wait? The crowdfunding rule (full text) sets the stage for broader participation in early-stage… → Read More
The Surprising Story of The Original Luddite
By LEONARD D’AVOLIO We all know Luddites. They proudly pronounce their rejection of Facebook and feign disgust about how they finally “broke down” and bought that awesome Motorola Razor they still carry. Maybe you are a Luddite or pretend to be because you can’t make Gmail work on your phone. So who was this Ludd and why is he the timeless symbol of rage against the machine? My guess was that… → Read More
The End of the NHS?
By SAURABH JHA, MD Britain’s health secretary wants to uncharm his way to a revolution. To galvanize support for a seven-day National Health Service (NHS), which the NHS was before Jeremy Hunt’s radical plans, and still is, he asserted that thousands die because there is a shortage of senior doctors during weekends. This is an expedient interpretation of a study which showed that mortality was… → Read More
How Doctors Became Subcontractors
By MICHEL ACCAD, MD In our healthcare system, the “middleman” is not who you think During my recent podcast interview with Jeff Deist, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, I remarked that third-party payers are not, in fact, intermediaries between doctors and patients. In reality, it is the physician who has become a “middleman” in the healthcare transaction or, as I argued, a… → Read More
ACA Open Enrollment Round 3: The Going Gets Tougher
By STEVE FINDLAY The third ACA health insurance exchange open enrollment period begins Nov. 1, and things look iffy. The Obama administration this month reduced the estimate of new enrollees for 2016—possibly to lower expectations but also because signs point to the difficulty of luring the remaining uninsured into the fold over the next few years. It’s time for some fresh strategies to ramp up… → Read More