David Burda
Check out 4sight Friday email and podcast.
Dave Burda curates a weekly email and hosts a weekly podcast discussing news that impacts market-based change.
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Featured Articles
The Proof Case for Addressing the Negative Social Determinants of Health
4sight Friday
SPACs and Digital Health Tech Funding
SPACs and Digital Health Tech Funding That’s what we talked about on today’s episode of the 4sight Friday Roundup podcast. What they are, where they’re going and how they affect …
Outcomes
Looking for Unconscious Bias in Healthcare? Just Ask Your Customers
When a business is struggling, one of the first things a smart business will do is ask its customers what’s wrong. It will take the customers’ concerns to heart and …
Burda on Healthcare
How Sticky Is Telemedicine?
Until I got into content marketing at a previous job, the word “sticky” had a negative connotation. As a child, it meant I got grape jelly on the kitchen table …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | COVID’s Vaccine Hurdles | Sleeping on Patient Safety | The Cain Brothers’ Virtual Healthcare Conference
Read 1/8/2021 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, For Haven’s Sake, 1/8/21
For Haven’s Sake The week of 2021 saw the demise of Haven and the announcement of three multibillion dollar healthcare deals. What do they say about the rest of the …
Outcomes
Wake Up Patient Safety in 2021
I’m on a patient safety rant, and I see no reason to stop now as we dive into 2021. In a post last month, I argued that making care safer doesn’t …
Consumerism
The 10 Most-Read 4sight Health Articles for 2020
History forever will remember 2020 as the year that the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the U.S. healthcare system to the brink of collapse. Yet, throughout the daily turmoil, forward-looking healthcare disruptors, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Improving Vaccine Delivery | Faux Drug Price Reform | More COVID Consumerism
Read 12/18/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Overcoming COVID Vaccine Distribution and Acceptance Challenges, 12/18/20
Overcoming COVID Vaccine Distribution and Acceptance Challenges The COVID-19 vaccines are here. Getting it to people and getting them to take it are another story. We talked about it on …
COVID-19
More on COVID-19 and Healthcare Consumerism
Something is awakening in patients that access, cost and quality challenges couldn’t but the threat of a deadly virus with uncontrolled community spread could. That something is healthcare consumerism. We …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Biden, HHS And COVID | SDOH Proof Case | Doctors And Barbers
Read 12/11/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Biden Moves Forward with HHS, COVID Plans, 12/11/20
Biden Moves Forward with HHS, COVID Plans What should we expect from Biden’s nominee for HHS secretary and the President-Elect’s 100-day plan to get control of the coronavirus pandemic? We …
Consumerism
Why Losing Your Doctor is A lot Like Losing Your Barber
After I first moved to the town that I live in now from the town that I grew up in, I still went to my old barber. It was a …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | The Future of Clinical Trials | Mental Health Market Reforms
Read 12/4/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, A Little Less Stark, A Lot More Hospital-At-Home, 12/4/20
A Little Less Stark, A Lot More Hospital-At-Home How will the latest round of regulatory relief for hospital benefit patients? We talked about it on today’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast …
Burda on Healthcare
The Market Response to the Building COVID-19 Mental Health Crisis
So far, my immediate family and I have dodged the coronavirus. With a wife who is a nurse, a daughter who works in public health, a son with a bachelors …
Innovation
Patient Safety Made Simple
Some ideas are so simple yet so brilliant that your reaction is “why didn’t I think of that!” When my dad experienced such a moment, he would say, “That’s a …
Economics
Why We Still Need to Keep Drug Companies on a Short Leash
Drug companies may end up saving us from the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean we can take our eyes of them for a second. A new research letter in the …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Slow Transition, No Problem | Encouraging COVID Vaccine Use | | Corona Virus Consumerism
Read 11/20/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Pills and Nose Swabs Right to Your Door, 11/20/20
Pills and Nose Swabs Right to Your Door Amazon’s going big on retail pharmacy and the FDA approved a home COVID test. We talked about what they mean for healthcare …
Consumerism
Why We Need Patient Education to Unleash Healthcare Consumerism
One of my favorite expressions on social media is “today years old.” Posters use it to tell their followers in a self-effacing way they just learned something most everyone knows …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Interoperability and Transparency | 32 Ways to Fix Healthcare | Of Vaccines and Viruses
Read 11/13/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday |
COVID-19 |
Podcasts |
Policy |
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Vaccines, Task Forces and Surges, 11/13/20
Vaccines, Task Forces and Surges The U.S. is awash in COVID. Will vaccines and task forces turn the tide in time? We talked about it on today’s episode of the …
Burda on Healthcare
32 Ways to Fix Healthcare If You Stop and Take the Time
As our 24-hour news cycle has shrunk to 24 minutes and, in some cases, 24 seconds, over the past four years, we’re all missing, forgetting or glazing over important news …
Economics
Erasing the Hospital Community Benefit Fudge Factor
Years ago, when life was simpler, I did my own taxes. So did a good friend of mine. During tax season, we would compare notes on any changes in the …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Prospects for Post-Election Healthcare Reform, 11/06/20
Prospects for Post-Election Healthcare Reform We talked about all the possible combinations of election results and each scenario’s impact on healthcare reform in the year ahead. David Burda interviews David …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Post-Election Healthcare | Disrupting Healthcare | Crowdfunding Medical Care
Read 11/06/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Consumerism
Confirming Suspicions About Why Patients Are Crowdfunding Healthcare
In a recent commentary, David Johnson, founder and CEO of 4sight Health, pointed his finger at medical campaigns on the GoFundMe website as a sign of the growing unaffordability of medical …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | The ACA Will Be Fine | Payers and Profits | Medicaid’s Future
Read 10/30/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Checking Medicaid’s Pulse, 10/30/20
Checking Medicaid’s Pulse Where are Medicaid enrollment, expansion and innovation headed because of COVID and after the election? We talked about it on today’s episode of the 4sight Friday Roundup …
COVID-19
Why COVID’s a Win-Win-Win for Health Insurers
Every once in a while something comes along that reaffirms your belief that healthcare is an industry like any other industry and that healthcare reacts the same way to economic …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Ed Marx on Nixon | Mining Massive Healthcare Data Sets | Health Insurance Consolidation
Read 10/23/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, What’s Next for Health Systems?, 10/23/20
What’s Next for Health Systems? It’s been an interesting year for the executives who run the nation’s health systems. How do they see the rest of this year and 2021 …
Economics
It’s Your Move: Health Insurers Counter Provider Consolidation
Hospitals, health systems, medical practices and other providers catch a lot of grief—and rightly so—for merger after merger and acquisition after acquisition that have done virtually nothing for patients other …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Medicare Advantage Market Dynamics, 10/16/20
Medicare Advantage Market Dynamics Margins. Expansion. New market entrants. Enrollment. Benefits. Star ratings. The Medicare Advantage market is anything but static. We took a close look at what’s happening and …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Go Fund My Healthcare | Medicare Advantage Market Trends | Where to Get Healthy and Stay Healthy
Read 10/16/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Economics
What’s Your State of Health?
