The Health Care Blog

(Limited) Sympathy for the Blue Devil(s)

By Matthew Holt A year on from Wellpoint's ju-jistu move of announcing a 39% rate increase in California, therefore re-invigorating the health care bill and guaranteeing themselves billions in government subsidies, Blue Shield of California, the non-profit rival to Wellpoint's...
January 10, 2011 in Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Suzanne Delbanco on the new Catalyst for Payment Reform

By Matthew Holt Catalyst for Payment Reform is a new organization set up by several large employers. The organization's goal is to pay for health care differently, and make sure that those employers run ahead of any Medicare payment reform...
November 12, 2010 in Employers, Policy | Permalink | Comments (3)

Eric Dishman talks about Intel in health

By Matthew Holt Eric Dishman has been working with a big team at Intel on the use of technology to help seniors and patients age in place. It's been a long-ish road for Eric but in the last few years...
November 4, 2010 in Consumers, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Policy, Technology | Permalink | Comments (3)

Vic Fuchs Speaks!

By Matthew Holt I was absolutely delighted that after several polite "maybe later" responses I was able to recently interview Victor Fuchs, the Henry J. Kaiser Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. Vic is best known as the "Father of Health...
September 19, 2010 in Dartmouth Atlas, Economics, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, PPACA | Permalink | Comments (14)

A NY Times guest (inadvertently) spanks its professionals

By Matthew Holt A couple of weeks back two New York Times reporters (Abelson & Harris) decided to take on the orthodoxy of the Dartmouth school. Frankly their efforts reminded me of England’s performance in the world cup so far—abject...
June 21, 2010 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (26)

The NY Times, dogs, sores & Dartmouth critics

By Matthew Holt Today’s NY Times has a confused, woffly attack on Dartmouth from Reed Abelson & Gardiner Harris. This is a dreadful article. Period. That the NY Times printed it is remarkable given the turnaround in thinking by David...
June 3, 2010 in Congress, Consumers, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (15)

Will the NFIB please go away.....

By Matthew Holt Let's be honest--I absolutely abhor the so-called National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). It’s not a representative business group. In 2004 95% of their members said they voted for Bush, compared to 53% of all small business...
May 18, 2010 in Election 08, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (26)

It's history

By Matthew Holt (Photo from USA Today)
March 23, 2010 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (11)

The big question for what's next

By Matthew Holt It’s the morning after the big night. Soon all melodrama of the past 14 months will be forgotten, particularly the last 6 weeks (for which the current narrative is that Nancy Pelosi brought health care reform back...
March 22, 2010 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (23)

The Vote is 6pm EST

By Matthew Holt Just a quick note that the vote on the Health care reform bill is at 6pm EST tonight. It looks like the Stupak 6 (the anti-abortion Dems) have been persuaded that a Yes vote will be OK...
March 21, 2010 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (15)

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat?

By Matthew Holt Sometime pretty soon Nancy Pelosi’s team will have figured out if they have the votes and will be moving what’s basically the Senate bill onto the House floor. Those of you who remember late 2003 may remember...
March 19, 2010 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (18)

Wellpoint: just incompetent?

By Matthew Holt I’m viewing the latest rumblings in the US health care debate from the confines of a clear but cold Britain, where the big news is that the country is joining the PIGS in entering economic meltdown—or at...
February 20, 2010 in Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (84)

Todd Park--Data Liberacion!

By Matthew Holt Todd Park is CTO of HHS. What does that mean? And what is he doing? He gave a talk last week about it that I posted on, but here's Todd in his own words
February 12, 2010 in Health 2.0, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wellpoint's wasted opportunity

By Matthew Holt Sometimes with something so egregious gets written that, even if it’s in the Wall Street Journal, you have to notice it. Angela Braly, the CEO of Wellpoint—compensation a hair under $10m in 2009—ought to be happy, even...
February 7, 2010 in Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (46)

Todd Park speaks: Free the data!

By Matthew Holt Todd Park is definitely one of health care IT’s good guys. Todd was the brains (though not the mouth!) behind athenahealth. After he left athenahealth, he spent a year back in California doing angel investing (Ventana among...
February 4, 2010 in Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

Uwe and Heritage agree: we need a tax-funded universal pool

By Matthew Holt When you’re at a party and someone explains to you that they just read a great article in the NY Times explaining why Peggy Noonan doesn’t understand basic math, and you know that they’re referring to Uwe...
February 1, 2010 in Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (47)

A vote for single payer, austerity-style

By Matthew Holt I spent summer 1984 in Boston and generally found it an oppressively hot place. I’ve spent a few winter days there and found it an oppressively cold place. I’ve always thought that, given the absence of passport...
January 20, 2010 in Massachusetts, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (13)

Thinking the unthinkable--no Health Care bill?

