When the government began the push for electronic health records (EHR) as part of the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, public and private health care providers were required to demonstrate ‘meaningful use’ by 2014. Perhaps you remember visiting your doctor about this time only to discover he or she was frustrated, face buried in a computer screen desperately trying to find all the pulldown menus necessary to advance to the next page. Your doctor had to type physician notes while listening to you and examining you. Of course, that does not work well and is detrimental to the quality of your physician visit.
Category: Health Reform
4 Ways Republicans Can Make Healthcare Affordable
They will give people more control over their medical dollars and increase access to affordable policies.
Tuesday Links – 27 January 2026
- California is the first state to join the WHO, after US exit.
- Why the US left the WHO.
- Study: people who eat five or more daily servings of ultra processed foods have an 82% higher risk of developing Crohn’s disease.
- Study: electronic health record issues were a potential contributor to diagnostic errors in about 61 percent of malpractice cases.
- Study: Places that produce more health care spending per capita among the elderly do not produce higher life expectancy. On the margin, there is little or no “health return” to higher medical spending.
- Fraud against government health-care programs is both common and costly.
- Congressional Democrats defend health insurance companies.
- Popcorn is actually a healthy diet choice; so is coffee and a moderate amount of salt.
- Avalere: MFN drug pricing will have no effect on 99% of Medicare beneficiaries.
- Value-based care has increased (rather than decreased) spending for the 11 million enrollees in Medicare ACO programs
More Hospital Systems Establish Medicare Advantage Plans
Large hospital systems often complain about Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Just last year some large hospital systems reported dropping or threatened to drop major MA plans run by health insurers. One complaint is low reimbursement, but arguably a more irritating business practices by MA plans is excessive prior authorization and slow payments. Breaking up with an MA plan runs the risk of shutting out thousands of potential patients. A strategy more large hospital systems are exploring is establishing their own MA plans.