As I watch COVID-19 cases ebb and flow around the country over the past eight months, I wonder if any place consistently is safer than another. After repeatedly watching this …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Gun Violence and Public Health | Post-COVID Hospital CEO Turnover | Handicapping the Med Tech Race
Read 10/9/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, It’s Market Versus Medicine in Med Tech Race, 10/9/20
It’s Market Versus Medicine in Med Tech Race Venture capital funding of digital health technology is through the roof, but are the new tools what patients need and what doctors …
System Dynamics
What’s the Story on COVID and the Tenure of Hospital CEOs?
The only reason I’m writing this blog post is so I can refer to it and link to it a year from now. The lead of next year’s post will …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | The Future of Hospitals | Healthcare’s House Flippers | Odds on the ACA
Read 10/2/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, What’s the Line on the ACA?, 10/2/20
What’s the Line on the ACA? A new Supreme Court justice? The same president? A new president? All will have a hand in the fate of the Affordable Care Act. …
Economics
Healthcare’s House Flippers
If you come over, there’s a decent chance that HGTV will be on. The home-improvement channel is our default TV station. It runs in the background like a radio as …
COVID-19
COVID-19 Fans Flames of Consumerism in Patients
I watched an interview online yesterday with the director of emergency services at a health system in North Carolina. The interviewer asked her about how her health system coped with …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Home Is Where the Hospital Is, 09/25/20
Home Is Where the Hospital Is On today’s episode of the 4sight Friday Roundup Podcast, we talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic is expanding the definition of home care. Listen. …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Avoiding Health IT Extinction | Patient Volume by Design | Redefining Home Health Care
Read 09/25/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Economics
Looking for the Right Prescription to Regulate State Drug Markets
Of all the sectors of the healthcare industry, the one I know the least about is the pharmaceutical sector. Journalists have made careers out of covering drug companies or even …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, The Uninsured: Where We Go From Here, 09/18/20
The Uninsured: Where We Go From Here We talked about the new uninsured and unemployed numbers and what they mean for universal coverage on today’s episode of the 4sight Friday …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Health Is Where You Live | What Now My Uninsured | Taking Accountability for Patient Safety
Read 09/18/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Consumerism
Putting the Patient in Patient Safety
Outcomes still matter. They really do. Amidst all the talk about making care more accessible and convenient and making care more affordable and valuable, making care safer often gets lost …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Pondering the Prospects of a COVID Vaccine, 09/11/20
Pondering the Prospects of a COVID Vaccine Will it be before Nov. 3 or after Nov. 3? Will it be safe? Will people take it? We talked about it on …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Let’s End FFS Now | The COVID-19 Bump | Fixating on a Vaccine
Read 09/11/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Consumerism
COVID-19 Magnifies Consumers’ Love-Hate Relationship with Healthcare
We’re going to turn this week’s blog post over to consumers, who are going to tell you what they think about the healthcare system via two new opinion polls from …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Healthcare Data Aggregation at Scale | Telling For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Hospitals Apart | Paying for Clinical Decision Support
Read 09/04/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Economics
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, How You Can Tell For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Hospitals Apart, 09/04/20
How You Can Tell For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Hospitals Apart We talked about the differences and similarities between hospitals and systems with different ownership structures on today’s episode of our 4sight …
Innovation
If Outcomes Matter, Then Start Paying Doctors to Use Clinical Decision Support Tools
No one likes to be told what to do. If there was a club for people who don’t like to be told what to do, I would be a member. …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Is Healthcare Self-Aware? | An Easy Fix for Healthcare | Our Public Health Infrastructure
Read 08/28/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Reassessing Our Public Health Infrastructure, 08/28/2020
Reassessing Our Public Health Infrastructure How well do you think the public health system in the U.S. held up during the pandemic? We tell you what we think in today’s …
Economics
Fixing Healthcare Would Be Easy If It Wasn’t So Hard
Fixing healthcare is very easy and extremely difficult at the same time. That dichotomy is what gives the status quo staying power. A few things that came out over the …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Healthcare’s Gray Rhinos | Regulating Chatbots | PPE Shortages Redux?
Read 08/21/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Economics
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, PPE and the Healthcare Supply Chain, 08/21/2020
PPE and the Healthcare Supply Chain Did we learn our lesson or are we going to make the same mistakes again? Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast to …
Innovation
Should We Regulate Healthcare Chatbots?
Don’t bury the lede. That journalism rule of thumb also applies in healthcare when you see your doctor. If you tell your doctor your throat hurts, you have a headache …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | The Election and Healthcare | Physicians vs. Pharmacists | Failures of Integration
Read 08/14/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Policy
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Healthcare’s Future After the Election, 08/14/2020
Healthcare’s Future After the Election What does a Biden win mean for healthcare? What does a Trump win mean for healthcare? We talked about it on this week’s 4sight Friday …
Burda on Healthcare
Primary-Care Physicians versus The World (Mostly Pharmacists, Really)
Everyone loves primary care. Everyone hates primary-care physicians. Well, maybe not everyone, but certainly the healthcare market and healthcare consumerism. We’ll talk about the major takeaways from the big primary …
Economics
Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better for Patient Care When It Comes to Health Systems
I think we all can agree now that provider integration doesn’t lower healthcare prices. When hospitals buy or merge with other hospitals, when medical practices buy or merge with other …
COVID-19
4sight Friday | The Fate of Telemedicine | COVID-19 and Self Control | The Manager-Doctor
Read 08/07/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
COVID-19
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Is Telemedicine Headed Left or Right?, 08/07/2020
Is Telemedicine Headed Left or Right? Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for what we think this week’s big news means for the future of telemedicine. David Burda …
Economics
Let Doctors Be Doctors If You Want Them to Be Good Managers
I know lots of doctors having covered healthcare now for nearly 40 years. One thing’s always puzzled me. Why would a doctor not want to be a doctor anymore and …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Chatbot Lockjaw | Dems Healthcare | Bailing Out or Propping Up?
