A Round-up of Some of the Best of the Healthcare Blogosphere

For a compendium of some of the most provocative healthcare posts of the past two weeks, see Health Wonk Review, hosted this time by Health Care Economist Jason Shafrin.  For instance:

• The Incidental Economist wonders whether the Affordable Care Act is just an excuse for income redistribution.
• Georgians for a Healthy Future analyzes the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to strip not-for-profit Provena Covenant Medical Center of its exemption from property tax, stating that the hospital did not provide enough charity care to justify that exemption. [Note under health reform legislation non-profit hospitals will have to justify their tax-exempt status every three years--mm ]
• The Health Affairs Blog has a way to add some teeth to the health reform mandate: tying your credit score to whether or not you have health insurance [They are going to have to do something to stiffen the penalty or young, healthy people won’t join the pool and insurance will be extremely expensive.—mm]—
• HealthCare Renewal says that fining large health care companies for criminal activities will not change the firms’ behavior. An idea to convince health care executives to follow the rules is to allow for the prosecution of these corporate leaders. –
• Will the FDA begin regulating medical software? The Health Blawg says the answer may be yes as the FDA has asserted the right to “regulate software as a device, not only in the context of radiology, but also in the context of electronic health records.

These are just highlights. Click here for the full review.

Comments

[Maggie Mahar]

Ed--

I, too, greatly admire the work Roy Poses has done.

And, yes I think that fines alone are not a sufficient deterrent. Jail time should be required Corruption in medicine is just totally unacceptable.

[Ed]

Dr. Poses on HCRenewal is one of my heros. He speaks the truth. Unless there is personal consequences, there will be no change in medicine. Paying someone else's money will never work to stop unethical behavior.