Taking Cain Seriously by Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal 9/29/2011
You hear the same thing said about Herman Cain all the time: Herman Cain has some really interesting ideas, but . . . I love Herman Cain, but . . . But what? But he can’t win.Why not?
At best, the answer has to do with that cloudy word “electability.” Or that Mr. Cain has never held elected political office.
The best health care solutions just might bubble up
Editorial by Lori Sturdevant, Star Tribune, September 24, 2011.
“Leadership is about using the bully pulpit,” Durenberger said. “It’s defining the problem. It’s suggesting where to look for solutions. It’s starting a dialogue. It’s getting everybody into the act.”
The Quest: Security and the Remaking of the Modern World
Senator Durenberger recommends Daniel Yergin’s new book “The Quest”. It is an account of the many ways in which people have sought to produce energy – by burning fossil fuels, harvesting the wind, brewing biodiesel and trapping the sun’s heat. It also gives an analysis of our three fears: energy scarcity, energy security and the environmental ruin that energy can cause.
Op ed by Senator David Durenberger, Minnesota Public Radio, September 30, 2011
Read Senator Durenberger’s op ed, entitled Export our health care industry? Why – because it works so well for us?
Will Minnesotans Write A Better Future?
Star Tribune article by Sean Kershaw, president of Citizens League, July 14, 2011
Article by William Galston, Brookings Institute
In most parts of the world, being a physician brings both prestige and affluence. However, Mao Mengjia gave up a career as a doctor in China for a simple reason: He could make more money selling medicine than prescribing it.
Mao, 26, tripled his income after quitting his job at a hospital in northeastern China to work as a medical sales representative in 2009. As many as 14,000 physicians will join foreign pharmaceutical makers, ranging from New York-based Pfizer to Paris-based Sanofi, in China in the next five years, predicts Aon Hewitt’s human resources advisory firm in Shanghai.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/17/BUO71KAM57.DTL#ixzz1SZFqIDY4
Article by William Galston, Brookings Institute
As the U.S. careens toward possible default on its debt obligations, Mort Zuckerman’s piece raises two obvious questions: how did a great nation end up in this fix? And how can it change course? Read more>
John Kriesel - Honesty is a Breath of Fresh Air
Article by Jon Tevlin, Star Tribune
John Kriesel may be the only representative in the Minnesota Legislature who believes two men should be able to marry each other AND shoot someone who trespasses on their property. It’s one of the things that made him one of this session’s more interesting policymakers.
New Health Market Analysis for Minnesota and New York
Hospitals in the Twin Cities area enjoyed much improved profitability in 2009, even though they provided fewer days of care. And health insurers in New York, with very strong results on their Medicare business, posted much stronger profits in 2009.
These are the findings of Minnesota Health Market Review 2010, Part Two, prepared by Allan Baumgarten, and The Big Picture III: Private and Public Health Insurance Markets in New York, 2009, published by the United Hospital Fund. I will be releasing Part One of the 2011 Minnesota market report, the 22nd annual, in early June. I am the co-author of the New York report.
An extended summary of the Minnesota report, with graphics and links to local media coverage, is at:
http://www.allanbaumgarten.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=dsp_report&state=mn
A PDF of the New York report can be downloaded at: http://uhfnyc.org/news/880742
Highlights from the reports:
Hospitals in the Twin Cities posted net income of $485.6 million, or 6.5% of net patient revenues. They increased their patient revenues by 5.8%, even though the number of inpatient days in those hospitals dropped by 4%. The large hospitals outside the Twin Cities had average margins of 6.2% and saw an even larger decrease in their inpatient care.
In New York, HMOs and other health insurers increased their profits to $921.7 million in 2009, up 25% from the previous year. Medicare Advantage membership made up only about 20 percent of HMO enrollment overall, but the business accounted for nearly two-thirds of the $613.5 million in reported profits.
New Accountable Health Care Public Education Program Launched
The Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), an affiliate of the American Medical Group Association, today announced a new initiative to provide the public, media, and policymakers with resources and information about the value of care coordination and accountable care to national health care reform. The campaign, called www.5RealAnswers.org, features a series of three micro sites–www.AccountableCareChoices.org (for consumers), www.AccountableCareFacts.org (for the media) and www.AccountableCareStories.org(for policymakers)—which are designed to provide easily accessible tools, research, definitions, case studies, and FAQs about what accountable care should be, why it’s important to the health of our country, and how to find it today in America.
County Health Rankings Show There is More to Health Than Health Care
Annual Health Check-Up Highlights Healthiest and Least Healthy Counties in Every State
How healthy is your county? A new set of reports released today rank the overall health of nearly every county in the nation, confirming for the second year the critical role that factors such as education, jobs, income, environment and access to health care play in how healthy people are and how long they live.
Published online at www.countyhealthrankings.org by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the County Health Rankings look at a variety of measures that affect health, such as high school graduation rates, access to healthier foods, air pollution levels, income, and rates of smoking, obesity and teen births. The Rankings is the only tool of its kind that allows people to see how their county compares with others in their state and against national benchmarks in areas like diabetes screening rates or number of uninsured adults, and makes it possible for leaders in all sectors to identify gaps and work together to develop solutions.
In conjunction with the release of the Rankings, the University of Wisconsin and the Foundation will launch a new program that includes funding up to 14 communities across the country to use the Rankings to improve the health of their residents.