Read 07/31/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
COVID-19
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Is There a Better Way to Bailout Providers?, 07/31/2020
Is There a Better Way to Bailout Providers? Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our thoughts on continuing COVID-19 financial relief for hospitals and health systems. David …
Innovation
Does Your Chatbot Have Lockjaw?
A few Sundays ago, I needed a tetanus shot. I sliced my finger open with a single-edge razor blade that I was using to scrap old wood glue off a …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Reopening the Right Way | Beyond Pandemic Preparedness | Make Low-Value Care Hurt
Read 07/24/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Reopening and Recovering the Right Way, 07/24/2020
Reopening and Recovering the Right Way Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our take on how hospitals, health systems and medical practices should be reopening to recover …
Economics
Digging Deep (Into Your Own Pockets) to Root Out Low-Value Care
I’ve been to Oregon, and it’s beautiful. But I had no idea the state had a real problem with low-value care. I’m glad I didn’t get sick when I visited …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Follow the Digital Health Money, 07/17/2020
Follow the Digital Health Money Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our take on what venture capital funding of digital health technology companies says about what the …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Connected Business-Clinical Platforms | Social Injustice and Chronic Disease | Following the Digital Health Money
Read 07/17/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
COVID-19
Market Lays Odds on COVID-Inspired Digital Health Tech
This is why I don’t gamble. Well, more accurately, this is why I shouldn’t gamble. In the April 10 edition of our weekly newsletter 4sight Friday, which you could read …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Home Is Where the Care Is | Physician Supply and Demand | Vertical Integration and Your Future
Read 07/10/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Walgreens, Walmart and Vertical Integration, 07/10/2020
Walgreens, Walmart and Vertical Integration Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our take on who wins and who loses from the latest round of vertical integration in …
Economics
The Demand for Market-Driven Innovations in Medical Care Is All in the Numbers
One of the bellwethers I follow to see what direction healthcare is headed is the annual physician supply and demand reports from the Association of American Medical Colleges. If the …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | The Folly of Furloughs | COVID-19 and the Economy | Contact Trace or Die
Read 07/03/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, COVID-19 and the U.S. Economy, 07/03/2020
COVID-19 and the U.S. Economy Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our thoughts on why the future of the economy depends on our COVID-19 response moving forward. …
COVID-19
How to Reduce Your Operating Costs When There’s No One Left to Furlough
I’m not independently wealthy, and as a journalist for nearly 40 years now, there have been times in my adult life when our family has lived check to check. Yet, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Taking Revenue Management Up a Notch | Rooting Out Low-Value Care | No Care? No Problem
Read 06/26/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, The Patients Are Alright, 06/26/2020
The Patients Are Alright Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our thoughts on why many patients who are skipping care because of the COVID-19 outbreak are doing …
Economics
Now Is the Time to Nip Low-Value Care in the Bud
The coronavirus pandemic exposed flaws in the U.S. health system that we knew existed but weren’t in a rush to do anything about because everyone (other than patients) was profiting …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | COVID-Induced Consolidation Concerns | The Coronavirus and Healthcare Affordability | Fixing Healthcare’s Weak Links
Read 06/19/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, COVID-19 and Healthcare Affordability, 06/19/2020
COVID-19 and Healthcare Affordability Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our predictions on how the outbreak will affect the affordability of medical care now and in the …
COVID-19
Countering the Negative Consequences of COVID-Induced Healthcare Consolidation
The COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. is leaving a lot of financially struggling hospitals and medical practices in its wake. Experts predict that to recover—or perhaps as an opportunity to …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Social Determinants and COVID-19 | Market-Driven Coronavirus Innovations | The Pandemic and Your Revenue Cycle
Read 06/12/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Predicting COVID-19’s Toll on Your Revenue Cycle, 06/12/2020
Predicting COVID-19’s Toll on Your Revenue Cycle Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our thoughts on how the pandemic will affect your net revenue and revenue cycle …
COVID-19
Consumers Counting on Private Sector to Produce Post-COVID Healthcare Market Innovations
Consumers want the private sector, not the federal government, to lead them out of this mess we call the U.S. healthcare system, which got a lot messier because of the …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | COVID-19-Style Healthcare Consumerism | Coronavirus BFFs | Wealth Inequality and the Pandemic
Read 06/05/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday |
COVID-19 |
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 06/05/2020
How Will Providers Get Their Patients Back? Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our thoughts on how payers and providers will respond to the new healthcare consumerism. …
Policy
Patients Shouldn’t Expect Their Local Merging Not-For-Profit Hospitals to be More Charitable
For an old healthcare legal reporter, writing about antitrust and community benefits in the same blog post is about as good as it gets. The only thing missing is a …
COVID-19
COVID-19 Put the C Back in Healthcare Consumerism (that’s the uppercase C in Consumerism, not the lowercase c in Healthcare)
Restaurants across the country laid off workers, limited menus and closed because COVID-19 took away their customers. Hospitals and medical practices across the country furloughed workers, limited services and closed …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | The Need for Extreme Interoperability | Reversing Healthcare’s Wealth Transfer | COVID-19 and Workplace Wellness
Read 05/29/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/29/2020
Will Behavioral Health Keep Up With COVID-19-Induced Demand? Listen to this week’s 4sight Friday Roundup podcast for our take on how the market for behavioral health services will change because …
COVID-19
Workplace Wellness Programs and the Coronavirus Pandemic
If you think starting a workplace wellness program would be a good way to help your company recover from the COVID-19 outbreak, I’ve got a coronavirus vaccine I’d like to …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Grading Drug Companies’ Pandemic Response | Surviving COVID-19 Margin Pressures | An ACO Coincidence
Read 05/22/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/22/2020
