Phil Longman is a healthcare thinker and speaker and has recently penned his thoughts in a WaPo book review concerning the overutilization of testing and the moral/ethical problems it creates in healthcare delivery. Longman seizes the current political fervor surrounding both sides of the reform debate to consider this issue as a major force behind the need for healthcare reform.
In the second edition of his Best Care Anywhere, Longman posits that an answer to the questions surrounding the reform of care delivery in this country comes from a rather unexpected source — one which many associate with stories of rather problematic healthcare delivery — the nation’s VA healthcare system.
Snip:
In study after study published in peer‐reviewed journals, the VA beats other health care providers on virtually every measure of quality. These include patient safety, adherence to the protocols of evidence medicine, integration of care, cost‐effectiveness, and patient satisfaction. The VA is also on the leading edge of medical research, due to its close affiliation with the nation’s leading medical schools, where many VA doctors have faculty positions. TheVA has its problems, but compared to those found elsewhere in the U.S. health care system, it offers “Best Care Anywhere.”
Longman posits that a public option (which essentially failed at inclusion in the reform bill) in the mold of the federal healthcare system is a model that goes a long way to approximating the centerpiece of President Obama’s historic 2009 push for reform.
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Originating from Saint Paul, Minnesota, [doctorpundit.com] is a weblog about the policy of healthcare and where it intersects with politics and public opinion; it is edited by Michael Douglas, MD, MBA. Welcome, and please consider my take on what is Healthcare 2.0, complemented by a few of my thoughts on my personal avocations and guilty pleasures: music, prose, and writing. Follow Doctor Pundit via RSS above.
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DOCTOR PUNDIT @ ONE YEAR | An occasional DP series from 2010 highlighting healthcare policy trends over the period from 2009-2010 in a compare/contrast format.
Look health care will never change until fee-for-service is done away with. If DOCTORS and hospitals can continue to charge for every little test, procedure, etc. they will and the cost benefit curve will never change…I have spoken…