Latest Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare News from Health Business Blog

Aetna video deserves its prize

Aetna won an Award of Distinction  for its short videos designed to help members comprehend and use their benefits. I’m generally a curmudgeon when it comes to such videos and their cousin the infographics. I typically find them cutesy, patr...

Opposition to Obamacare may doom the GOP

The Republican Party is having a hard time dealing with the rebuke it received in the November elections. Party leaders pretty quickly determined that the growing Hispanic vote could not be ignored and that immigrant bashing might not be the wisest p...

Uneasy about robots caring for the elderly? Read this

The New York Times Bits blog has one of the better articles I’ve read about caregiver robots for the elderly. The aging population plus fewer family caregivers, fewer available human aides and relentless advances in technology are making the ro...

Harvard Pilgrim CEO Eric Schultz discusses consumer engagement and transparency (transcript)

This is the transcript of my recent interview with Harvard Pilgrim’s CEO Eric Schultz. An audio version is available here. David E. Williams:  This is David Williams, President of the Health Business Group and author of the Health Business bl...

Harvard Pilgrim CEO Eric Schultz discusses consumer engagement and transparency

HarvardPilgrim HealthCare, which has been ranked as the best health plan in the US for the past nine years, is taking new steps in the areas of consumer engagement and price transparency. It recently became the first health plan to select transparenc...

Skeptical about health screenings? Me, too

Hospitals and health systems are always looking to boost brand awareness and attract new patients, so it’s not surprising that some sponsor high-profile medical screening buses to get the word out and bring patients in. I’ve always been d...

Wanted: Entrepreneurial business models for doctors

My perception is that doctors in previous generations were more likely to devote their entire lives (professional and “personal” time) to the practice of medicine. Today’s doctors are more likely to consider lifestyle and not automa...

Big C leads to the Big B (bankruptcy)

People with cancer are more than twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as those without, according to a new study in Health Affairs. Medical expenses can be high even for those that have insurance, thanks to co-pays, deductibles and non-covered serv...

I’m not worried about an Obamacare induced fast food shortage

Mid-sized, low wage companies will feel the effect of Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation. Currently, many of their workers are uninsured but that is meant to change next year. Health insurance will be an added cost for these employers, but gove...

Are biosimilars ethical?

>Generic drugs have been an effective cost containment solution for traditional, small molecule pharmaceuticals. As large molecule biologics proliferate and take up a growing share of medical spending, we also increasingly need cost containment. The...

Treating tumors not patients

Older people with short life expectancies often receive aggressive, expensive treatment for non-threatening skin cancers, receive little benefit from the treatments, and experience inconvenience, side effects and complications. This news is hardly su...

Podcast interview with Cancer Treatment Centers of America CEO Steve Bonner (transcript)

This is the transcript of my recent interview with Cancer Treatment Centers of America CEO Steve Bonner. David Williams: This is David E. Williams from the Health Business Group. I’m speaking today with Steve Bonner, CEO of Cancer Treatment Cen...

In praise of Chris Christie’s weight loss approach

I had never paid too much attention to New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie until Hurricane Sandy, when I was impressed with how he put residents of his state above politics in his cooperation with President Obama on the response to...

Health Wonk Review is up at Managed Care Matters

Check out the Health Wonk Review blog carnival on Joe Paduda’s always-excellent Managed Care Matters. Share

What if the health care cost crisis solves itself?

Conventional wisdom is that cutting Medicare rates shifts the burden to the private sector, but an intriguing article in Health Affairs reaches a counterintuitive conclusion: “Cuts in Medicare payment rates have not caused the rapid rise in pr...

Improving the Affordable Care Act by modifying the MLR rule

The Affordable Care Act is a big step in the right direction but like any big complex new thing (think 787 Dreamliner) there are likely to be hiccups coming out of the gate. I’d like to see us learn from implementation of the law and make impro...

Wanted: Advanced training for caregivers + intuitive devices

Increasingly, family caregivers with no formal training are doing the kind of work more commonly associated with hospital-based nurses: operating dialysis machines and ventilators, administering IVs and injections, and using monitors for blood glucos...

Podcast interview with Cancer Treatment Centers of America CEO Steve Bonner

Stephen Bonner is CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). In this podcast interview he discusses CTCA’s integrative approach and its commitment to measuring and reporting quality. He also takes on a Reuters report that concluded CTCA...

Why are we surprised by caffeinated chewing gum?

Wrigley’s caught a lot of grief this week when the FDA decided to start investigating the effects of caffeine added to food and beverage. Apparent the new Alert Energy Caffeine Gum was too much to take. Wrigley’s says it’s pitching...

Business opportunity: Safety packaging for home chemo

Medication mix-up’s are a well-known source of errors and harm in the hospital. So we shouldn’t be surprised that similar errors occur in other settings, including the home. Medication Errors in the Home: A Multisite Study of Children Wit...

Cavalcade of Risk is up at Rootfin

The West, Texas edition of the Cavalcade of Risk blog carnival is up at Rootfin. Share

Q&A with Health Payment Systems CEO Jay Fulkerson

Health Payment Systems (HPS) helps consumers understand and pay their bills. In this interview, HPS CEO Jay Fulkerson answered my questions about the origins of the company and what they are trying to achieve. What challenges are you trying to addr...

ikaSystems CEO Joe Marabito on transforming health plan IT systems

The business and operational needs of health plans are changing so quickly that it’s no wonder they’re running into information technology challenges. At the same time plans are by their nature are conservative about changing how they ope...

Oncologists get serious about drug prices

It’s hard for policy wonks, politicians or health plans to be viewed credibly when promoting health care cost containment. Discussion quickly turns to “rationing,” and “death panels,” which no one wants to be associated...

Health Wonk Review is up at InsureBlog

InsureBlog does a yeoman’s job on the latest –money tree edition– Health Wonk Review blog carnival. Share