Navigating Payment Reform – NEJM Catalyst

Harvard Business School and New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst group convened a webinar on “Navigating Payment Reform for Providers, Payers & Pharma” on November 2. Presenters admirably fulfilled Dr. Dafny’s challenge as convener to be transparent about goals, attuned to new ideas, open to trade-offs, and unafraid of failure. From the perspective of General Systems … Continue reading Navigating Payment Reform – NEJM Catalyst →

Will These Ideas Fix U.S. Healthcare?

Almost everyone agrees that the U.S. healthcare system needs to be fixed. For example, each of the 2016 Presidential candidates promised to fix it. Now that the election is over, heated debate continues over 2 basic questions: What, exactly, is the problem? How, then, should it be fixed? My answer to the first question is: … Continue reading Will These Ideas Fix U.S. Healthcare? →

Segment 6 – Why Healthcare Cost is a Problem

This segment reviews the impact of relentless increase of U.S. healthcare spending on the economy, politics and society. In Segment 4, we showed some statistics on relentlessly rising healthcare spending. And in Segment 5 we looked at the Perfect Storm -- how rising costs are literally built into the system as it is now. In … Continue reading Segment 6 – Why Healthcare Cost is a Problem →

Segment 5 – Why Is U.S. Healthcare So Expensive?

This segment reviews the “Perfect Storm” of reasons for unrestrained increase of healthcare spending in the U.S. In Episode 4, we zeroed in on what I call the Real Problem with healthcare -- relentlessly rising costs. In this Episode, we will look at why the US spends so much on healthcare. As you can imagine, … Continue reading Segment 5 – Why Is U.S. Healthcare So Expensive? →

Segment 3 – Healthcare Reform Successes & Failures

In Segment 2, we looked at the history of medical care in the U.S. until 1965, the year Congress enacted Medicare and Medicaid. In Segment 3 we will look at reform movements, starting with Medicare and Medicaid. We will look at why later reforms failed and where that leaves us now. By the early 1960s, … Continue reading Segment 3 – Healthcare Reform Successes & Failures →