Policy wonk John Goodman raised an interesting question in his health policy blog: who’s at fault for the problems in our health care system? Is it doctors or the payment structure under which they operate?
Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a nonprofit group that bills itself as a nonpartisan public policy research organization, says he believes the payment system needs to be revamped in order to affect better, more efficient care.
He writes:
Our view is that doctors are just like other professionals. They respond to economic incentives. The policy problem: how to change the incentives in the perverse way doctors are paid.
Those who believe doctors are at fault, Goodman says, think doctors are just too stuck in their “imperfect” habits and are unwilling to go the extra mile to achieve better results and lower costs. If you believe that, Goodman says, you believe the public policy problem boils down to “how to get doctors to adopt the best practices, learn to use computers, work in teams, adopt safety protocols, etc. in the face of psychological resistance.”
Food for thought. What do you think? Are insurance providers — from private companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield to government payers such as Medicare — to blame for our cost and quality issues, not to mention our rampant uninsured?
I was chatting with a friend in retail over the Labor Day weekend, and he said it’s a tough time right now despite all the talk about the economy being good here. I mentioned that it’s probably a good time to check in with small local shops for a story on how they’re doing, but he said no one would want to talk. He said it’s hard to be known as a popular store or the “it’ store of the moment if you admit to problems.
Of course, it’s probably also hard to attract shoppers if you don’t let them know you need them.
As difficult a time it is for so many businesses — including newspapers — I have to admit I’m thankful not to be in retail.
It’s been 40 years since Cessna Aircraft began producing the Cessna 177 Cardinal. Cardinal owners and operators from around the country will be in Wichita later this month to tour Cessna’s plants in Wichita and Independence and take part in a 40th birthday party.
Cessna built nearly 4,300 of the light, high-wing aircraft before stopping production in 1978.
The event, sponsored by the Cardinal Flyers organization, will be held at the Wichita Hilton at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport Sept. 24 to Sept. 28
It really ought to be a new feature.
For the past several weeks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. posts information about yet another bank in the nation that has failed.
This time it was in Alpharetta, Ga.
According to the FDIC, the number of bank failures in 2008 is up to 10. That’s the most since 2002, when there were 12.
In 10 years of covering the banking industry, I’ve never seen anything like this.
And with four months left in the year, I think we’ve got a few more to go and will likely surpass 2002’s total.
Let’s just hope that no more Kansas banks (remember Columbian Bank and Trust in Topeka?) contribute to this growing list.
Oil prices took a beating this morning on the commodities markets, falling to levels unseen since April. The price drops are so severe that OPEC officials are threatening an emergency meeting to “defend the $100 a barrel” price point.
With these developments – and others over the last five months – in mind, can we all agree that the run-up to $147 a barrel was artificial? Can we all agree that the supply-and-demand arguments offered up by industry officials – including the Bush administration – and commodities traders were a canard?