Why are health costs rising? Here are a few reasons: “…The big problem that may explain why health care spending is so much higher in some places than others — without any evidence that the patients do better because of it — is that doctors have too many incentives to give patients more and more […]

Wasteful spending NEHI, a Cambridge-based  independent national non-profit  working on health care innovation, published a three-part plan for cutting wasteful medical spending by $84 billion a year nationwide, attacking emergency department overuse, unnecessary hospital readmissions and  medication errors. Doctors and patients talking cost Dr. Leslie Ramirez of leslieslist.org writes on Kevinmd.com: “Why don’t patients and […]

Updates for certain quality metrics in New York State hospitals, from NY.gov. New York State Hospital Profile.

The Mayo Clinic is often praised in the world of health care for doing a great job at low cost. So why is the Mayo Clinic being excluded from health-insurance plans? According to this article from The Pioneer Press, at least two health-insurance carriers have chosen to sell plans with lower premiums that put Mayo […]

Why one doctor left the profession: a cautionary tale, by Maggie Kozel, a former pediatrician, from kevinmd.com. Viewed from several perspectives, this is part of the ongoing series “Why Does It Cost So Much?” Health care economics and the relationship between doctor and patient.

You don’t need to look far to find the causes of secrecy in the health-care marketplace. It’s much harder to find people and institutions doing good solid work to pull back the curtains. So here’s a round of applause for The Wall Street  Journal and its series on the system, brought in an analysis of […]

So why do health costs keep rising? Advertising is one reason.  And sponsorships. For example, Antonio Banderas is the voice of the Nasonex bee.  Jim Edwards (BNet) on  10 Celebrities on Big Pharma’s Payroll.

Atul Gawande wrote in The New Yorker about “hot spots” in health spending–a very few people who are using a great deal of reseources in the health-care industry. The piece is now available online, and so is his response to the criticisms thereof. Read it. It’s fabulous. One of my favorite health economists is Austin […]

Lab tests are a growing cost for most of us. My lab tests, increasingly, seem to involve a separate co-pay or co-insurance payment, though the policy I hold  says that tests from participating labs are covered. Another take on lab tests comes from Anna Wilde Mathews in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 11: “Cheryl […]

Hey, this is really interesting. You know those free drug samples people get from their doctors? There is a hidden cost: often those prescriptions are for high-priced brand-name drugs when less expensive generics are available, resulting in higher overall prescription prices, this doctor says, citing a University of Chicago Medical Center study. By Dr. Joel […]