Health Care's Tougher Problem--Solving the Access Problem Isn't Enough If We Don't Deal With Costs

Today we honored to have Brian Klepper post for the first time. Brian's posts have been appearing on some of the leading health care blogs and I finally pestered him long enough that he agreed to begin doing some here. Today, he reminds us that solving our health care access problem is far from enough if we don't get costs under control:Health Care's Tougher Problemby Brian KlepperHealth care

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The Nursing Shortage--Important Data On Why

Brian Klepper has another one of his great posts up—this time over at “The Health Care Blog.”We all know there is a nursing shortage but Brian sheds a new light on just why.Here is a small sample from his post, “Benign Neglect and the Nursing Shortage:”"Almost three-quarters of Nursing schools surveyed said the main reason that they can't train enough new nurses is a lack of qualified faculty.

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"Undue Advantage"--The Washington Post Calls for Medicare Advantage Cuts

Tuesday's Washington Post had an editorial on the debate over whether HMOs should be paid more than Medicare receives for the same senior's health care.Originally, the Congress decided to pay private health plans more as a means to "prime the pump" to encourage both private health plan insurers and seniors to give the new Medicare Advantage plans a try. Both had some bad experiences in the late

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Medicare Will Stop Paying Hospitals for Errors--Will Private Health Plans Follow?

Medicare will stop paying for the costs associated with "hospital errors." These can include the costs for treating infections, falls and other things Medicare deems the hospital should have been able to prevent.Health plans tend to follow Medicare policy in their payment practices. Many believe the private sector is going to follow suit.On its face, the new policy makes sense. If you get your

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