Tag Archive: health care

Can we rate heart surgeries like blenders?

by Sarah Dorsey

investigations

Sep 9, 2010 11:41 am

The Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, released a set of ratings yesterday for something rather more important than appliances: heart bypass surgery. Using data submitted to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the Consumers Union has graded various heart surgery groups using a three-star scale, similar to the way it rates radios, cameras and washing machines. It's a set of valuable public data that could serve as a model for expanding the Department of Health and Human Services' open government sites like Data.medicare.gov and the Community Health Data Initiative.

The heart surgery ratings are based on ...

Reid gets support from drug companies after preserving deal in health care reform

by Paul Blumenthal Jul 8, 2010 5:16 pm

The pharmaceutical industry is beginning to wade into the 2010 midterm elections in support of those that helped to preserve... View Article

OGD: A state-by-state look at Medicare payments

by Sarah Dorsey

investigations

Apr 23, 2010 11:03 am

Click on the picture for a larger version.

Over the last few years, hospitals in a few states have consistently received more money than others from Medicare in so-called "outlier payments" for inpatient services. These additional payments are handed out when a hospital takes on an unusually expensive case.

This takeaway comes from a quick review of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)' "Dashboard," a new online repository of spending data.

While the Dashboard is still in its beta version, and currently only has inpatient data (no home health or nursing home information, for example), a few points ...

OGD: Future Medicare data looks promising

by Sarah Dorsey

investigations

Apr 12, 2010 3:28 pm

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services appear to be on to something with their promised new datasets. It's a leap for an agency whose previous offerings were a confusing mishmash of poorly-labeled files. If they continue to add granularity as they roll out more features, journalists could have a useful and innovative set of tools on their hands.

The “Dashboard” CMS intends to create, a demo of which is currently online, looks at Medicare spending on services. It's a good tool for quickly grasping the big picture; you can view data as a bubble chart, for example ...

Frontline: Obama’s Deal (April 13, 9PM)

by Paul Blumenthal Apr 9, 2010 12:03 pm

PBS’ Frontline is running an investigation into the various negotiations and deals that led to the formation of the health... View Article

Last Minute Drug Deal In Health Care Reform

by Paul Blumenthal Mar 30, 2010 12:27 pm

Concessions to the pharmaceutical industry were added to the reconciliation bill after the industry agreed to provide additional savings requested... View Article

Health Sector Contributions by Party (1990-2008)

by Paul Blumenthal Mar 26, 2010 4:06 pm

From the 1990 election cycle to the 2008 election cycle the health sector contributed over $829 million to candidates for... View Article

After health care vote, members turn to earmark requests

by Anu Narayanswamy

investigations

Mar 26, 2010 11:14 am

[Note: this post has been corrected and revised]

~~A day after Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and ten other House members compromised on their pro-life objections to the bill to deliver the necessary yes-votes to pass health care reform,~~ [Begin new:]On Monday, March 22, House members turned from the contentious vote on the trillion dollar national health insurance reform to focus on more mundane matters--like requesting $84,400 for local geriatric health care education programs.

That was one of more than 170 earmarks requested by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., one of 11 lawmakers who were closely targeted by the Democratic ...