Arguments for and against transparency in health-care pricing are featured in a New England Journal of Medicine piece published March 10, 2011. An excerpt: “It is difficult to defend the obscuring of health care prices. The challenges associated with leveraging price transparency to moderate overall health care spending, however, may explain the limited role that […]

Health information on the Web: Human Resource Executive Online, on what people look for online and who’s doing the looking. More.

Groupons for Health Care Services: “We’ve all bought Groupons for a wide variety of goods and services — dinner at a new restaurant, a periodical subscription, clothing, a hot air balloon ride — but most of us have not bought a Groupon for health care services. Thus far, the health care offerings via Groupon seem to […]

“Everyone involved [in health care in the U.S.] is preparing for an uncertain future by attempting to maximize their advantage at the start, a strategy that pushes everything up.  All seem to have absorbed the unspoken central message that the reformed system aims to reduce consumption.” –Jim Jaffe from centeredpolitics.com on one unintended effect of […]

Prepared Patient Forum: Reform Is Not To Blame For Rising Health Care Costs

Hair-raising news from Robert Pear of The New York Times about health-insurance premium increases: “MANCHESTER, N.H. — Workers at a circuit-board factory here just saw their health insurance premiums rise 20 percent. At Buddy Zaremba’s print shop nearby, the increase was 37 percent. And for engineers at the Woodland Design Group, they rose 43 percent.” […]

My friend S. has been involved in the business side of health care for many years. I asked her why it costs so much. “Part of it is that it does cost that much,” she said. “It’s really expensive to provide health care. There’s the doctor, the office, the people, the equipment, the facility. Health […]