By Matthew Holt After a resounding Democratic Presidential election win, a terrible recession, and a bruising year of politics, it would be just like America that a crazy election result torpedoes the health care reform bill. It would be the...
January 18, 2010 in Election 08, Massachusetts, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (74)

Why health insurance reform really matters

By CF Mother Just occasionally we get a really heartfelt comment on THCB that is passionate and rational, and reminds us why for all the bile spewed about the topic the essential part of the health care bill—making insurance available...
January 17, 2010 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (25)

State vs. National Exchanges – Why it Matters

By BILL KRAMER Does it matter whether health insurance exchanges are state-level or national? I used to think that it wasn’t a major issue, but my opinion has changed. During the health reform debate early in 2009, I thought that...
January 12, 2010 in Insurance, Policy, Reform | Permalink | Comments (19)

States Should Have Flexibility to Develop Own Health Reform Plans

By MAX BARTLETT and JOSE AGUILAR One issue has generated little discussion during the heated health care reform debate: whether states should have the right to develop their own approaches to universal coverage. The Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign...
December 26, 2009 in New Mexico, Policy, Reform, States | Permalink | Comments (14)

Senate passes bill, more to come

By Matthew Holt It's Christmas Eve and the Senate just passed a major health reform bill. Personally I think the reforms in it are relatively minor, but the passage of the bill itself is a screaming big deal. When I...
December 24, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform, Senate | Permalink | Comments (14)

Enthoven beats up Gawande

By Matthew Holt I finally got around to reading Atul Gawande's New Yorker piece on why the current reform bill mirrors early 20th century agriculture. I learned lots about the role of the Department of Agriculture in teaching farmers what...
December 22, 2009 in Atul Gawande, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (16)

Interview with Alan Greene MD, author Raising Baby Green

One of the most remarkable talks I heard this year wasn't about health care. It was about food. Of course, food is very, very closely related to health and health is at least tangentially related to health care. So I...
December 21, 2009 in Books, Children's Health, Consumers, Food Industry, Interview, Matthew Holt, Podcasts, Policy | Permalink | Comments (1)

Senate Deal on Health Care Bill Done

By Matthew Holt As it's a work day for the Senate worth reporting here that Ben Nelson’s vote has been bought for more Medicaid spending for Nebraska and a complex formula for States to opt out of exchanges being able...
December 19, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform, Senate | Permalink | Comments (52)

MedEncentive's Five Year Report

By Matthew Holt As many involved in the worlds of Health 2.0 and Information Therapy know, some of the most interesting experiments in the world of patient-physician engagement have been happening in the somewhat unlikely environs of small town Oklahoma....
December 15, 2009 in evidenced-based medicine, Health 2.0, HIT, Information Therapy, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (11)

Joe is kicking them when they're down

By Matthew Holt From a deeply depressing survey of the unemployed in today’s NY Times: Nearly half of respondents said they did not have health insurance, with the vast majority citing job loss as a reason, a notable finding given...
December 14, 2009 in Employment, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (16)

Making (sh)it up as they go along

By Matthew Holt So today’s news is that the gang of ten have come up with something. (If you haven’t been following along, the gang of ten are the five “liberal” Democrats and the five DINOs asked by Harry Reid...
December 9, 2009 in Jeff Goldsmith, Matthew Holt, Medicare, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (10)

Four grumpy lefties with Laura Flanders

By Matthew Holt Maggie Mahar, Jon Cohn, Jon Nichols and Olga Pierce hang out with Laura Flanders on the amusingly titled GRITtv and discuss how screwed up the politics of health care are in the Senate. Twenty minutes of amusing...
December 4, 2009 in Interview, Matthew Holt, Policy, Videos | Permalink | Comments (1)

Paul Starr agrees with me (or I steal from him--take your pick)

By Matthew Holt Paul Starr and I have been agreeing a lot lately. Not that Paul knows or cares what I think or say, but a while back we both expressed fear that private health plans will end up channeling...
December 1, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Public Option | Permalink | Comments (3)

The post-reform insurance market, or will Mega survive?

By Matthew Holt I had an interesting call from a member of the legal profession the other day, and it got me thinking about the post-reform prospects for my own particular collection of bete noirs—the insurers who prey on desperate...
November 30, 2009 in Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

Karen Ignagni tells the truth, unfortunately

By Matthew Holt There’s a big to-do about whether there are really any cost-saving measures in the House and Senate bill. Most people say that the answers are “no” and “sort of”. There’ll be much more discussion about that on...
November 29, 2009 in Congress, Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (24)

Money-Driven Medicine film now downloadable

By Matthew Holt If you want to watch the documentary Money Driven Medicine based on Maggie Mahar’s book, it’s now available for free download at moneydrivenmedicine.org (the DVD is also available for purchase). The free download is part of an...
November 22, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

