There are hundreds of healthcare blogs out there. Combine these sources with e-newsletters, subscription services and the general press coverage, and you have a narrative on healthcare that takes one of several common forms.
First, there are the pieces that plunge wonkishly into the unfathomable depths of healthcare minutiae. These are delivered by suitably wonkish people who seem to take great pride in dragging us along through their jargon-filled environs until we are begging for mercy, eyes glazed over, and ready to accept their often misguided interpretations of healthcare finance policy and trends. They are "smart people" after all; why shouldn't we just listen. It's easier to read their conclusions anyway. And they have charts!
Then there are the press releases parading as news. These pieces too often spout an industry line and are delivered in newsletters and publications by writers who just a few years ago were blogging about real estate, car insurance, or some other narrow industry subject. With this crowd you get the mile wide, inch deep coverage of this business.
Of course, there is also the traditional media coverage which is read or heard popularly but reminds us of Michael Crichton's famous Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect:
“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is
as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you
know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read
the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of
either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it
actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call
these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In
any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in
a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs,
and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about
Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget
what you know.”
There are variations on these themes but they all leave room for a view informed by years of active experience in healthcare finance. That is the aim of this site. There is exciting news in healthcare. There are massive changes moving through the system. But it is a complex system, heavily regulated, financed, and shrouded by massive advertising and public relations budgets. Entire industries exist to keep it confusing to even heavy users of the healthcare finance system.
Some clear-mindedness is in order.
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