Author Archive


08/17/10

Special Contributor | Building Medical Homes for Medicaid

Care Oregon, the state’s main Medicaid managed care plan, had two choices a few years ago, after many commercial partners in the Oregon Health Plan decided to get out of the money-draining business. It could go broke. Or it could change its world. It opted for the latter. Today, the Portland-based nonprofit CareOregon is a bit savvier about the business end of its mission. And it’s still trying to change its world. I started hearing about CareOregon here and there over the last year, and I heard several of its leaders—including CEO Dave ...
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06/22/10

Special Contributor | AGE-ing GRACE-fully

Transitions are one of the weak points in the U.S. health care system. Poor coordination and inadequate communication around transitions is particularly pronounced in the care of frail elderly people with multiple chronic diseases—or maybe an acute illness or injury on top of a whole big bunch of chronic diseases. Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis is a large urban safety net hospital serving largely low-income people, many of whom are “dually eligible” for Medicaid and Medicare. Led by geriatrician Dr. Steve Counsell, the hospital has been developing a multi-pronged strategy to ...
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04/20/10

Special Contributor | Centering — Better Health Care Without Higher Costs

Eight months pregnant, Elvira, 28, was poised, articulate and confident through a two-hour prenatal class. Then she formed a circle with 10 other mothers-to-be, caught a skein of bright pink yarn a nurse tossed to her, and burst into tears of gratitude. “Thank you, thank you, you have taught me so much,” Elvira said, clasping one strand of the yarn and tossing the skein on to another young woman, who gripped her strand, and tossed it on. The yarn crisscrossed their circle, binding them together in a flash of hot pink. The ...
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02/16/10

Special Contributor | Will Nutrition Labels on Menus Make America Healthy, Wealthy, and Svelte?

One perverse side effect of the stalled national health reform legislation is that popular, commonsense provisions tucked in the bills get stuck too. That includes the restaurant menu labeling requirement, which has support from Democrats; Republicans; the public health community; and, more recently, even the fast-food industry. I got sort of partial to this rule myself, particularly after I started writing about this topic and did a little online nutritional sleuthing about what I grab for lunch on busy days and what I feed my kids on road trips to the ...
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11/30/09

“Viewpoints” | Of Carrot Cake and Oreos

Dr. David Kessler, as you've probably heard, is out with a terrific best-seller called The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. The cover grabs your attention: very pure white glossy background with a carrot cake and carrots. I don't like carrot cake. But as I told Dr. Kessler, if the cover picture were an Oreo, I wouldn't be able to have his book in my house. I got to know Kessler while I was covering tobacco back in the late 1990s, but hadn't seen him in quite a few ...
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