"The possible" vs "what we want," resumed

By Matthew Holt Not so long ago (actually less than 2 weeks), there was quite the spat on THCB between the Four Horseman (Klepper, Kibbe, Lazewski & Enthoven) and Maggie Mahar. Essentially it came down to this question: Is there...
November 17, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Medicare, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

Pay (Only) for Health Care that Works

Charles Silver & David A. Hyman Health care is expensive partly because governmental payers and insurers foot the bill for large quantities of medical services that are ineffective, unnecessary, or unproven. According to a RAND report, studies of clinical efficiency...
November 11, 2009 in Congress, Costs, Health Plans, Policy, Reform | Permalink | Comments (31)

Dave Durenberger on Lieberman

By Matthew Holt Former Minnesota Senator Dave Durenberger, a thinking centrist Republican (remember them?) puts out an occasional newsletter full of gems. This is today’s zinger: The Senate has a better bill than the House, but it also has a...
November 11, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Health Care Debate

By Greg Rienzi, Staff writer for the Johns Hopkins Gazette While concepts for health care reform volley back and forth in Washington, D.C., and around the nation, Johns Hopkins has quietly but meaningfully injected itself into the debate. Johns Hopkins...
November 5, 2009 in Costs, Policy, Reform | Permalink | Comments (11)

Time to put aside the intellectual disputes for now

By Matthew Holt It’s always fun to see my friends beating each other up in public....and if you read down in the comments on the post published yesterday you’ll see a significant dispute between Maggie Mahar and the Klepper/Kibbe/Lazsweski/Enthoven team...
October 31, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Maggie Mahar, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Public Option, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (79)

Saving Health Care, Saving America

By BRIAN KLEPPER, DAVID C. KIBBE, ROBERT LASZEWSKI and ALAIN ENTHOVEN So far, Congress' response to the health care crisis has been alarmingly disappointing in three ways. First, by willingly accepting enormous sums from health care special interests, our representatives...
October 30, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Corruption, David Kibbe, Marketplace, Policy, Policy/Politics, primary care, Reform, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (46)

What's got lost in the public option kerfuffle

By Matthew Holt Not so long ago, July this year in fact, PhRMA boss and former Dem Blue Dog & Republican Billy Tauzin told the Aspen Health Forum that a straw poll of Democrats at dinner with him in DC...
October 27, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (10)

Protest Music at AHIP meeting

By Matthew Holt This is much more fun and better sung than traditional protests! And given that AHIP would benefit from a public option, I suspect Karen Ignagni hired them. It looks like it happened in the closing session of...
October 24, 2009 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (9)

The Republican health care argument

By Matthew Holt Just in case you thought we’d gone soft by featuring Sarah Palin, here’s what Tom Toles thinks (from the WaPo)
October 21, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

Change The Rules and Get Your Labs

By Phil Marshall In 1999 Caresoft developed a consumer web portal called the Daily Apple. The Daily Apple wasn’t all that unique or different than other health portals, until in May of 2000 they began helping consumers download their lab...
October 19, 2009 in Consumers, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (4)

Why AHIP needs the public option

By Matthew Holt It’s been a fun week. After years of THCB explaining that neither could AHIP do genuine research nor could its venerable President open her mouth without lying, the rest of the world has caught on. I won’t...
October 16, 2009 in Charlie Baker, Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (37)

Olberman, hysterical hypocrisy expose

By Matthew Holt A really fun piece from Keith Olbermann as he shows how the entire Gang of Six and more voted for fully socialized flood insurance and yet seem to have a problem with an independent government run public...
October 4, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (11)

JSK (national treasure) on data liquidity, and how it fits into Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt Given that she taught me most of what I know about health IT I don’t know why I ever need reminding about how great Jane Sarasohn-Kahn is at keeping her finger on the pulse of health care,...
October 3, 2009 in Health 2.0, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Matthew Holt, Policy, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was largely in favor of Swiss-style health care...

By Matthew Holt until I found out that the people who the NY Times says are really in favor of it are Bill O'Reilly and Regina Herzlinger… Actually I’m kidding. I knew Regi says she likes it, and Maggie Mahar...
October 1, 2009 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

Morons like us

By Matthew Holt I still read the articles every day that Google and the rest of my searches spit into my inbox. But as the sausage gets made I despair for the country. Not so long ago the NY Times...
September 29, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (27)

Yet another reason to abolish the Senate

By Matthew Holt Ezra Klein, feeling a little soft, interviews Kent Conrad—he of the co-op feed stores for health care idea. My take on the interview is that I seriously believe Conrad's entire knowledge of health care comes from his...
September 26, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (12)

Aneesh Chopra, talks Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt Aneesh Chopra is the Obama Administration's Chief Technology Officer. He'll be giving keynote speech at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, Oct 6-7.
September 23, 2009 in Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)