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Prevention is More than a Promise
John Seffrin, Larry Hausner and Nancy Brown of the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association, respectively, recently wrote an op-ed about how the new health care law’s prevention and early detection programs have the potential to transform our health care...
Jul 02, 2010
Care Coordination in Pennsylvania
Wall Street Journal health reporter Shirley Wang highlighted Pennsylvania’s efforts to better coordinate care across the state in her article, “Pilot Plan On Health An Option For States.” It is the largest state pilot program of its kind in the U.S. and has made great strides in care coordination...
Jun 15, 2010
New finds on costs related to cancer
CDC and others have come out with an interesting study on costs related to cancer. The study was published in Cancer, the American Cancer Society's medical journal and you can read about it here. In a nutshell, the study found that the cost of treating cancer has nearly doubled over the past two...
May 11, 2010
Common Sense Health Care Reforms
Much of the health care reform debate has focused on a couple of controversial provisions: what role, if any, for a public plan; abortion and federal funding in the exchanges; can illegal immigrants buy insurance with their own money; and how to pay for the coverage expansions. With these more...
Jan 07, 2010
Evidence Ignored, Prevention Misunderstood
On Nov. 3, the Washington Times published the editorial, “The myth of preventive care,” which suggests prevention is being over promised in the political rhetoric surrounding health reform. Once again we’re throwing the baby out with the bath water—saying that prevention never saves money is...
Nov 05, 2009
Say "Yes" to Health Reform
Today, we launched “Say ‘Yes’ to Health Reform” – a Web-based video campaign featuring testimonials of Americans from across the country who are supporting health reform that helps to combat our problems with chronic illness and help improve prevention, wellness and disease management.   I had...
Oct 02, 2009
The Next 100 Days
Earlier today, I participated in press briefing - "The Next 100 Days: Some Final Hurdles in Health Reform"– held at the National Press Club. C-SPAN video of the event can be accessed here. At the briefing, I enjoyed hearing from my fellow panelists – Gail Wilensky, Dallas Salisbury and Riza...
Sep 04, 2009
New Study Looks At CBO Scoring of Diabetes Prevention
A study published yesterday in Health Affairs has re-generated buzz around Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring of chronic disease prevention. Co-authored by former HHS and CBO officials Michael O’Grady and Jim Capretta (who also authored a recent PFCD white paper on the subject) and two...
Sep 03, 2009
Falling Short of What’s Needed
Saturday’s Wall Street Journal editorial does an excellent job explaining the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and how it’s driving much of the cost increases in health care. The Journal cites many statistics that illustrate the scope of this problem, but let me add two more: The doubling of obesity...
Aug 04, 2009
Letter to President Obama
On May 12, President Obama met with employers and unions that have implemented innovative workplace wellness programs that showed success in improving the health of workers and reducing the rising rate of health care spending. It is important that we are actively identifying and examining...
Jun 12, 2009

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