Discover the Science of Health
A recent survey by CVS Caremark found that 78% of consumers who qualify for healthcare reform subsidies have never heard of state-based healthcare insurance exchanges where they will have to shop for coverage next year [1]. Although the exchanges are being promoted as transparent and user friendly, 60% of respondents said they believe they will need help to understand health insurance terms and navigate the system.
TeleVox, a high-tech engagement communications company that provides automated voice, email, text and web solutions that activate positive patient behaviors through the delivery of a human touch, recently released a study combining consumer and healthcare provider opinion entitled “Healthcare Change: The Time is Now” [1]. The report, which addresses the healthcare industry’s essential shift away from primarily treating illness to keeping people healthy, reveals that the majority of healthcare practices across the country aren’t prepared to meet the demand of the 46.6 million Medicare beneficiaries who are now eligible for wellness visits.
President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in to law in March 2010 after a year of intense national debate. On Thursday last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld law, ruling that the individual mandate, which requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage or pay a penalty, is constitutional as a tax. The ruling will have a far-reaching impact on healthcare providers, especially for those who work with underserved populations.
All too often, the most brutal part of a bout with cancer is radiation therapy. X rays are electromagnetic waves that travel with a constant amount of energy, so although they effectively kill cancer cells, they pass through the skin and healthy tissues on their way to and from the tumor. In doing so, they damage the normal cells in their path. Protons, on the other hand, are particles that have a mass and a charge (they are positive). They can thus be targeted with exquisite specificity only to the tumor site, emitting the bulk of their radiation there and there only and sparing patients the terrible side effects that can accompany therapy with X rays.
Welcome to Grand Rounds: the Impact of Healthcare Reform.
For this edition of Grand Rounds, Vol. 7 No. 11, we’re focusing on the impact of healthcare reform: what are the changes to healthcare delivery, utilization, quality, costs (either as a provider or a patient) and outcomes. After all, these changes affect everyone, whether you’re a patient, a healthcare provider or a biomedical researcher.
