"Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale" – Rudolf Virchow
Saturday May 19th 2012

Anecdotes

Be like the Netherlands? Be like the Netherlands? »

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post posted an article based on the Commonwealth Fund's recent [...]


Individual mandate ruled constitutional…for doctors Individual mandate ruled »

Dr. Volny, one of our regular contributors, poses a question to our readers after listening to the [...]


Public Lactation: Celebrity Edition Public Lactation: Celebrity »

An article in today's USA Today cites that celebrity Beyoncé Knowles has been spotted breastfeeding in [...]


Follow PolicyRx on Twitter

  • “Meaningful Use” for EHR’s Defined

    “Meaningful Use” for EHR’s Defined

    Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services set out definitions for the “meaningful use” of electronic health records. Designed to qualify eligible providers for incentive payments, these rules will spark a revolution. You could ...

  • MassHealth’s P4P Program Fails to Produce

    MassHealth's P4P Program Fails to Produce

    Conflicting with evidence from other studies, an evaluation of MassHealth’s Medicaid Pay-for-Performance plan failed to show a significant effect on quality improvement measures despite spending $2.6 million for incentives. Pay for Performance (P4P) is the concept ...

  • HPV Vaccine: A License to Thrill?

    HPV Vaccine: A License to Thrill?

    While some debate the political wisdom of mandating HPV vaccination of young girls, the science is clear. The vaccines are safe, reduce the burden of a disease that infects 6 million women annually, and do ...

  • The Future of Nursing

    The Future of Nursing

    Typical nursing tasks - medication administration, direct care of patients, and patient education - are often subsidiary to physician work. Advanced practice nursing, however, operates as a physician substitute. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and ...

  • Single-Payer’s Impact on Physician Income

    Single-Payer’s Impact on Physician Income

    “No boy should have to depend either for his leg or his life upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside.”  Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian ...

  • Scrambling to rescue ACO’s

    Scrambling to rescue ACO’s

    Health care systems such as the Mayo and Cleveland clinics  - which are organized the way policy makers envision accountable care organizations - initially balked at the rules proposed by CMS. Now, the rules have ...

  • Itemized Deduction for Medical Expenses

    Itemized Deduction for Medical Expenses

    Americans that spend high proportions of their income on medical expenses are entitled to deduct those above 7.5 percent of income from personal taxes. The savings amount to nearly $1,000 off the cost of medical ...

  • Metrics for Doctors and Patients

    Metrics for Doctors and Patients

    Electronic health records can improve processes of care as well as real health outcomes for diabetic patients. However, it is critical that patients themselves are held accountable for their own health and given the tools ...

  • Individual Health Insurance Mandates – Pros & Cons

    Individual Health Insurance Mandates - Pros & Cons

    Several universal insurance coverage models incorporate an individual mandate which requires every person to obtain health insurance coverage.  A main argument for individual mandates centers around the elimination of free-riders who choose to forego private ...

  • Gender differences in health costs

    Gender differences in health costs

    Health insurance pools risk and redistributes costs among the members of society. Women tend to accrue greater health care costs than their male counterparts. Under the Affordable Care Act all health insurance premiums - for ...

Twitter Updates

Employer Sponsored»

Tho’ you may not drive a great »

Tho’ you may not drive a great big Cadillac

Currently, employer-sponsored health insurance is treated as a tax free benefit. While this encourages employers and employees to obtain coverage, it is a [Read More]


Affordable Care Act

Two Sides of the Same Coin Two Sides of the »

For as much as Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama may differ on economic [...]


Tho’ you may not drive a great big Cadillac Tho’ you may not »

Currently, employer-sponsored health insurance is treated as a tax free benefit. While [...]


Everyone Enters the Health Care Market Everyone Enters the »

Next week, the Supreme Court will begin deliberation as to whether or not citizens of the [...]