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About Brian Klepper

Brian Klepper is a health care analyst and the Chief Development Officer of WeCare TLC onsite clinics.

Care & Cost Going Forward

Brian Klepper On May 13th, I announced that I would merge C&C into The Doctor Weighs In, a process that I have already begun in earnest. I meant that I would not longer actively aggregate and re-post great health care … Continue reading

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Medicare Physician Payment: The RUC’s Hollow Victory

Brian Klepper Posted 5/18/12 on The Health Affairs Blog On May 9th, William Nickerson, Senior Judge in the Southern Maryland Federal District Court, issued a 15 page ruling against the six Augusta, GA primary care physician plaintiffs who challenged HHS’ and CMS’ … Continue reading

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Care & Cost Merges Into The Doctor Weighs In

Brian Klepper When I began Care & Cost in December of 2010, the idea was to aggregate consistently good health care writing, and to moderate the comments to ensure a courteously professional exchange on the site. It has been a … Continue reading

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The RUC’s Empty Gesture

Brian Klepper and Paul Fischer Posted 05/11/2012 on Medscape Business of Medicine Recently, the leaders of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) lavished praise on the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) for announcing the … Continue reading

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Second Opinions: How Should You Choose?

Dov Michaeli Posted 5/9/12 on The Doctor Weighs In I have frequently been asked to render judgment on another doctor’s diagnosis, or treatment plan. Other times I am asked anxiously: “should I get a second opinion”? The implicit assumption in … Continue reading

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DeathWise.org – DIY End of Life Planning

Pat Salber Posted 5/10/12 on The Doctor Weighs In For most of us, talking about death doesn’t come easily. Yet, it’s something we all experience — the loss of those we know and love, and ultimately, our own death - quote from DeathWise.org In … Continue reading

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Implementing Health Reform: Increasing Medicaid Payments for Primary Care Physicians

Timothy Jost Posted 5/10/12 on the Health Affairs Blog On May 9, 2012, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services released proposed regulations to implement section 1202 of the Health Care and Education Reform Act of 2010. Section 1202 increases Medicaid payments … Continue reading

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The Maryland Federal District Court Rules Against The Georgia Physicians’ RUC Challenge

The ruling was issued yesterday, and is a disappointing resolution to a very large national problem. I’ll write more about this in the next few days. Here is Judge Nickerson’s decision, for those interested in reading it.

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Patent Pools Pushed To Make Drugs Affordable in Developing World

Merrill Goozner Published 5/9/12 in The Fiscal Times Amid a growing crisis in financing treatments for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the developing world, an arm of the World Health Organization will meet in Geneva later this month to consider … Continue reading

Posted in Health Care Cost, Innovation, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Tools | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Looking Beyond the Money: Crucial Steps to Getting Vaccines to Children

Lois Privor-Dumm Posted 5/8/12 on Disruptive Women in Health Care Without money, many nations can’t afford to tackle health care issues and introduce the life-saving vaccines that are critical to child survival in the developing world.  But even after a … Continue reading

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Whatever It Is, It’s Not Insurance

Tom Emerick Posted 5/9/12 on Cracking Health Costs Discussions about covering “pre-existing” health conditions occur frequently among health policy people. One frequent thread is that health insurers should not be allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing health condition. … Continue reading

Posted in Benefits, Analytics, Policy/Law/Regulation, Innovation, Market Dynamics, Health Care Cost | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Sue the Patient

Dan Munro Posted 4/27/12 on Forbes States often confer the tax-exempt status on hospitals with the expectation that certainly some services will be extended to the less fortunate with limited capacity to pay. Two of the more litigious hospitals in … Continue reading

Posted in Analytics, Consumerism, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Policy/Law/Regulation, Quality | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Affordability, Not Cost Growth, Is The Real Policy Challenge

Jeff Goldsmith Posted 5/7/12 on The Health Affairs Blog A recent spate of commentaries on the continuing health spending moderation raise an important policy question:  If the cost curve is well and truly bent, why are we investing so much … Continue reading

Posted in Analytics, Benefits, Consumerism, Health Care Cost, Imaging, Innovation, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Supply Chain | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why US Health Costs are Higher Than Anywhere Else in the World

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn Health Populi The price of physician services, proliferation of clinical technology and the cost of obesity are the key drivers of higher health spending in the U.S., according to The Commonwealth Fund‘s latest analysis in their Issues of International Health … Continue reading

Posted in Analytics, Health Care Cost, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Quality | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

You Can Unleash This Horsepower!

Paul Levy Posted 5/6/12 on Not Running a Hospital Among the great hospital leaders in America, Jeffrey Thompson, CEO of the Gundersen Lutheran Health System in Wisconsin, stands out for going beyond achieving marvelous results in patient quality and safety.  Jeff’s commitment … Continue reading

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