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Register for a free digital subscriptionVol. 16, No. 2
February 2007
The turnaround of the Veterans Health Administration is astonishing and heartening, and worth examining. Much credit goes to Kenneth Kizer, MD, who graces our cover.
Physicians and policymakers are tackling the problem of direct-to-consumer advertising, and they're asking health plans for help. There's a growing body of evidence about DTC's effects.
Maggie Mahar, author of Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, argues that market forces are great for many things, but health care isn't one of them.
Life After Average Wholesale Price
Health insurers must learn to adjust to the replacement of the AWP methodology that's been the historic benchmark for drug prices. Confusion doesn't exactly reign — yet.
Should Wellness Be an Option or a Mandate?
A combination of patient incentives and penalties seems to be working in two cutting-edge programs. One is being run by a Blues plan; the other by a state Medicaid agency.
One man can make a difference.
Reform makes for strange bedfellows.
News and Commentary
Covering Post-MI Therapies Could Save Billions in Long Run
HSA Reform Allows Increased Contributions
Employer-sponsored insurance coverage rates falling [chart]
Companies Complain About Costs
Medicare Part D Cost Increase Estimate Lowered
Undertreatment of Childhood Obesity Blamed on Coding
Headlines On Deadline ...
Can the VHA system work for Part D?
Docs say pay too tied to productivity.
Low copayment, high compliance.
Business bullish on care management.
Pexelizumab stumbles in clinical trials.
Increased child coverage in 2007.