Beyond Costs and Benefits
“Beyond Costs and Benefits” – The Oncologist
“Beyond Costs and Benefits” – The Oncologist
Here is a news article from Canada, experiencing the kind of healthcare inflation that causes them to call experts in the U.S. for advice—people like me, but also some actual credible authorities! Some see it as an eternal struggle: the goodhearted doctor championing the best treatments, no matter the cost, while doing battle against the…
Shutterstock If you get health insurance through your job, beware: you might be picking up more of the cost of your medical care than you realize. With increasing frequency, employers are directing their workers to the kind of high deductible, high out-of-pocket insurance plans that leave workers financially responsible for a surprising portion of their…
My colleagues and I have been doing lots of research lately on how physicians and patients discuss out-of-pocket expenses during clinic encounters. One of our recent publications has been getting lots of attention, with this being the latest example. I thought I would share it with you: Recent qualitative findings published in Health Affairs showed that physicians…
It is not a mirror you can easily use when trimming your beard or flossing your teeth. Because if you face it and aren’t smiling, this is what you see: Nothing but an opaque, glass surface. That’s because the mirror, designed by Berk Ilhan, only becomes reflective when the person facing it smiles: Ilhan designed…
A friend of mine recently had a very sore throat. She knew how to manage her symptoms–lozenges, warm tea and the like. But she was worried she might have strep and would therefore need antibiotics. That should be a simple question to answer with a quick trip to the primary care clinic. Except that her…
The free market is supposed to be efficient. Yet employers are throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars, by not giving their employees intelligently designed healthcare benefits that encourage them to shop for affordable lab tests. Right now, when your doctor orders a CBC (complete blood count) and a basic chemistry panel (checking your sodium,…