Today’s Opinions: Converting Medical Records To Digital; Tea Party’s Medicare Stand; Improving Mental Health Care
Blog Watch: Dartmouth Critique Sparks Controversy Kaiser Health News
Controversy erupted across several blogs yesterday following a critical New York Times article of the Dartmouth Atlas Project, an influential body of research that shows huge geographic variations in the amount of care that hospitals and doctors provide. Conservative and libertarian health policy bloggers were largely silent, ignoring the debate (Steadman, 6/4).
A Close Encounter With The Problem Of Low-Tech Medical Records The Baltimore Sun
The practice of medicine is steeped in centuries-old traditions of large paper files that will be difficult to overturn. It's imperative that we figure out how to implement health care information technology now (Ritu Agarwal, 6/3).
Medical Math For Tea Party The Providence Journal
It's hard to take seriously a movement that is incapable of understanding (or admitting) where the money is coming from or where it is going out. Making patriotic gestures is not a substitute for that understanding (6/4).
Improving Health Care Las Vegas Sun
A group of organizations with self-funded insurance plans is pressuring 13 Southern Nevada acute care hospitals to improve care. What the coalition is doing could have broad, and positive, effects for health care. If hospitals improve their care, costs should go down, and that would be a win for everyone (6/4).
Recovery Is The Expectation The Florida Times Union
When you consider the costs to taxpayers, our society and to individuals and families, it is crucial that we invest to help our friends and neighbors with mental health and addiction treatment. ... We either provide prevention, early intervention and treatment services now, investing wisely in front-end services, or we will pay later. We'll pay with emergency room visits, higher utilization of state hospitalization beds, jails and prisons (6/2).
Calling The Tea Party's Bluff On Medicare The Seattle Times
My last straw is Rand Paul, a tea-party favorite and now Republican nominee for senator from Kentucky. What makes Rand Paul so exasperating is his crashing hypocrisy on Medicare (Froma Harrop, 6/3).