Archive for June, 2008

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Why Can’t I Go To Any Physician?

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In pharmacy, there is a rarely used benefit structure called Therapeutic MAC (Maximum Allowable Cost).  What this does is say that in any class of drugs (e.g., cholesterol lowering drugs) there is a maximum amount of money that will be paid by the plan.  But the individual can get any drug.
That can be controversial since […]


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Would You Pay $100 To Be Told To Take Your Rx?

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We know adherence is a serious issue that drives healthcare costs.  And, as I have talked about a little here and a lot with many of our pharmacy clients, it’s not a simple issue.  People aren’t adherent for a variety of reasons - cost, side effects, health literacy, or simply just forgetting (among others).
There are […]


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Dental Experience

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I am a big believer in the fact that the experience matters for healthcare.  From my architecture days, this means physical space, sequence of events, bedside manner of the staff, clarity of communications, and processing of the claim (at the simplest level).  Everything that the patient experiences as associated with an event drives their satisfaction.
So, […]


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Genetic Art

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I was reading about this company DNA 11 the other day, and I found it a pretty cool concept. They take your DNA and make it into art focusing on the 1% that is unique. According to the article in American Way magazine, prices ranged from $390 to $1,200 with 25 color options […]


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A Few New Blogs

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I always enjoy coming across new blogs with interesting articles. Here are a few that I found yesterday and added to my blogroll:

The Health As Human Capital Blog (sponsored by a company described as “dedicated to providing better information for better decision-making in health care and business”)

The Doctor Comes To You Blog about the […]


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LinkedIn Question On HealthComm

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I think it was earlier this year when LinkedIn rolled out a new feature called questions which allows you to pose questions to LinkedIn users and get answers. I continue to like this tool, and it has been interesting to watch it evolve from a “startup” (when I joined there were less than 2M […]


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LinkedIn Question On HealthComm

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I think it was earlier this year when LinkedIn rolled out a new feature called questions which allows you to pose questions to LinkedIn users and get answers. I continue to like this tool, and it has been interesting to watch it evolve from a “startup” (when I joined there were less than 2M […]


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Tier Zero

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Frank Koronkiewicz, the Director of Pharmacy, at Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BCNEPA) just launched a new plan where people can get 65 different generics focused on chronic diseases at no copay AND without any premium.  It’s called Tier Zero.

Frank has always been a progressive Director of Pharmacy.  We worked on several programs together at […]


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Three Sad Healthcare Stories

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First, I think this is a very disappointing article about workplace violence in the healthcare industry.  I certainly could believe (unfortunately) in the verbal violence since people are very emotional about their healthcare and often stressed over the financial implications and unintuitive processes.  But, this story has some scary statistics which are an issue at […]


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Diabetes or Depression: Which Comes First

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Since many of us understand the risk of co-morbidities (i.e., two diseases that commonly exist together), I think it makes a lot of sense to ask this question.  Dr. Gupta from CNN had an article earlier this week on his blog about a study that was recently out on the relationship between diabetes and depression.

Those […]