Big Pharma on COVID-19’s Center Stage David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary …
Economics
A Fortunate ACO Coincidence
As a skeptical journalist and amateur psychologist, I don’t believe much in coincidences. Things happen for a reason. Two new and separate studies of accountable care organizations illustrate the point. …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Health System COVID-19 Recovery | Outbreak Remakes Retail Pharmacies | Pandemic Medication Adherence
Read 05/15/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/15/2020
COVID-19 Remaking Retail Pharmacies David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary Bisbee is …
Consumerism
Why Patients Are Not Getting Their Money’s Worth on Quality Measures
When business management guru Peter Drucker uttered his famous adage, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” he probably wasn’t thinking about the patient experience in healthcare. But …
COVID-19
Pandemics and Your Medication Adherence
If you suffer from asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, better known as COPD, why would you not take your medication as prescribed? You take it, you can breathe, you …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | COVID-19 Forces Digital Transformation | Outbreak Knocks Down More Regs | Why We Need a Federal HIE
Read 05/08/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/08/2020
More Healthcare Regs Fall to COVID-19 David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary …
Consumerism
Heed the FTC’s Warnings on Your Use of Healthcare AI
I’m not sure how many times data scientists and marcom people are in the same room at a hospital, health system or medical practice. But if you’re looking for a …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/01/2020
Which Way Will COVID-19 Move the Needle on Healthcare Spending and the Uninsured? David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | What COVID-19 Is Doing to Medical Practices | Coronavirus and Healthcare Spending | Healthcare’s COVID-19 Echo Chamber
Read 05/01/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
COVID-19
Healthcare’s COVID-19 Echo Chamber
What consumers think of the healthcare system in the U.S. and what the system thinks of itself are two very different things. The COVID-19 outbreak has exposed just how deep …
COVID-19
How COVID-19 Is Accelerating the Death and Rebirth of Medical Practices
The COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. has turned everyone’s world upside down. In healthcare, no one has had their world turned upside down more than doctors and their medical practices. …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 04/24/2020
David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary Bisbee is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman …
4sight Friday |
COVID-19 |
System Dynamics |
4sight Friday | Don’t Be Woodrow Wilson | Predictive Analytics Combat COVID-19 | How Sick Will Medical Practices Get?
Read 04/24/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
COVID-19
Consumers Tell the Health System What They Think of Its COVID-19 Response
You know what I think about health system’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., and you know what our 4sight Health contributors think about it. But what do …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Playing Defense Against COVID-19 | About That Accreditation Survey | Lasting Coronavirus Lessons
Read 04/17/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 04/17/2020
David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary Bisbee is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman …
Outcomes
Oh, hey. About that Accreditation Survey
Hospitals, health systems, medical practices, health plans, licensed clinicians and virtually every type of healthcare setting imaginable not only have to comply with countless state and federal regulations, they also …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 04/10/2020
David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary Bisbee is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Reconfigure Routine Care Now | The FDA and COVID-19 | A Digital Health Distraction
Read 04/10/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the …
Consumerism
A Digital Health Distraction
We’re going to take a short mental break this week from COVID-19 and write about something else. We’re going to talk about Accenture’s latest survey of consumers on their digital …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | COVID-19 Kills Healthcare Regulations | Tone Deaf GPOs | The Post Coronavirus Health System
Read 04/03/2020 here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
Economics
Tone-Deaf GPOs Brag About Savings While Healthcare Workers Scramble for Supplies
Sometimes, it’s better just not to say anything. If you know anything about the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., you know that the healthcare supply chain here has been a …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Weekly News Impacting Market-Based Change, Curated by Dave Burda
4sight Friday is a weekly email newsletter of opinions, insights and news we see impacting market-based change – either negatively or positively. A complementary podcast, 4sight Friday Round Up, launched …
Innovation
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Dulling the Point of All Those Healthcare Regulations
So, it took a deadly pandemic to expose how utterly useless most healthcare regulations are in ensuring that patients get the best possible care at the lowest possible cost when …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Pandemic Prep 101 | Healthcare CFOs Go Viral | Chatting Up COVID-19
Read 03/27/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the …
Economics
COVID-19 Will Test the Ability of Healthcare CFOs to Manage Financial Risk
Chief financial officers around the world are scrambling to figure out how to manage the short-term economic impact and the long-term economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on their companies …
4sight Friday |
COVID-19 |
4sight Friday | Life With COVID-19 | Hospitals at the Margins | Coronavirus Competency
Read 03/20/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the …
Economics
Hospitals at the Margins
Almost every hospital or health system that I’ve covered over the past 37 years as a healthcare business reporter claims to be failing financially or on the brink of financial …
Economics
The Sorry State of Hospital Interoperability
Likely overshadowed by anticipation of HHS’ final information-blocking rules, which came out earlier this week, HHS’ latest annual report on hospital interoperability didn’t get much attention. But, if you read the …
Consumerism
Digital Health Divergence
What providers want digital health tools to do, and what patients want digital health tools to do are two different things, apparently. If that’s true, we’re no nearer to creating …
Burda on Healthcare
How Can Healthcare Avoid Screwing Up AI’s Potential?
“Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave? Dave, I really think I’m entitled to an answer to that question.”—HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey I get that a …
Economics
How Fee-for-Service Makes Doctors Choose Poorly
It’s not complicated. If you want doctors to stop performing or ordering low-value procedures and tests, stop paying for them. The reminder that providers respond to financial incentives as much …
Economics
Which Way Will the Private Equity Pendulum Swing for Patients?
