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By MICHAEL L. MILLENSON “We are now contemplating, Heaven save the mark, a bill that would tax the well for the benefit of the ill.” Although the quote reads like it could be part of the Republican repeal-and-replace assault against the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it’s actually from a 1949 editorial in The New York
By MICHAEL MILLENSON Your employer sends out an email saying they want to make sure you’re getting enough sleep and physical activity, are eating well and feeling creative and, finally, have a sense of “mindfulness.” So they’re providing a free app designed to facilitate finding your “anchoring purpose in life.” Sound like a nice perk?
BY MICHAEL MILLENSON Obamacare, at least in its original incarnation, is on its way out. The pressing question now is whether “art of the deal” health care will remain. “The Art of the Deal” is the title of the 1987 best-seller that catapulted real estate developer Donald Trump to national prominence. Although Trump has denounced
By MICHAEL MILLENSON Q: Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency included a promise to repeal “Obamacare” in its entirety. If he succeeds in fulfilling that promise, what impact can we expect on American cancer prevention and cancer treatment? A: Donald Trump, emboldened by eliminating ISIS, ending illegal immigration and energizing the economy, will eradicate cancer. Or
By MICHAEL MILLENSON Sure, I’ve always wanted to write a clickbait headline that sounds like a promo for the bastard child of Buzzfeed and the Federal Register. But, seriously: you will not believe what Medicare just did about patient engagement in a draft new rule dramatically changing how doctors are paid. And, depending upon the reaction of the patient
By MICHAEL MILLENSON The annual Lown Institute Conference advocates for the “right” kind of patient care, as in “the correct course of action.” But the political meanings of “right” and “left” also echo, sounding like a healthcare version of the recover-lost-glory demands of Donald Trump and the moral crusade of Bernie Sanders. The program for this year’s
By KIP SULLIVAN In my three-part series on why we know so little about ACOs, I presented three arguments: We have no useful information on what ACOs do for patients; that’s because the definition of “ACO” is not a definition but an expression of hope; and the ACO’s useless definition is due to dysfunctional habits
By MICHAEL L. MILLENSON The eminent physicians Martin Samuels and Nortin Hadler have piled onto the patient safety movement, wielding a deft verbal knife alongwith a questionable command of the facts. They are the defenders of the “nobility”off medicine against the algorithm-driven “fellow travelers” of the safety movement. On the one side, apparatchiks; on the
By MICHAEL MILLENSON Among the 200 demos, 60 exhibitors and more than 100 speakers at the annual Health 2.0 conference on digital health, a critical insight for succeeding in this burgeoning market might have gotten lost in the noise. The crucial advice came on separate days from two of the savviest digerati doctors in Silicon Valley. Not coincidentally, both Dr.
By MICHAEL MILLENSON Twenty years ago this month, the Boston Globe disclosed that health columnist Betsy Lehman, a 39-year-old mother of two, had been killed by a drug overdose during treatment for breast cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Center. In laying out a grim trail of preventable mistakes at a renowned institution, the Globe prompted local […]