Stand up and ask the tough questions

For 50 years and 10 U.S. Presidents, Helen Thomas always did. 

Great photos at CNN.com. 

From CNN.com: Helen Thomas questions President Ronald Reagan during a press conference at the White House on March 19,1987.

Rockin' out with Young Dubliners

If you can see this band, do!

Young Dubliners' new CD has been pre-released. Get it on iTunes in September.

Young Dubliners at Fête Ballroom, Providence, R.I.

Price: Health care's next frontier

First it was quality. Then patient satisfaction. Say hello to health care's new competitive pressure: 

Price.

The Surgery Center of Oklahoma has gone all in on the price front. 

Need an Achilles repair? $5,730.

How about a cochlear Implant? $8,800.

A breast lymph node image will set you back $815.

This is "all inclusive" pricing — one charge for the surgery, the facility fee, the surgeon’s fee and anesthesiologist’s fee. 

One charge. One bill. Simple for the patient.

Have insurance? Read this disclaimer: 

NOTE: If you are scheduled for surgery at our facility and we are filing insurance for you, the prices listed on this website do not apply to you.

That's because your insurance provider (whether it be a government-supported program like Medicare or Medicaid or private insurance) negotiates its own rates. They may be higher or lower. And you may never know (but you should!).

The message here? Price is important. More patients are responsible for covering more of the cost of their procedures. That means they will care more and more about price.

So in addition to posting information about quality scores and patient satisfaction scores, hospitals and doctors will now need to consider posting pricing.

Source: 37Signals

Novel approach gets 'Frequent Fliers' out of Oregon ER

Emergency Rooms are good for emergencies. But many people use them as their doctor's office.

These so-called "frequent fliers" often visit ERs for issues that could more easily — and inexpensively — be treated in a physician's office. The result is longer waits, higher costs and less satisfied patients.

Now Oregon is testing a program, Health Share, to see if they can change that.

Health Share of Oregon emerged from a group of private and public organizations addressing a single, complicated question: Can we together improve the quality of care and the care experience of Oregon Health Plan members, and do it for less money?

Early results are anecdotal, but Oregon has five years and almost $2 billion of federal backing to prove it can.

And, along the way, I expect they will have healthier and more satisfied patients.

Listen to an NPR piece jointly reported by NPR, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Kaiser Health News.

An app for just in case your kid gets hurt

If you have kids, you'll eventually need an app like this.

Wesley Kids is the creation of Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kan. It's a great "all-in-one" iPhone app that combines a super useful (and very deep) symptom checker with a family medication tracker. There is also parental advice on issues from "ADHD" to "whining."

Don't have an iPhone? Bookmark the website — it contains all of the symptom tracker content.

Download the app here.