Before your physician asks you at your next office visit what brought you in today, you may want to ask them who owns their practice. Their answer may at least …
Consumerism
Not on the Same Page
Well, maybe I jumped the gun and gave the healthcare industry too much credit for finally recognizing that its future depends on redefining patients as customers and making them their …
J.P. Morgan Conference Report | An Epic Patient Data Failure | Having Fun with Healthcare Fraud
Economics
Fun with Fraud Numbers
I’ve watched enough crime movies and TV shows to know that the law enforcement character who talks tough usually isn’t and, more often than not, is in on the crime, …
The Outlook of Outlooks | Death by Merger | Fixing Medicare Advantage
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: The Outlook of Outlooks | Death by Merger | Fixing Medicare Advantage
Read 01/31/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Economics
Death by a Thousand Mergers
When the Centene Corp. completed its $17.3 billion acquisition of WellCare Health Plans late last week, it created a health insurer that now operates in all 50 states with a total …
Consumerism
What’s Going to Happen in Healthcare in 2020—or Not: A Meta Review of Industry Outlooks
Maybe it’s because it’s a new decade. Maybe it’s because the year 2020 makes for easy vision analogies. Maybe it’s because CMS projects national health expenditures to break the $4 …
Are Hospitals Listening to Patients? | Why Medicare for All Won’t Work | Veiled Threat from an EHR Vendor
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Are Hospitals Listening to Patients? | Why Medicare for All Won’t Work | Veiled Threat from an EHR Vendor
Read 01/24/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Consumerism
A Sign That Health System Leaders Are Starting to Take Their Customers Seriously
As a highly skeptical healthcare business journalist, I tune my radar to look for dark clouds rather than silver linings. But, every once in a while, an unexpected blip appears …
Medicare Advantage Growing Pains | Injecting Healthcare Markets With Competition | Google Wants Your Patient Data
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Medicare Advantage Growing Pains | Injecting Healthcare Markets With Competition | Google Wants Your Patient Data
Read 01/17/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog
7 Ways States Can Save Consumers from Rising Healthcare Prices
Competition, regulation or both? Those are the choices facing states that want to make healthcare more affordable for their residents after years of unbridled prices hikes from providers and premium …
Burda on Healthcare
Growing Pains or Warning Signs for Medicare Advantage?
The Medicare Advantage program turned 21 this month. Like all 21-year-olds with new-found freedoms and responsibilities, whether it makes 31 in the same shape will depend on how well it …
4 Ways to Relieve Margin Pressure | Digital Health Betting Favorites | Have We Reached Poll Tax Status?
4sight Friday |
System Dynamics |
4sight Friday: 4 Ways to Relieve Margin Pressure | Digital Health Betting Favorites | Have We Reached Poll Tax Status?
Read 01/10/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Consumerism
What Digital Health Technologies Investors Are Betting On
As a business journalist, I hang out at the corner of “follow the money” and “actions speak louder than words.” It’s the same place I go when I want to …
Clinical Decision Support Lacking | Quality of Care at Acquired Hospitals | Private Equity and New Cancer Drugs
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Clinical Decision Support Lacking | Quality of Care at Acquired Hospitals | Private Equity and New Cancer Drugs
Read 01/03/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Interest in Clinical Decision Support Lacking
If you spend your Saturday afternoons watching home remodeling shows or cooking shows, you realize that having the right tools for the job makes all the difference. What you struggle …
What Revolutionary Healthcare Leaders Read in 2019 | Healthcare Price Transparency Now and Forever
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: What Revolutionary Healthcare Leaders Read in 2019 | Healthcare Price Transparency Now and Forever
Read 12/20/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with …
Blog |
Consumerism |
Economics |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
What Revolutionary Healthcare Leaders Read This Year: The Top 5 Commentaries on 4sightHealth.com for 2019
Here at 4sight Health, we like to call it like it is. We see and throw a flag on the things that prevent the healthcare system in the U.S. from …
Assigning a Value to Diagnostic Tests | Drug Contract Commercialization Organizations | Healthcare Affordability in 2020
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Assigning a Value to Diagnostic Tests | Drug Contract Commercialization Organizations | Healthcare Affordability in 2020
Read 12/13/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the …
Blog
Will 2020 Be the Year that Healthcare Gets More Affordable?
As 2019 draws to a close, the evidence continues to mount that healthcare affordability again will be the No. 1 challenge facing patients in 2020. What incumbent industry stakeholders, lawmakers, …
Dave Johnson has a Cup of Joe with HFMA’s Fifer | Lagging Interest in Value-Based Payment | What Health Systems Are Made Of
Blog
AHRQ Data Reveals Health System Search for Winning Formula
Pictures don’t lie. Neither do numbers. And these numbers paint of picture of U.S. hospitals and health systems remaking themselves in response to new economic forces challenging their long-term viability. …
Economics
Has Healthcare Lost Its Appetite for Value?
I get the feeling that the industry is moving on from this whole volume-to-value thing and will need to find a new analogy to replace that foot-in-two-canoes business that everyone …
4sight Friday (on Tuesday) | Converting Aging Senior Living Properties | Patient Engagement Wake-Up Call | Thoughts on For-Profit Healthcare
4sight Friday
4sight Friday (on Tuesday): Converting Aging Senior Living Properties | Patient Engagement Wake-Up Call | Thoughts on For-Profit Healthcare
Read 11/27/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the …
Blog
Trying to Wake Up Patient Engagement
Your patient engagement strategy would have worked, too, if it wasn’t for those darn patients. That’s the sentiment from a new survey of 70 CIOs, executives and directors at 65 …
Muscling Up on Drug Prices | Coordinating Cancer Care | EHR Safety Failure
Blog |
Consumerism |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Patients Need More Muscle to Crush Drug Prices
Everyone complains about high drug prices. That is, when they’re not complaining about high hospital prices. So what are you going to do about it? Or, better yet, what can …
Reimagining Healthcare Real Estate | The Disconnected Patient | Handwringing Over Ascension
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Reimagining Healthcare Real Estate | The Disconnected Patient | Handwringing Over Ascension
Read 11/15/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog
Embracing the Digitally Disconnected Patient
All the shrugs, shock and handwringing this week over the Google-Ascension patient data-sharing deal got me wondering about what patients thought of all this. So I scrolled through a bunch …
System Dynamics
4sight Friday: Repurposing Senior Living | Patient Safety and Great White Sharks | Healthcare Labor Flexibility
Repurposing Senior Living | Patient Safety and Great White Sharks | Healthcare Labor Flexibility
Blog |
Economics |
Outcomes |
Policy |
How Much Will It Take To Improve Patient Safety?
One of the best lines in Jaws comes from Brody after he sees the 25-foot great white shark for the first time. He slowly backs into the cabin, looks at …
Regulating Antibiotic Stewardship | A New Kind of Strategic Partnership | The Risk of Care Anywhere
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Regulating Antibiotic Stewardship | A New Kind of Strategic Partnership | The Risk of Care Anywhere
Read 11/01/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all …
Blog |
Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
The Rush to Move Patient Care Out of the Hospital
Everyone wants patients out of the hospital, where the costliest of costly care takes place. Government payers. Commercial health plans. Patients. Doctors. Even hospitals want patients out of the hospital. …
Blog |
Economics |
Outcomes |
Policy |
Will Misuse of Antibiotics Respond to Regulation?
