Reform Rodeo! The Summit, Speed Dating, and More.
1. Summit!: Fretting about how to get your dose of tomorrow’s “summit”? Don’t worry, CSPAN has got you covered for the Health Care Summit that is kicking off at 10am.
2. Managed Care Meltdown?: Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters points out that the Anthem rate increases have shown an inability for private insurers to control costs. What Paduda is missing in his piece is advice to private health insurers about how to manage costs without another “managed care backlash” like we had in the 1990s.
3. The Cost Conundrum’s Conundrum, or Just a Canard?: Maggie Mahar has a beef with the New York Times’ channeling of Dr. Bach’s New England Journal of Medicine article, where Dr. Bach criticized the Dartmouth Atlas researchers’ methodology by claiming that they failed to risk adjust. Dr. Atul Gawande also believes the criticism is misplaced.
4. Health Care and Reconciliation are BFFs: NPR reports on a somewhat cozy relationship between reconciliation and previous health care initiatives.
5. What do speed dating and OB/GYN docs have in common? Kevin MD discusses how hospitals are utilizing speed dating techniques to match obstetricians with potential patients.
6. HIT, Yeah You Know Me: Dr. John Halamka with a slew of handouts from the HIT Policy Committee’s recent meeting, as well as notes from a recent meeting of the HIT Standards Commitee.




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Jordan - I’ve commented extensively on my blog about what health plans should do to control costs.
I disagree that there will be another ‘managed care backlash’; we are at a point where healthplans have to offer a cost control product in addition to their current offerings - which clearly don’t control cost. For those companies or individuals who want broad choice and can afford it, the status quo is fine.
For the increasing number of those who can’t, healthplans should contract with a very limited number of carefully assessed providers, require strict compliance with chronic care management directives, and design benefit plans to reward appropriate behavior.
Paduda