Delivering Better Primary Care

Here’s a great article by Pauline W. Chen, MD, published recently in the New York Times. She begins: “Transforming primary care — from easily measured, time-limited activities that closely track the existing reimbursement system to more valuable but also more...

Access, Access, Access

In his New York Times column yesterday, Nicholas Kristof wrote about the low-tech factor that has a huge impact on health outcomes: access to medical care. He writes: In short, great health care is often less about breakthrough technologies than it is about access....

Newer and Fancier Doesn’t Mean Better

Writing in the Oregonian, Joe Rojas-Burke reports on, “Safe, simple health tests you can do at home.” His story gets at one of the many drivers of our excalating health care cost. He begins: The blood pressure cuff isn’t exactly cutting-edge...

Did Americans Get Healthier in the Past Decade?

Reporting for the Associated Press, Mike Stobbe reports on 2010 health goals. Here’s how he begins: About 10 years ago the government set some lofty health goals for the nation to reach by 2010. So how did we do? By many measures, not so hot. There are more...

US Health Spending Grows to $2.3 Trillion in 2008

Erica Werner, writing for the Associated Press, reports on the growing costs of our health care system: The recession dramatically slowed U.S. health care spending to $2.3 trillion in 2008, but it still grew much faster than the economy as a whole, accounting for more...