Reform Rodeo
Photo by David Monniaux
1. Principle or Posturing (or both)? –Kaiser Health News discusses the sudden plea from certain Senators for a reintroduction of the public plan into the Senate’s bill.
2. Starting From Scratch? — The Hill highlights polling indicating that many Americans favor scrapping the health bill and starting over, an option that President Obama has repeatedly said is not an option.
2a. Presidential Preemption? — Interestingly, the New York Times details the possibility of Obama posting his own health reform bill on the Internet ahead of the much-hyped health care summit. Could Obama use his “new” bill as evidence of a “fresh start” to appease Republicans?
3. Back to Basics — Maggie Mahar details the longstanding debate about whether health insurance actually saves lives.
4. Scoop on Standards — Dr. John Halamka, a physician who serves as CIO of Beth Israel Hospital and Chairman of the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) at the ANSI, shares his thoughts on the vocabulary standards that will come to be the Esperanto of HIT.
5. HIT Funding — On Febuary 12th, the first $1 billion of federal funding for HIT promised under the HITECH Act was made available, with $10.6 million going to Massachusetts for the creation of a health information exchange.
6. Health Reform “Casualty”: The New York Times reported that former Congressman-turned head of PhRMA Billy Tauzin is resigning. Betting on the passage of health reform, Tauzin offered billions in concessions to the White House in exchange for, among other things, favorable patent exclusivity periods for pricey biologics.
7. Health 2.0 — The Health Care Blog reports on the purchase of online pain management company ReliefInSite.com by PatientsLikeMe.com–the popular patient web site which claims to be the “leading online community for patients with life-changing diseases.” Don’t be to surprised to see further growth of similar “Health 2.0″ websites that seek to take advantage of the increasing digitization of health care delivery and research.
8. The Science Behind Reform — Stephen Novella at Science-Based Medicine revisits the question of the effectiveness of colonoscopies.
Posts from Health Reform Watch have been cited by media sources throughout the country, including The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Kaiser Health News, The Health Care Blog, NPR's Planet Money Blog, Duke Univ. Med. Center News, American Health Line Alerts, BusinessWeek.com, Concurring Opinions, Balkinization, The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Las Vegas Sun, Maggie Mahar, Ezra Klein, Tom Geoghegan, and the official homepage of the Office of the Democratic Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer.
