Monthly Archives: May 2011

Follow the Money

Posted on May 31, 2011 by
Where have all the primary care docs gone?

This weekend’s NY Times had an Op-Ed by doctors Peter Bach and Robert Kocher about why medical school should be free for people willing to pursue a career in primary care.  Drs. Bach and Kocher note that primary care is critical to the successful improvement of quality and cost in the healthcare system and yet the American Academy of Family Physicians has estimated a shortfall of 40,000 primary care doctors by 2020.  Their point is that despite these statistics, the system is somewhat rigged against primary care physicians (“PCPs”)….it costs them just as much as specialists to go to medical school but they come out making 58% of the money ($190K vs. the $325K of the average specialist).  Thus, since we need PCPs far more than we need more specialists, let’s pay for PCP candidates to go to medical school but effectively cause those going into specialty care to cover the costs of those who remain as PCPs.  In other words, let those who will financially benefit from their career choice (specialists) subsidize those that, for all intents and purposes, go into a life of “medical public service” (my term, … (read the rest)

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Irritable? Could be Worm on the Brain

Posted on May 26, 2011 by
worm2

My co-worker of 21 years, who many of my colleagues know as the Other Lisa (I am sure her fans think of me as the Other Lisa), has one of those daily calendars where each day has a new quote.  In this case her calendar features the wit and wisdom of one of my favorite humor writers, Dave Barry.  On May 2, 2011, the calendar offered up this particular Dave Barry sentiment:

If you ever experience a medical symptom, such as itching, you don’t need to waste time sitting in a doctor’s waiting room reading 1997 issues of Redbook.  Instead you can go to the Internet, and with just a few mouse clicks, you’ll discover the reassuring truth:  There might be a worm in your brain.  Really.  According to a medical site called Medline Plus (“Trusted Health Information for You”) sponsored by the National Medical Library AND the National Institutes of Health, itching can be a symptom of a condition called visceral larva migrans (literally, “a worm in your brain).  And before I get a bunch of nasty letters from irate physicians attacking me for unnecessarily scaring people, let me … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s the End of the World As We Know It

Posted on May 22, 2011 by
duh

Well, we’re alive. Despite the possibility that the world would pass its “use by” date on Saturday, everyone I have checked with is still here. At 6:00 pm on May 21st, 2011, the official time scheduled for the Rapture, I was using my last few moments to crack open peanuts at the Giants v. A’s baseball game (Tim Lincecum pitched a full game shut out—maybe it should have been called the Freakkkture?).  Years from now, when we think back on this day, will people be asking each other, “where were you when nothing happened?”

To be honest, I assumed the whole Rapture thing was the Republican’s insidious plot to kill off Obamacare once and for all. And yet, since it didn’t work out as planned, maybe it was actually a Democrat plot.

One thing’s for sure: our current healthcare system is definitely reaching the so-called end of days.  There is no way our economy can sustain the ongoing inflation it has been experiencing.  Healthcare cost the country $2.5 trillion in 2009 but is expected to hit $4.5 trillion by 2019, according to the Altarum Institute. The healthcare … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Healthcare: When Innovation is Not Enough

Posted on May 17, 2011 by
Meet the new Chief Innovation Officer

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending an event put together by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a branch of the US Department Of Health and Human Services whose mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans.  AHRQ has established an Innovations Exchange designed to speed the implementation of new and better ways of delivering health care.  This particular event was called Scale Up and Spread and was designed to let several of the innovations brought to light through the Innovation Exchange be reviewed by a panel of industry people, Shark Tank style.

If you have seen the show Shark Tank, which I wrote about recently, you can appreciate that they called this a Fish Tank event, as the goal was for the panel to provide pointed feedback to the “innovators” but in a constructive and less confrontational manner than you might find in the TV show.  Not a shark fin in sight, unless you count the one I had to hide with my cardigan since I was the only private equity person in the … (read the rest)

Posted in Health and Wellness, Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Your Returns Are Lifting Me Higher…

Posted on May 13, 2011 by
primary protein served at Medical Marijuana deal closing dinner

I have often joked with friends that I have gone into the wrong area of investing as the perks are lame.  As a healthcare investor, I can get a free hearing aid or diabetes test whenever I want one, but who the hell wants something that just proves you’re old?  It’s the guys who invest in entertainment, media, even technology that get all the good stuff:  free iPads, concert tickets, meetings with celebrities.  But lo and behold, there is a brave new world of venture investing out there where the perk possibilities are really unique.

In an article entitled Medical Marijuana Companies Chase Investors, Eye IPOs, Dow Jones’ reporters write one of the best opening sentences I have seen in recent financial services reportage, “In what was once a pipe dream, medical-marijuana companies are courting private investors and even planning public stock sales.”  I will confess, I am listening to Van Morrison’s “And it Stoned Me” while I write this piece, which my daughter suggests cannot be coincidence.

The article describes a rapidly growing (pun intended) trend for investors to make seed and venture investments (or maybe it’s venture … (read the rest)

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How Health Insurers Can Avoid Being Blockbuster in a Netflix World

Posted on May 4, 2011 by
bird

Talking about health insurance is a good way to clear a room. It is a rare person who is excited to interact with their insurance company or who can understand the explanation of benefits they receive in the mail detailing all of the things that the insurance carrier has decided not to pay on their behalf. According to JD Power and Associates, only four out of ten people fully understand their health benefit plan. No doubt those four are also able to read the Dead Sea Scrolls in their original text.

JD Power also found that consumers rank health insurers at 710 on a 1000-point scale, a number heading downhill faster than Lindsey Vonn. In contrast, consumers rank homeowners insurance carriers at 750 on a 1000-point scale and auto insurers at 837. Nothing like being last place in the league: just ask the Minnesota Twins.

“So what am I supposed to do about it?” you might say. “My employer gives me whatever insurance they want to give me and I have little say in it.” We as consumers have become accustomed to paying (through paycheck deductions and lower wages) … (read the rest)

Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Patient Safety, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sound and Fury Signifying Quite a Lot, Actually

Posted on May 3, 2011 by
Is this any basis for a business?

This last week I attended Health Evolution Partners’ Leadership Summit in Laguna Niguel.  If you have to leave home for work, Laguna Niguel is the place you want to go.  I had a moment during the closing dinner where, on the lawn just beyond my ocean cliff-side table, there were six little bunnies hopping around and in the water behind them dolphins were swimming.  You would have sworn this was a Disney production, except everyone at my dinner table worked in the healthcare industry.  While there is a lot of Mickey Mouse behavior in healthcare, these were some pretty great people with whom to have dinner.

Anyway, at the kick-off event of the conference there was a panel of four health insurance executives representing some of the largest companies in that field (Aetna, United Healthcare, Humana).  Jeff Margolis, CEO of Trizetto, which makes its money selling IT systems to these guys, was the moderator.  One of the questions he started with was, “Do health plans need to repudiate their heritage and do things differently [to survive]?”

While they did it in different ways, the members of this health insurance … (read the rest)

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