I got my flu shot on Oct. 21. (I’ll let you know how it worked out.) As I waited for my turn at our nearby immediate-care center, I explained to …
Rethinking Academic Medicine | OBCs: More Marketing Than Market? | Podcast: Getting Urgent About Urgent Care
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Rethinking Academic Medicine | OBCs: More Marketing Than Market? | Podcast: Getting Urgent About Urgent Care
Read 10/25/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Economics |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
Finding the Value for Healthcare Consumers in Outcomes-Based Contracting
When you buy something and it doesn’t work, you take it back to the store (or more likely send it back to Amazon via your local Kohl’s) for a refund. …
The Regs That Rankle Doctors | Innovating Autism Care | Have Amazon Will Travel
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: The Regs That Rankle Doctors | Innovating Autism Care | Have Amazon Will Travel
Read 10/18/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Policy
Ranking the Regulations that Bother Doctors
I love healthcare industry regulatory burden surveys. From an academic standpoint, I’m interested in the topic of competition versus regulation and how each affects how healthcare markets function—or not—for patients. …
Blog
What Revolutionary Healthcare Leaders Are Reading: The Top 5 4sight Health Commentaries Over the Past Six Months
4sight Health’s writers and authors have published 57 blog posts, commentaries, podcasts and videos on 4sighthealth.com from January through June of this year. The topics are as varied as the …
Patients Demand Their Data | When Prescription Drugs Are Free | Pinpointing Healthcare Waste
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Patients Demand Their Data | When Prescription Drugs Are Free | Pinpointing Healthcare Waste
Read 10/11/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog
Maybe It’s the Patients, Not the Prices. Is that Stupid?
In most markets for most goods and services, you get what you pay for. The more you pay, the better the goods or the services. Hence, the expression, you get …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: What Employers Think of Healthcare | The Staying Power of FFS | A Health System By Any Other Name
Read 10/04/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Seeing Through Physician Participation in Value-Based Reimbursement Models
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I get the point of the expression. But, I didn’t fully appreciate how it applied to healthcare until I read …
What Employers Think of Healthcare | The Staying Power of FFS | A Health System By Any Other Name
Blog |
Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
If You Scroll Down, You’ll Find Out What Employers Really Think About Healthcare
With open enrollment about a month away at most businesses that offer health insurance benefits to their workers, it’s time to look at what employers are doing and not doing …
By Any Quality Measure | Healthcare Upselling | Affordability Takes Another Hit
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: By Any Quality Measure | Healthcare Upselling | Affordability Takes Another Hit
Read 09/27/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Consumerism |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Has Room for Improvement
So, how’s it going? Do you think your hospital or health system or medical practice or health plan or pharmacy or life sciences company or post-acute care facility is providing …
Blog |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Upselling in Healthcare? It’s Just Business
As wary consumers, we’ve come to expect upselling. Need an oil change? Looks like you need a new air filter and radiator flush, too. That sports coat looks fantastic on …
Platforming Healthcare | Healthcare Blocking and Tackling | Why Patients Need Protection
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Platforming Healthcare | Healthcare Blocking and Tackling | Why Patients Need Protection
Read 09/20/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Consumerism |
Economics |
System Dynamics |
Healthcare Blocking and Tackling
Football season is upon us, and you’ll be hearing coaches at every level—high school, college and pro—talking about “getting back to basics” or “stressing the fundamentals” or “blocking and tackling.” …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Behind the Customer Revolution in Healthcare | Do Patients Trust Their Doctors? | Prices Up, Insured Americans Down
Read 09/13/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Behind the Customer Revolution in Healthcare | Do Patients Trust Their Doctors? | Prices Up, Insured Americans Down
Blog |
Consumerism |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Do You Trust Your Doctor?
When people my age were kids, there was a good chance that their parents wanted them to be doctors. Some wanted their children to be lawyers. I don’t recall anyone …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: The Customer Revolution in Healthcare | Skill Mix and Medical Practice Productivity | Is Walmart Coming for You?
Read 09/06/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
The Customer Revolution in Healthcare | Skill Mix and Medical Practice Productivity | Is Walmart Coming for You?
Blog |
Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Why Fee-for-Service Medicine is Bad for Your Health
The later in the day that you see your doctor you’re more likely to get the flu, get colon cancer and get hooked on prescription pain killers. OK, that’s a …
Blog |
Economics |
Innovation |
System Dynamics |
Higher Practice Skill Mix May Not Be What the Doctor Ordered
“Practicing at the top of your license” and “upskilling your workforce”are two popular healthcare buzz phrases right now. As account-hungry consultants breathlessly will tell you, when medical professionals spend their …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Paying Doctors Less | Disconnecting Social and Healthcare Spending | Colonoscopy Commoditization
Read 08/23/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Paying Doctors Less | Disconnecting Social and Healthcare Spending | Colonoscopy Commoditization
Blog |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Spend More. Pay More?
Everyone in healthcare is “all in” on a lot of things these days, and two things that are at or near the top of that list are social determinants of …
Healthcare Partnerships Get Creative | Time to Adapt or Die | Where Patients’ DNA Goes
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Healthcare Partnerships Get Creative | Time to Adapt or Die | Where Patients’ DNA Goes
Read 08/16/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Convenient Care Concerns | Healthcare’s Future Rulers | Staged Drug Market Competition
Read 08/09/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Convenient Care Concerns | Healthcare’s Future Rulers | Staged Drug Market Competition
Blog |
Consumerism |
Innovation |
System Dynamics |
Inconvenient Competition
When better customer service is a competitive threat, it really is time to rethink your business model. That was my first thought when I read the results of a survey …
Blog |
Consumerism |
Innovation |
System Dynamics |
Who Will Rule Healthcare in 2030?
