wall street journal

Why don’t health plans don’t provide their members with useful tools for their members to look-up and compare true out-of-pocket prices for health care services, based on their policy, coverage and deductible?  If the plans did provide these types of tools, this would enable members to compare prices, evaluate costs before visiting the doctor’s office and save money for both the member and the health plan by finding the best value!  Sounds too good to be true.  Some employers are pushing for transparency and hiring outside vendors to provide their e

Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama met "with eight business leaders to hunt for ideas to revive the economy," according to the Wall Street Journal.  At the session, the President asked "what he and his administration could do to improve their confidence...."  The reporters' White House informants emphasized that the point was "listening to the CEOs and not telling them what to do."

Health Care Renewal presents another guest blog by Steve Lucas, a retired businessman who formerly worked in real estate and construction who has a long standing interest in business ethics, and has long observed the health care scene.

There is now quite a kerfuffle over the US Department of Health and Human Service's threat to to stop doing business with the CEO of Forest Laboratories.  As we noted here, his company pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and misbranding, and agreed to pay a $313 million fine.  The major allegations by the government were that the company marketed antidepressants to children when they had only previously been approved for adults.

I have considered Dr. Roy Poses' Dec. 14, 2010 post "The Lancet Emphasizes the Threats to the Academic Medical Mission" (with its hyperlinks to source posts and articles) an excellent summary of many of the pathologies we address at Healthcare Renewal, especially with regard to the academic mission and the disruption of the integrity of the medical literature by commercial interests.

His post is consistent with what might be considered our mission statement:

The Wall Street Journal published a story this week on websites to help patients shop for medical services.  The article mentions Outofpocket.com and lists 17 other tools/websites consumers can use to research prices.

Read the complete story, “Lifting the Veil on Pricing for Health Care” by Anna Wilde Mathews.

Outofpocket.com is not a political blog, but it’s practically impossible these days to read any newspaper, listen to the news or turn on the radio without hearing about health care reform.  As informed consumers, it’s important to understand the complicated issues surrounding health care reform since it will affect everyone.

Most consumers’ sign up for health insurance plans without fully understanding the 100+ pages of detail that go over the plan specifics.  In fact, most of us select our health plans based a high-level  outline and never bother to read the fine print details that describe coverage limitations that spells out what’s covered and what’s excluded, identifies lifetime limits/coverage caps , deductible terms--

In my Feb. 18, 2009 Wall Street Journal letter to the editor I wrote:

You observe that the true political goal is socialized medicine facilitated by health care information technology.

You note that the public is being deceived, as the rules behind this takeover were stealthily inserted in the stimulus bill.

I believe yesterday's Washington Post article The Machinery Behind Health-Care Reform confirms that my Feb. 18, 2009 letter to the editor published in the Wall Street Journal was on the money (yes, that is a pun):

I wrote:

Dear Wall Street Journal: