Here are five observations on healthcare this week.
"I think that many of my friends in the Florida Senate — members of my party — have become lapdogs of the hospital industrial complex, and we don't share that view in the House…We're more free-market thinking and we want people to get coverage that is meaningful coverage, not this feel-good entitlement that ultimately drives our country further into debt, burrows deeper into the lives of our citizens and won't make people healthier."
- Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, (R-Fort Walton Beach), on Medicaid expansion, in the Bradenton Herald.
"The pace of change in Texas varies by part of the state. Some urban markets are narrowing networks and repricing hospital services pretty aggressively, but much of Texas is rural and those [rural] markets may be moving a bit more slowly. All of the Texas healthcare market is severely impacted by the combination of having the highest percentage of uninsured [patients] in America and having a legislature that has been unwilling to expand Medicaid eligibility as part of healthcare reform."
- Stephen Mansfield, PhD, president and CEO of Dallas-based Methodist Health System, on changes in Texas' healthcare delivery system, in Becker's Hospital Review.
"There's a huge appetite for getting better workflows into healthcare, looking at department specific and mobile apps. I would see an environment where hospitals and health systems would perhaps rip out and replace in some cases."
- Judy Hanover, IDC research director, on EHRs, in Forbes.
"You can't force patients with some sort of large stick to get on these portals…Their hearts are in the right place [at CMS], but I don't think the industry is quite caught up to where the industry should be."
- Robert Tennant, senior policy adviser at Medical Group Management Association, on meaningful use, in MedPage Today.
"My overarching goal is to get every individual, every institution and every sector in America… to ask themselves the question [of] what they can do to improve the health and strength of our nation,"
- Vivek Murthy, MD, 19th Surgeon General of the United States, on America's health issues, in The Washington Post.