What will healthcare be like 10 years from now? Not a lot of healthcare executives toiling in our system have the luxury to think about that as they deal with …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Rethinking Patient Safety Solutions | Coverage Cost Casualties | Smart End-of-Life Decisions
Read 08/02/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Rethinking Patient Safety Solutions | Coverage Cost Casualties | Smart End-of-Life Decisions
Blog |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
The Rising Cost of Family Coverage Is No Joke
You might have heard about this on the news. A new study is out that says employer-sponsored health insurance is getting really expensive. (How expensive is it?) Hmm. May your …
Consumerism
Desperately Seeking Market-Based Patient Safety Solutions – Burda on Healthcare
This Nov. 29 will mark the 20th anniversary of the release of the report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, the seminal work by the Institute of …
Searching for ACO Outcomes | Liberating Medical Data | Delicious Medicare Benefits
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Searching for ACO Outcomes | Liberating Medical Data | Delicious Medicare Benefits
Read 07/26/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Outcomes
There’s No O (outcomes) in ACO
Medicare accountable care organizations say they’re doing a lot to manage and coordinate the care of sick beneficiaries. But a new study says the ACOs don’t have much to show …
Staffing Healthcare’s Future | Aligning SDOH and Reimbursement | Mandating Effective Clinical Practices
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Staffing Healthcare’s Future | Aligning SDOH and Reimbursement | Mandating Effective Clinical Practices
Read 07/19/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
What Healthcare Revolutionaries Read | Not-for-Profit Hospitals and Taxes | Healthcare Innovation Takes Many Forms
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: What Healthcare Revolutionaries Read | Not-for-Profit Hospitals and Taxes | Healthcare Innovation Takes Many Forms
Read 07/12/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Employee Health Benefits Bellwethers | Time for Telemedicine | Regulating Hospital and Health System Mergers
Read 07/5/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Employee Health Benefits Bellwethers | Time for Telemedicine | Regulating Hospital and Health System Mergers
Economics
Pets versus Babies: Who Offers More Health Benefits at Work?
Everyone, including me, is always on employers to do more to improve the healthcare system in the U.S. We’re on them to use their healthcare purchasing power and insured-lives market …
Outcomes
Cardiac Conflicts Put Payments Ahead of Patients
It seems that the Healthcare Industrial Complex (TM) is alive and well in the cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology laboratories at the top heart hospitals across the country. At least that’s …
Economics
What Are Healthcare Executives Thinking? – Burda on Healthcare
I write a lot about what healthcare organizations and companies do, and I make educated guesses on why they do what they do based on my experiences, industry knowledge and …
Policy
States Foul-Tipping Regulatory Approaches to Control Healthcare Prices
A new Viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association said states are trying, but largely failing, to control through various regulatory tactics the prices paid by private health …
Consumerism
Why Service Doesn’t Mean Services at Highly Rated Hospitals
What were you expecting, an ICU? A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine reveals that the hospitals patients rated highly for service were less likely to have the actual medical …
Economics
More on Why Employers Should Pay Attention to Behavioral Health
More on the what and the why of employers and behavioral health, and what both mean for remaking the nation’s healthcare system into one where outcomes matter, customers count and …
System Dynamics
Doctors and the Laws of Supply and Demand – Burda on Healthcare
It’s a great time to go to medical school and become a doctor. Ignore all the manufactured angst from organized medicine and opinion polls of aging physicians who say they …
System Dynamics
Hitting a Wall on EHR Interoperability, Patient Access
You know that moment when you “hit the wall” when you’re running a marathon? I don’t. But, I’m told that it typically happens around the 20-mile mark when your physical …
Outcomes
What Fish and Colonoscopies Have in Common
By now you know you should never order fish at a restaurant on a Monday. That’s because the fish likely has been lying around the kitchen since early Friday morning. …
Outcomes
What Businesses Say They’re Doing About Their Employees’ Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health says 46.6 million adults suffered from some form of mental illness in 2017. Of those, 57.4 percent didn’t receive any mental health treatment for …
System Dynamics
The Deep State of Physician Prescribing Patterns
And you thought changing patients’ health behaviors was going to be hard. Try changing physicians’ drug prescribing patterns. That’s the lesson from a new study in Health Affairs that reported …
Consumerism
Why Millennials May Be Pushing Us Off a Healthcare Cliff
I’m not sure that US millennials are going to have a happy ending when it comes to their healthcare. If I’m reading things right, in less than 30 years, when …
Outcomes
Death by Healthcare Knockoff
Knockoffs usually aren’t as good as the originals, whether they’re golf clubs, purses or pressure cookers. A new study suggests that you can add healthcare to the list, especially if …
Policy
This Is a Story About Where Healthcare Regulations Come From – Burda on Healthcare
Healthcare is one of the most if not the most regulated industry in the U.S. While its businesses like to blame overzealous bureaucrats for all the red tape, the current …
System Dynamics
Culture Change Isn’t a Natural for Healthcare Organizations
“We must begin by asking it, ‘What is losing?’ Losing is a disease. As contagious as polio. Losing is a disease. As contagious as syphilis. Losing is a disease. As …
Economics
The Universal Patient Experience of Debilitating Healthcare Costs
The lack of affordable medical care isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon. It’s a serious problem across Europe, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. WHO’s report identified …
Consumerism
Patients’ Growing Appetite for New Outpatient Care Models
If you believe in the adage “follow the money,” it would lead you to telemedicine. Analyzing billions of private health insurance claims, a new report said telemedicine is the fastest …
Policy
Opioid Variations and State Interventions
Like companies in any other industry, when providers misbehave, it opens the door to state regulation of their behavior. What’s interesting about a new study in JAMA Open Network is …
Outcomes
Why Healthcare is Spinning Its VBR Wheels
It’s like preparing and serving a seven-course meal that your biggest customer ordered only to have the entire menu change between the salad and the main course. That’s what it …
Consumerism
The Strained Relationship Between Doctors and Patients – Burda on Healthcare
What if you walked into your doctor’s office and there was a sign hanging in the waiting room that said: “Please do not confuse your Google search with my medical …
Economics
Why Proponents Are Finding Innovative Health Plan Designs a Hard Sell
When your phone company or your cable provider offers you a new and innovative service plan, your immediate thought is that you’re going to end up paying more for less. …
Blog |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Shining a Light on the High Risks of Low-Value Care
Low-value care doesn’t just drive up healthcare costs without providing any discernable medical benefit to patients. It can kill you. That’s the takeaway and market lesson from the latest study …
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Consumerism |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
Digital Disillusionment: Are We There Yet?
There are signs that digital health—the promised cure for everything that’s wrong with healthcare—may be slipping into the trough of disillusionment. You may want to check your heart rhythm on …
Consumerism
When Hospitals Merge, Patient Satisfaction Gets Squeezed
When two competing companies merge and get bigger, a common worry of their customers is whether the quality of service will suffer as a result. Should patients worry about the …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
Policy |
Price Controls Take Root in Rhode Island. Will They Spread to Your State?
