After nearly loosing his twins to an overdose of the blood thinner heparin given at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 2007, actor Dennis Quaid has been heavily involved in raising awareness about medical errors in collaboration with TMIT and the National Quality Forum. Medical errors have historically been dealt with through lawsuits and [...]

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Yesterday, Stephen E. Neel, a Suffolk Superior Court judge, denied the request of six Massachusetts health insurers to increase premiums by an average of 8 to 32 percent for about 50,000 policies covering 200,000 members. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick hailed Neel’s decision as a victory for small businesses and families that have been burdened by [...]

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Yesterday President Obama revealed a plan, expected to cost $950 billion over 10 years, to renew the administrations push for healthcare reform.  The plan proposes to provide coverage to more than 31 million uninsured Americans. More details: The plan includes a measure designed to close the Medicare “donut-hole” gap for prescription drug coverage, which leaves [...]

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On Monday, doctors from around the country will join the President at the White House to show their support for passing health insurance reform legislation this year. These doctors were invited for many reasons: Many are leaders in their communities. Others belong to one of the many physician organizations in this country. All are supporters [...]

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Last month, I talked to three European journalists about the healthcare system in the U.S. and opportunities to improve the care delivery system through a combination of  bottom-up innovation and top-down reform. Above is an article that appeared in an Italian magazine a couple of days ago, outlining the debate on healthcare reform in the [...]

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In his address to Congress last night, President Obama touched on medical liability reform. I wish he had devoted more time and attention to this issue. Clearly it is an important concern of not only physicians but, as a new poll conducted by the Clarus Research Group and commissioned by Common Good and the Committee [...]

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President Obama will deliver a much anticipated address on healthcare reform tonight. There are lots of eyes and ears on this event. A reporter called me today to see if I would watch the address with her so that she could write about my reaction (I declined due to a scheduling conflict). I’m sure a [...]

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After Princess Diana’s horrific accident in 1997, it took the ambulance 110 minutes to arrive at the hospital, which was only minutes away. This was not faulty behavior on part of the first responders. They were simply following the protocol of the French emergency medical system dubbed “stay and play,” where a well equipped medical [...]

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In the past few weeks, CNN has done a great job presenting the real views of physicians about the healthcare system. In fact, today I was on CNN with Heidi Collins speaking about my medical practice and healthcare reform (will post the video when it’s up). One of the recent commentaries on CNN is an [...]

Filed under: Health Policy, Words of Wisdom | 2 Comments »

A recent survey of 367 healthcare executives–representing payers, providers, and pharmaceutical companies–suggests that most of them are not prepared for the changing economic conditions and the evolving prospects for reform: Only 30 percent of executives representing the health care industry in the United States say their companies are ready for reform and changing economic conditions… [...]

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