Category Archives: Health Policy

From Ninth Graders to Health Care Elites: A Communications Lesson on the Power of Engagement

Clair BriggsA few weeks ago, I attended TEDMED. I was impressed with the speakers and the whole TEDMED experience, but what really struck me was just how interested I was in what was being said. And not just as someone who works in health care communications, but as a regular, curious individual. Many of the talks, topics of which ranged from supercomputers to nematodes to heart disease, not only left me with a solid understanding of their content, but also inspired me to want to go off and learn more about subjects I wouldn’t have necessarily been motivated to learn about on my own beforehand.
Posted on Monday, May 20th, 2013 By HealthScope
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What’s Next in Health Care Part II: Price Transparency – is it the Holy Grail?

Bill PierceHealth care is the only product or service we purchase without any idea of the price. Often, you don’t even know your portion of the price. This raises the question, “Why?” Can anyone imagine going into a restaurant and ordering a meal that had no price listed, or signing a contract to buy a car and then being told the price? It would never happen. But in health care, we not only tolerate such behavior, we are often reticent to even ask about prices.
Posted on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 By Bill Pierce
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Accountable Health Care: The Silent Health Care Reform

Most of the discussion about health care reform has centered on the expansion of access to care for people not covered by health insurance. Surprisingly, there has been very little discussion about the delivery of care, which in fact is the root cause of a "sick" health care system that results in uncontrollable spending with limited transparency whether or not money is spent in the best possible way to improve the quality of care. However, outside of the media limelight a massive restructuring of health care delivery is taking place under the banner of what increasingly is being called accountable health care.
Posted on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013 By Stig Albinus
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The FDA Likes Facebook? The AMARC Hysteria

David OarrA few months ago the FDA contacted AMARC Enterprises to let them know they were in violation of well, just about everything. (See Letters) Among the many things the FDA mentioned is that the company’s Poly-MVA Facebook page had “liked” a testimonial on someone else’s Facebook page. Being the internet, there was an immediate outcry, followed by an immediate sarcastic rebuttal. Roughly summed up, the conversation was something like:
Posted on Friday, March 22nd, 2013 By David Oarr
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The Need for a Medical Surge

Saralyn MarkEveryone has had to wait to see a physician--either for an appointment or in a waiting room where minutes seems like hours and months can feel like years. Imagine the havoc when an additional 30 to 46 million patients who may now have health coverage are in need of doctors. Add in an aging population and public health emergencies such as pandemics, natural disasters and bioterrorism, and the scenario becomes more catastrophic.
Posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2013 By HealthScope
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Health Care: Now What

Bill PierceAlthough the State of the Union Address (SOTU) often marks the beginning of the legislative season in Congress, it seems health care is not following the usual pattern. Due to the vast nature of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the strong and continuing political feelings it created, the debate has never subsided. It has just gone on, but the SOTU does provide an appropriate moment to assess where the country is on the issue of health care. First, regardless of where you come down on the ACA, it is important to understand that there are trends in the health care marketplace that are underway that were not created by the ACA.  If anything, the ACA capitalized on these trends, trying to encourage and/or accelerate them, and most importantly, they will continue regardless of any modification to the law.
Posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 By Bill Pierce
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The Real Hospital Quality Measures

Richard JamesThese are extraordinarily stressful times for America’s hospitals. Many are treating fewer patients now than they did two years ago and operating at a financial loss; they complain publicly about the financial squeeze they are in between demands for higher pay from doctors and nurses and inadequate reimbursement rates from public and private sector payers. On top of this, hospitals are expected to keep up with a rapidly changing health care system, one which is now beginning to pay hospitals based on quality measures, such as patient satisfaction scores, infection rates and patient outcomes. In short, the reimbursement model is transitioning from one based on the number of procedures performed to one based on outcomes.
Posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2013 By Richard James
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Happy Healthy Weight Week?

Melissa MusikerJanuary 20 – 26 was National Healthy Weight week. Strategically positioned to be right in the middle of the post holidays and  New Year’s resolution use-your-gym-membership season, the premise behind Healthy Weight Week is to remind people concerned about their weight to stop fixating on numbers and focus on building healthy habits and a more positive self-image. Recognizing the economic difficulties facing society as a result of rising healthcare costs associated with obesity, and the fact that a winning and innovative strategy to address this crisis is needed, Hastings Center bioethicist emeritus Dr. Daniel Callahan, in a recently released controversial paper,  posits three potential solutions to addressing the obesity epidemic: strong and somewhat coercive public health measures childhood prevention programs and extreme social pressure on the overweight.
Posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 By Melissa Musiker
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Personalized Medicine – from Complexity to Clarity

Personalized medicine – the application of genetic information to tailor therapy to individual patients – is frequently touted as one of the biggest current advances in modern medicine. A majority of European stakeholders hope that personalized medicine will reduce medical errors, improve patient outcomes and reduce total health care spending over 15 years. Most physicians in the United States and Europe expect personalized medicine to become routine in their own clinical practice within a few years.
Posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 By Stig Albinus
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APCO Forum: What’s Next in Food

Last week, APCO's New York office hosted an APCO Forum salon event to discuss key marketing, regulatory and financial issues impacting the food industry. Panelists included Nancy Schnell, former deputy general counsel, Unilever; Dr. Karen Hulebak, former chair and vice-chair, Codex Alimentarius Commission; and Kaumil Gajrawala, consumer analyst, UBS Investment Bank, who provided insightful and [...]
Posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 By HealthScope
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