One state’s attempt to control healthcare costs by using “affordability standards” ended up limiting increases in commercial health insurance payments to hospitals and doctors without any changes in utilization or …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
When Blue is the New Green
I mean, what did you think was going to happen? A new study says big Blues plans that went for-profit dramatically raised their premiums right after their ownership conversions. The …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Wither the Traditional Physician Office Visit
It’s not your imagination or the self-serving forecast of a healthcare consultant angling for your business. Fewer people are seeing their doctors in person in a physical office. It’s a …
Policy
The Immovable Force That Is Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
Death, taxes and employer-sponsored health insurance. We know the first two are certainties in life, and new research again confirms the assurance of the third. Researchers from the School of …
Innovation
Everyone Knows What’s Going to Happen in Healthcare in 2019. Do You?
What’s going to happen in healthcare this year is anyone’s guess. Not really. What’s going to happen in healthcare this year is everyone’s guess. Like most of you, from mid-December …
Outcomes
Everything in Healthcare is Changing—Except One Thing
Much has changed in healthcare over the past 25 years. A lot has changed in healthcare over the past 25 minutes. But one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s the public’s …
Innovation
Bundled-Pay Evaluation a Study in Hospital Market-Based Behavior
What would you cut out if you suddenly had to reduce your monthly household expenses by 5 percent, 10 percent, or even 25 percent? I’m sure that some of the …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Medicare Advantage Bends Cost Curve the Wrong Way
Everyone sees what they want to see in the latest figures on national health expenditures released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this month. Most people see …
Consumerism
The Slow Road to Value-Based Care
A new report is yet another sign that the march toward value-based care has bogged down. The Health Care Transformation Task Force, which is a Washington-based coalition of health systems, …
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Burda on Healthcare |
Economics |
Innovation |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
HHS Goes All In on Competition as the Way to Fix Healthcare Woes – Burda on Healthcare
Competition good. Regulation bad. That’s my caveman summary of HHS’ manifesto released on Dec. 3 on how to improve the quality and safety of patient care while simultaneously lowering healthcare …
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Consumerism |
Economics |
Innovation |
Med Tech Bets on Value as Its Future Business Model
If you’re looking for a sign that we’re truly approaching a watershed moment in healthcare innovation, look no further than the people whose job is creating new medical technologies that …
Economics
Want Better Cardiac Outcomes? Just Follow the Money
The line between financial incentives and clinical outcomes just got a little straighter. A new study says money may have erased the difference in readmission rates between the top heart …
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Burda on Healthcare |
Consumerism |
Economics |
Innovation |
Man or Corporate Culture: Who Has More Power to Disrupt Healthcare? – Burda on Healthcare
We’re at a branch point in healthcare’s evolution. We’ll learn soon whether disruptive innovation is the product of individuals or organizations. When we find out, we’ll know the best path …
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Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
New Primary Care Provider, Same or Better Outcomes
Expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners and physician assistants may be a cost-effective way to manage the health of patients with chronic illnesses. That’s the market-based reform takeaway …
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Consumerism |
Economics |
Policy |
New Primary-Care Provider, Same Old Price
Patient office visits to primary care physicians are down. Patient office visits to nurse practitioners and physician assistants are up. But switching to NPs and PAs from doctors isn’t saving …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Few On The Same Page When It Comes To The Value of Value-Based Reimbursement
Yet another report shows that fee-for-service medicine is hard to kill. This time the culprits are a lack of faith in value-based reimbursement by clinicians and a lack of trust …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Pointing the Finger at Health Plans for Providers’ Price Variations
Wide variations in what providers charge for the same medical services are notorious. But providers are not acting alone. They’re aided and abetted—and some would say coerced—by health plans whose …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
It’s Commercial Health Plans That Are Keeping Fee-for-Service Alive
Far from pulling the plug on fee-for-service medicine, commercial health plans continue to give it CPR. A new report says well over half of commercial health plan payments to providers …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Study Refocuses ER Coverage Debate on Patients
A new study reminds us that the squabble between providers and payers over coverage of unnecessary emergency room visits should be more about patients and less about who pays who …
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Burda on Healthcare |
Consumerism |
Economics |
System Dynamics |
Employees’ Premiums Actually Dropped This Year and Nine Other Untold Employer Health Benefits Stories – Burda on Healthcare
Every picture tells a story. So does every chart in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual employer health benefits survey. Here are 10 small stories from Kaiser’s latest survey that collectively …
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Consumerism |
System Dynamics |
Reducing Low-Value Care Gets Personal
It’s like FBI profiling but for doctors—doctors who order too many unnecessary diagnostic tests. Researchers from Canada have escalated the fight against low-value healthcare services by focusing on the doctors …
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Consumerism |
Economics |
Outcomes |
TOP HOSPITALS MAKE IT TOUGH ON PATIENTS WHO WANT TO SEE THEIR OWN MEDICAL RECORDS
All hospitals say that they want to engage patients in their own medical care. But even the best hospitals are making it difficult for patients to access their own medical …
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Outcomes |
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System Dynamics |
Healthcare Worker Flu Vaccine Rates Offer a Lesson in Self-Policing
Short of making flu shots mandatory for healthcare workers, healthcare employers need to do much more to immunize their staffs from a virus that threatens their health and the health …
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Burda on Healthcare |
Consumerism |
DIY Hospital Ratings: Do Your Stars Align for What’s Most Important to Patients? – Burda on Healthcare
What’s the most important thing to you when you or a family member has to go to the hospital? (That question assumes you have a choice.) For me it would …
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Outcomes |
The Early Patient Gets the Flu Shot
Unnecessary variation in patient care is a quality and cost killer. And it’s not just a problem for complex medical cases. It’s a problem for even the most routine services …
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Consumerism |
Economics |
System Dynamics |
An Urgent Message for Those Who Want Care on Demand
The news cycle in healthcare seems to be following the news cycle in politics. Twenty-four hours is now 24 minutes if not 24 seconds. With that in mind, let’s hit …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
A Lesson in Value-Based Payments from Across the Pond
If you paid your kids to clean their rooms and keep them clean, would they? If you stopped paying them, would they keep cleaning their rooms because they realized that …