Start with NPR’s Julie Rovner, who reports on a meeting of doctors, hospitals and “health luminaries” about how some communities – including Portland, Maine –have manage to keep costs down while delivering measurably better care.
The health care debate in Washington has basically deteriorated into a choice between raising taxes or cutting care. But “that’s wrong,” says Don Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. “There’s a third way. It’s redesign.”
To try to prove his point, Berwick, along with health luminaries Elliott Fisher of the Dartmouth Medical School, Atul Gawande of Harvard and Mark McClellan of the Brookings Institution, brought doctors and hospital officials to Washington from 10 communities around the U.S. where health spending is lower than average and health care outcomes are better than average.
And…
- Tuesday’s Talk of the Nation asked — Are Health Insurance Companies The Problem?
- Then come back to town where Robin Young at WBUR’s Here and Now talks to Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change. Listen here or tune in at noon.
- Also at WBUR: Martha Bebinger filed two reports last week on the state proposal for global payments.
- More on that topic from a range of players on WBUR’s Commonhealth blog.
Boston Health News 