I’m passive-aggressive by nature. I don’t like confrontation. I’m not from Minnesota, but I could be. The latest example of this was me cleaning up after painters painted all the …

A conversation overheard at an evening reception during a recent healthcare industry conference: Attendee one: “So, what do you do?” Attendee two: “I research and report hospital compliance with the …

What’s the first thing you ask your doctor when you go in for a visit?  Why does my throat hurt? Why am I coughing so much? What happened to the …

If you know me or have read anything I’ve written about healthcare over the past 38 years, you know I’m no apologist for any incumbent healthcare organization, especially hospitals and …

In professional sports, free agents generally speaking are players whose contracts have expired and who are free to sign new contracts with other teams, ideally for better terms.   A few …

Hey, I’m healthcare affordability! Remember me? I was a growing problem before the pandemic. I kept at it while the rest of you understandably were coping with COVID-19. When the …

Exactly one year ago, I wrote a column called “How Can Healthcare Avoid Screwing Up AI’s Potential?” A lot of stuff has happened over the past year, to put it mildly. …

I’ve been covering healthcare for nearly 40 years now as a reporter, editor and writer, and there are a handful of story lines that have spanned all four decades. Among …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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. …

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 …

“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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …