The mission of Prognosis is to explore the nexus at which healthcare policy meets healthcare practice and how one affects the other. This blog makes readers more aware of the innovations taking place in healthcare delivery, financing and technology and the types of public policies that will encourage further progress.
Healthcare In Focus is a public education initiative of the HLC, created to promote a constructive dialogue about the state and future of American healthcare.
The last several days have brought good news on multiple fronts in the war against cancer. News stories have spotlighted major strides, including:
· Dr. Vincent Tuohy, an immunologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said he believes he has discovered a vaccine that can prevent breast cancer. If tests go well, Dr. Tuohy noted in the accompanying video, he hopes that a vaccine for women over 40 can be available a decade from now.
· The drugmaker AstraZeneca has experienced good results with a medicine that can attack thyroid cancer. Patients with advanced medullary thyroid cancer who took the drug experienced a 54 percent reduction in the rate at which their disease progressed, compared to those who took a placebo. AstraZeneca said it will file for regulatory approval of the drug later this year.
· A new study from Canada shows that men with prostate cancer have a better chance of stopping the cancer from spreading, and thus increasing their odds of survival, is radiation treatments are used in conjunction with conventional hormone therapies.
Dr. Robert Waller, the former CEO of the Mayo Clinic, used to tell me that medical advances happen so rapidly, attempting to get a handle on all of the new emerging innovations is like trying to drink water from a fire hose. Good weeks like this one, with real progress in the fight against cancer, remind me exactly what Dr. Waller was talking about.
There are a couple of important facts often overlooked in the wake of congressional passage of health reform legislation. One is that, over the next few years, approximately 30 million Americans will be gaining some form of health coverage. There is a great deal of work to do in preparing our healthcare system for that change, in areas like strengthening the healthcare workforce and improving cost efficiency so that higher utilization doesn’t rapidly accelerate costs. Also, we need to keep in mind that the new health reform law is, in many respects, a blueprint on how the healthcare system should be improved. It will take a great deal of private sector innovation and ingenuity to make those improvements happen.
In this video provided by the McKinsey consulting firm, McKesson CEO John Hammergren, who chairs the Healthcare Leadership Council, addresses these issues and explains the role business needs to play in the future of American healthcare.
This morning I had the pleasure of speaking to C.E. Huffman at KTVO TV in Ottumwa, Iowa about the Medicare Part D open enrollment period. It was a good opportunity to inform seniors about Medicare’s prescription drug benefit and to let them know how to find additional information. You can access our full conversation here.
Almost four years after the Medicare Part D prescription drug program went into effect, an overwhelming majority (88 percent) of America’s seniors approve of their individual plan and coverage. In a national survey released this morning by HLC’s nonpartisan Medicare Today coalition, 95 percent of seniors who used their plan and received prescriptions over the past year also reported that their plan has worked well, while 85 percent continue to find their monthly premium to be affordable.
The survey, conducted from October 16-25 by market research firm KRC Research, offers the latest evidence that seniors continue to see the prescription drug program as a success. The annual open enrollment period, in which Americans eligible for Medicare can add, drop or change their prescription drug coverage for 2010, begins on Sunday, November 15th, 2009. Read more
There is a great deal to analyze in the more than 1,900 pages that make up the proposed health reform legislation unveiled by House leaders this week, and we’ll be discussing different components of the bill in this space in the days ahead. There’s at least one provision in the bill, though, that has already been discussed at great length and doesn’t warrant revisiting.
The House legislation would change the Medicare Part D prescription drug program to have the Department of Health and Human Services, rather than private companies, negotiate prices for pharmaceuticals used in the program. This is an issue that was furiously debated during and in the immediate aftermath of congressional passage of the Medicare Modernization Act, which created the Part D program. Let’s review why government “negotiation” of drug prices is a bad idea. Read more
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Almost four years after the Medicare Part D prescription drug program went into effect, an overwhelming majority (88 percent) of America’s seniors approve of their individual plan and coverage. In a national 