Reform Rodeo: Medicaid; Self-insurance; EBM; Gene Patent Smackdown; eRx; Cool stuff
1. PPACA & Medicaid: Kaiser Health News’ Maggie Mertens discusses PPACA’s affect on Medicaid, specifically the legislation’s increase in Medicaid reimbursement.
2. PPACA & Self-Insurance: Professor Tim Jost breaks down how PPACA will influence self-insured plans.
3. Doc vs Doc: Maggie Mahar profiles two feuding medical organizations: The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and the newer National Physicians Alliance.
4. Preventive Problems: The New York Times’ Duff Wilson reports on the brewing controversy of the FDA’s decision to permit broader marketing of AstraZeneca’s blockbuster statin Crestor.
5. On Evidence-based Surgery: David Gorski at Science-based Medicine has a tome-of-a-piece on surgery and evidence-based medicine.
6. Patent Pending: David Post at the Volokh Conspiracy discusses the recent ruling that invalidated (for now) the patenting of a gene thought to be associated with breast and ovarian cancer.
7. E-Prescribing: John Halamka discusses the trials and tribulations of e-prescribing controlled substances.
8. Just plain interesting:
a. Parkinson’s patients who can’t walk but can ride bikes. Wow.
b. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation appears (at least in the lab) to influence moral decision making.
c. TED Talk: The Future of Medicine — Taking health care off the mainframe.




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.