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Everyone is talking about the excessive cost of medical care, and people are proposing many top-down solutions. But you can start saving money on health care today, according to our guest Dr. Cynthia Koelker, Dr. Koelker is author of the book 101 Ways to Save Money on Health Care. She points out that one of the primary problems … Read more about this episode...

On our show last week, we discussed a list of 20 tips to help you avoid medical errors. But who can remember 20 tips? One way is to create a checklist. Checklists help avoid errors. But there may be a simpler way to improve patient safety. The National Patient Safety Foundation has come out with the Ask Me 3 program. … Read more about this episode...

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) notes that one in seven hospitalized Medicare patients experience a medical error. That’s too many, despite the efforts of doctors and other health care provider to improve patient safety. If you are sick or hospitalized, there are many things you can do to avoid medical errors. AHRQ has published a list … Read more about this episode...

University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor John Cochrane says, there is a “coherent free-market, deregulated alternative” to our current health care system, and that the “Affordable Care Act” isn’t the way to get there. Cochrane believes there are ways to assure that people with pre-existing conditions can get health care without the need for individual mandates.… Read more about this episode...

The prices of some drugs are extraordinarily high. Patients may need those drugs but may find the high price, even just the copayment after insurance, to be unaffordable. What to do!? Drug company sponsored coupons that help cover the copayment can help rescue the situation. But are those coupons a good thing? The may increase the use of expensive drugs … Read more about this episode...

In contrast to much of the rest of the U.S. economy, our health care system is a cobbled, poorly coordinated system. Health insurance is provided largely by government and by employers. Do employers, who have lots of experience with well working markets, have market-based solutions for health care problems? Our guest today is Helen Darling from the National Business Group … Read more about this episode...

There are a lot of doctors out there. How do you find a great one? Do you rely on word of mouth? This week, we talk with William Liss-Levinson, Ph.D. about top doctors. Bill is Vice President and Chief Strategy & Operations Officer for Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. Castle Connolly helps people find and access great medical care. It … Read more about this episode...

On last week’s program, Tom Hubbard, Senior Program Director at NEHI, a national health policy institute and think tank, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, spoke about some of the practical ways to reform our health care system. This week, we continue the discussion, focusing on how poorly some patients use their medications and what can be done to improve medication … Read more about this episode...

On today’s program, Tom Hubbard, Senior Program Director at NEHI, a national health policy institute and think tank, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, joins us. NEHI has a diverse membership of 80 member organizations, including patient groups, doctors, health insurers and drug companies. These organizations have a shared interest in better patient outcomes and a shared interest in greater use … Read more about this episode...

Poor use of medication, also called poor adherence, is responsible for medications not working nearly as well as they could. Patients don’t take their medications for a variety of reason, including forgetfulness, fears, side effects, costs, complexity (especially for older folks) and non-belief in efficacy. Our guest today is Rebecca Burkholder, Vice President of Health Policy for the … Read more about this episode...

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently published a report on how state health insurance exchanges can help promote health care quality and reduce health care costs. Our guest this week, NCQA president Margaret O’Kane, describes what these exchanges can do. What are exchanges? The health insurance exchanges will be state run insurance plans that pool risk and … Read more about this episode...

Medicare provides health insurance coverage to an enormous number of Americans. It is efficient, but very costly. If only something could be done to make it more innovative…. Something is being done. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, has an Innovation Center that is developing and testing new ways of paying for health care, new approaches designed to … Read more about this episode...

The medical care system functions very well on a day-to-day basis. Sure, it has its warts, but far more often than not, if you have a medical problem, you can get great medical care for it. But what if there were a major catastrophe in the United States? What if our medical system weren’t functioning? Would you be prepared to … Read more about this episode...

Controversy about online doctor ratings abounds. Some doctors fear that disgruntled patients will make doctors look bad with no recourse for the doctor to respond (because of patient confidentiality reasons). Should online doctor rating be banned? Show host Dr. Steve Feldman talks about the advantages and disadvantages of online doctor ratings. For him, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, giving … Read more about this episode...

Our guest today, Peter Ferrara, is Senior Fellow, Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute and author “The Obamacare Disaster.” On today’s program, Ferrara discusses the fundamental problem in our health care system today that makes the system so terribly costly: a third party payment system in which the consumer of care, the patient, does not … Read more about this episode...

Narrative—storytelling—plays a crucial role in how people interact, including interactions between patients and physicians. We discuss the narrative medicine with Dr. Rita Charon, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Executive Directior of the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Dr. Charon describes how stories are involved in how people know they are sick and in how they communicate that … Read more about this episode...

The Association of American Medical College (AAMC), the organization that certifies American medical schools, published a report on the behavioral and social science foundations of medical training. We discuss the AAMC report with Dr. Rita Charon, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Executive Directior of the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Dr. Charon describes how social and … Read more about this episode...

Stress contributes to poor health and poor quality of life. What is stress? According to physician and stress coach Dr. Mort Orman, stress is just a word, not a distinct entity. Part 1 of our discussion with Dr. Orman focused on defining what we mean by stress. The word stress can be used to mean different things. Orman stresses (pardon … Read more about this episode...

Stress contributes to poor health and poor quality of life. What is stress? According to physician and stress coach Dr. Mort Orman, stress is just a word, not a distinct entity. Part 1 of our discussion with Dr. Orman focuses on defining what we mean by stress. The word stress can be used to mean different things. Orman … Read more about this episode...

Modern medications are light years ahead of the treatments doctors had to offer years ago, but many patients don’t get the full benefit. Studies have shown that many patients aren’t taking their medication. We’re joined today by Dr. Nathaniel M. Rickles, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Administration at Northeastern University and author of Social and Behavioral Aspects of … Read more about this episode...