In 1992 I was contacted by the editor of the Accent II, Aurora, Colorado’s weekly magazine inserted into the daily paper.  At the time, I was serving as the executive director of Humana Hospital Aurora.  The topic was health care reform.  This same article could be published today with very few tweaks and would be [...]

The major elements of the health care reform proposals being debated in Congress have remained the same from the start. The focus on improving quality, lowering costs and providing better access to health care has generated many meaningful proposals for reform that are supported by the American Hospital Association and many other healthcare providers. This [...]

Dr. Atkinson was recently featured in a documentary series on health care called “Focal Point: Critical Condition.” If you missed it last week, you can catch it here. The series examines the challenges that people and businesses in North Carolina face under the current health care system, and was produced by WRAL-TV.

I recently met with hospital leaders in North Carolina and across the nation to talk about health care reform.  As a member of the American Hospital Association’s task force on payment reform, we spent much of our time discussing how reform will likely change the way hospitals and other health care providers are paid (or [...]

A few weeks ago I spoke with a group of graduate students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health about health care in America today. We talked about where the American Hospital Association (AHA) stands on reform, what to expect in future health care trends, and when to anticipate seeing real change in [...]

 
Still confused about the various legislative plans to reform our health care system? There are several useful articles out there that explain what the plans say, and many have been posted in the News Feed right here on our blog.
One good resource is the New York Times’ latest chart – it outlines the major differences between the [...]

A few weeks ago, a group of physicians from WakeMed and other Triangle hospitals traveled to Washington to talk with North Carolina’s Congressional delegation about several aspects of health care reform, including the need to address medical malpractice issues.
Their visit coincided with a report from the Congressional Budget Office indicating that malpractice reform could have [...]

As part of its ongoing series on health care reform, The News & Observer’s Martha Quillin has an excellent story on today’s front page about the struggles of Gail Johnson, a 55-year-old woman whose employer does not offer health insurance.  The article touches on several issues that Dr. Atkinson has discussed on this blog, including [...]

The two hottest topics in health care these days are Health Care Reform and H1N1 (aka swine flu).  Today there are two local events on these exact topics.
Health Care Reform
U.S. Representative Etheridge is hosting a discussion on the impact of health care reform on senior citizens this afternoon from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm at the [...]

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for health care reform.  Here are links to a couple of interesting articles that sum up the conversation.
“Finance Committee Passes Bill With One GOP Vote” Washington Post
“Health-Care Reform Proposals” The Wall Street Journal – This chart compares various versions of health care reform legislation. We’ve posted several charts [...]