NPR Reaches out to Facebook Users for Stories

Working with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, NPR asked people on Facebook to share their experiences within the US health care system. Within 24 hours they had close to 1,000 stories. Anyone who wonders why we do the work we...

Why Not the Best?

The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System just published a report entitled: Why Not the Best? Results from the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance. The graphic below shows some of their conclusions, but you can read the...

Uninsured More at Risk, Even in Hospitals

In The New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin reports: Uninsured Americans often have difficulty getting care and paying for medications. But what happens once they are admitted to a hospital with a life-threatening illness? A new study finds that even after they have heart...

Newer and Fancier Doesn’t Mean Better

Writing in the Oregonian, Joe Rojas-Burke reports on, “Safe, simple health tests you can do at home.” His story gets at one of the many drivers of our excalating health care cost. He begins: The blood pressure cuff isn’t exactly cutting-edge...

Health Cuts with Little Effect on Care

In his “Economic Scene” column in the New York Times, Leonard writes about the challenge of cutting health care costs while maintaining or improving quality: At the heart of the health care debate is the question of whether it’s possible to cut medical...