- Learn more about the County Health Rankings and community action to improve health.
- Read the County Health Rankings press release.
- View a new webinar and read issue briefs highlighting the latest research on the social factors that influence health.
Fiscal Health Hinges on Containing Costs of Care
Prepare to hear a lot (more) about Medicaid, the government health-insurance program for the poor.
President Barack Obama is trying to protect the expansion of Medicaid built into his health-care law. Governors from both parties are trying to slow rising costs of Medicaid, which accounts for an average of 22% of state spending. House Republican budget point person Paul Ryan is trying to reduce future federal spending on Medicaid by converting it into block grants to the states.
Read the entire article in The Wall Street Journalby David Wessel
Click here to read the MedPAC March Report titled Medicare Payment Policy
The Hot Spotters
Dr. Atul Gawande strikes again in The New Yorker of January 24, 2011 and a follow up post Seeing Spots on January 27. He writes how a few dedicated professionals, not all in health care, bring down the medical costs of the most expensive consumers. And the costs to their employers.
Dr. Arnie Milstein has committed the next phase of his already provocative career to converting “hot spotting” into what he calls “ambulatory intensive care.” Arnie is doing it as a professor at Stanford University, now in collaboration with renowned international cardiologist Dr. Paul Yock. Dr. Yock is co-chair of Bio-engineering at the Stanford Business School in Management. Both are from the same era at St Louis Park Minnesota High School that produced Al Franken, Tom Friedman, Norm Ornstein and the Coen brothers.
HealthNewsReview.org
Gary Schwitzer is publisher of the website HealthNewsReview.org, leading a team of more than two dozen people who grade daily health news reporting by major U.S. news organizations. The website is dedicated to:
- Improving the accuracy of news stories about medical treatments, tests, products and procedures.
- Helping consumers evaluate the evidence for and against new ideas in health care.
Reflections on Arizona from a long-time Minnesotan
By Tim McGuire Can be found on MinnPost
A Toddler’s Take on Presidential Politics!!
Just for the fun of it watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y2bG71Pess
Have You Seen YouToons Explain the Health Reform Law?
Health Reform Hits Main Street, a new animated short video from the Kaiser Family Foundation, features the YouToons explaining the health reform law to an American public still confused by how it works. Have you seen it? The short movie has three major sections: explaining problems in the current health care system, short-term changes that will take place between now and 2014, and major provisions that will take effect in 2014. View it online and share it with colleagues, friends and family: http://healthreform.kff.org/the-animation.aspx
Wisconsin Hospitals Reported Strong Profits in 2009
…even though their inpatient hospital days declined slightly. And the state’s HMOs now have more enrollees than at their previous peak in 2001. These findings and others are included in Wisconsin Health Market Review 2010, Allan Baumgarten’s seventh annual report analyzing key trends in Wisconsin health markets. Continue reading
UST Opus College of Business Earns AACSB Accreditation
Fewer than 5 percent of the world’s business schools hold AACSB accreditation, which is widely regarded as the highest standard of quality for business education and can take years to achieve.
January 5, 2011
High Performance Health Care Blog
This blog is authored by the faculty and staff of the St. Thomas health care programs. Postings are made weekly to keep you up to date on the latest trends in health care leadership and management.
http://blogs.stthomas.edu/hphc/
Dave Durenberger: ‘I would like to see us do a few things really well.”
A ‘laser focus’ is good. Here are a few other thoughts about the road ahead:
Minneapolis Star Tribune
January 3, 2011
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/112687534.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU
Make it Happen: Effective Execution in Healthcare Leadership
Written by Daniel McLaughlin
Amazon.com
Twin Cities Business
The Man From the Disappearing Middle
November Issue, written by Eric Black
http://www.nihp.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/The-Man-From-the-Disappearing-Middle.docx
In Their Own Words: 12,000 Physicians Reveal Their Thoughts on Medical Practice in America
Written by Phillip Miller for the Physicians Foundation wit Louis Goodman, PhD and Tim Norbeck, 2010
North America Brain Injury Society
Health Reform is a Journey not a Destination
Speech by Senator Durenberger given on October 6, 2010
http://www.nihp.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/DD-NABIS10.06.101.pdf
The Commonwealth Fund Blog
Reason for Optimism: Key Roles for State, Providers, Insurers
July 26, 2010
Author: David Durenberger
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Blog/Jul/Reason-for-Optimism.aspx
The Hastings Center
Health Care Cost Monitor
“At Least 48 Cost Curve Benders”
May 4, 2010
Author: David Durenberger
http://healthcarecostmonitor.thehastingscenter.org/daviddurenberger/%e2%80%9cat-least-48-cost-curve-benders%e2%80%9d/
First Friday, University of St. Thomas
Speech by Senator Durenberger
March 5, 2010
http://www.nihp.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/FirstFriday3.5.10docx.docx
Kaiser Health Care News
The Democrats’ 2010 Health Reform Plan Evokes 1993 Republican Bill
Feb 23, 2010
Author: Maggie Mertens
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/checking-in-with/durenberger-1993-gop-bill-q-and-a.aspx?referrer=search
B.
University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business
Trend Spotting
Can Health Care Reform Itself?
Spring 2010
Author: David Durenberger
http://www.stthomas.edu/bmag/2010/Spring/Trendspotting.html
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