Friday, April 30, 2010

Alfie Tackles Health Literacy

Jeff Knott is a strong champion of health literacy. Based on his personal experiences with the health care system, he is committed to helping others understand the system and advocate for themselves to receive quality care.

He combines comedy with education to provide a fun learning experience for patients.

Watch for Alfie. You can see the educational videos on youtube.

Here are a few of them.

Dirty Magazines

Nurse Practitioners

Staph Infections

Friday, April 2, 2010

AHIP Calls for Transparency

The consequence of health reform continue to unfold.

One interesting development is the response by health plans to the HHS request for transparency of price increases.

AHIP wrote a letter to HHS suggesting that health plans would be glad to provide transparency into rate increases, and would like the same standard to be applied to providers.

The letter reads in part:
"As you request transparency from our members, we urge you also to consider pursuing transparency for hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical and device companies, and other suppliers. Consumers should have data on year-to-year price increases in these sectors, as well as quality performance information. We believe this is an opportunity to ask of all other sectors what you are asking of health plans. Pursuing transparency in these sectors is essential both to educate consumers about what drives health care costs and to ensure that patients and their doctors have the information and decision support tools they need to make informed decisions in accessing care and in choosing among providers and care options."

Asking health care providers to explain price increases implies that consumers know what prices are to begin with.

What an excellent idea.

The Healthcare Blue Book welcomes the idea that HHS will encourage all providers to provide real pricing transparency to consumers.