A Health Policy Brief published in Health Affairs on December 13, 2012 referenced an analysis published last April in JAMA regarding waste in health care. In this analysis, Don Berwick (one of my health care heroes) and Andrew Hackbarth (from RAND) estimated that waste in health care consumed between $476 billion and $992 billion of
Conceptualizing “over-treatment” waste: Don’t deny health economics Read More »
When doing analysis, it is really important to clarify up front what it is you are actually trying to figure out. This sounds so obvious. But, I am always amazed at how often sophisticated, eager analysts can zip past this important first step. Health plans, vendors and health care providers are all involved in the
Guidelines for the use of mammograms to screen for breast cancer have been the topic of one of the fiercest and longest-running debates in medicine. Back in the early 1990s, I participated in that debate as the leader of a guideline development team at the Henry Ford Health System. We developed one of the earliest
