Schwimmer Script Blog
To Reduce Costs and Improve Health Care, Start at the Beginning — and the End.
At our Spring All Council Conference Tuesday, Dr. Neel Shah recalled hospital higher ups chastising young physicians over some medical procedure or intervention they failed to perform. “But you never saw anyone get called on the carpet for doing a procedure they should not have done,” he said. Dr. Shah, our keynote speaker, knows we…Read More…
Medicaid Must Stop Paying For Early Elective Deliveries
No matter how you get your health insurance — and no matter what happens in Washington — we’re all in trouble if we don’t get serious about reducing costs. The ever-rising price of health care means fewer people will be able to afford coverage even with help from their employers or the government. We spend…Read More…
ACA Lives On For Today, But What About Tomorrow?
For now, the ACA lives on. But destruction of the program — even without legislation — can still be inflicted. Here’s how the Trump administration can mortally wound health care reform. Kill Cost Sharing Subsidies: In 2014, House Republicans challenged the legality of the cost-sharing subsidies. These subsidies are critical to help people who make less than…Read More…
Uncertain National Landscape Won’t Derail Health Care Innovations
Last week I traveled to the other side of the country for a gathering of more than 500 leaders from every sector of health care — insurance executives, hospital leaders, technology experts, academics, business and union leaders as well as physicians and nurses. Here was an array of competing interests and perspectives. With so much health…Read More…
Modernize Medicaid for the Future
Earlier this week, in a crowded room in the New Jersey State House, we unveiled Medicaid 2.0: A Blueprint for the Future. The Blueprint is the culmination of a year of work that took us around New Jersey — and also to several other states — as we explored ways to make the program more efficient and…Read More…
ER? Urgent Care? Doctor’s Office? ‘Health Matters’ Poll Explores Where We Seek Care
We want people to car pool, so we create HOV lanes. We don’t want them to smoke, so we tax cigarettes and raise the age to purchase tobacco. Society has all kinds of incentives and penalties to encourage people to do the right thing. In health care, we have many choices of places to seek…Read More…
Practice Transformation Transcends Politics
Like many of you, I have been following the confirmation hearings of the nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I am eager to learn what will be altered and what will remain of the past eight years of change in American health care. We’ve seen, for instance, enormous change driven…Read More…
2017 Certain to Be Year of Change in Health Care
The year ahead will be one of great change. We will have a new president and will elect a new governor. The shifting political landscape will change the world of health care in ways that are still evolving. I believe our voices, as members of the Quality Institute, will be more critical than ever. Here’s…Read More…
ACA: Reflect, Repair, Repeal, Replace
Last night I gave a talk at a community gathering in Princeton. My topic was: Repeal, Replace, Reform: where the ACA is going and how it impacts you. Back in August, when I agreed to give this talk and created this title, I was planning to talk about ACA fixes to make health care affordable….Read More…
Price is right?
I’m sure many of you checked out sales on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. I looked for a five-star-rated coffee maker for the lowest price. As we usher in a new President and Secretary of Health and Human Services, both calling for expanded use of Health Savings Accounts, tax deductions for health benefits, and more…Read More…