Mighty Casey Media: Comedy Health Analyst

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UPDATE: Patients ARE smarter (and louder) … here’s proof

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It’s been a fun week here in Mighty Casey Media Land. We kicked off the week a little early (on Sunday) – the 411 on that is available here, and some of the social exhaust is available on Storify here and here. One member of the e-patient posse worried that the guy was gon’ have to enter witness protection, given the avalanche of opprobrium aimed his way from the expert-patient community.

In an email thread among a group of expert patients working on aggregating and curating patient-useable outcomes reporting tools, Dr. Corrie Painter said she had called the Brookings Institution, the think tank where the author of the US News piece that set my hair on fire does his think-tank thing, and left a terse message on the Governance Studies main line about pontificating patriarchal putzes (technical term).

Given my willingness to talk to anyone, any time, if it moves the needle on healthcare system transformation, I went one better and called the *other* number on the guy’s bio page. I expected to wind up leaving a voicemail, but …

He. Answered. The. Phone.

We talked for about 30 minutes, during which I assured him that I did *not* think that Yelp reviews were the ne plus ultra, or even a thing, when it came to outcome metrics on physicians and other clinical providers of medical services. But, as I pointed out in my “I’m channeling Lewis Black, with boobs, in healthcare here: righteous rage + cutting humor = driving that point home!” post, what real metrics are *available* to patients seeking intel on the expertise and outcomes of the doctors they go to for care?

There are PQRS and Physician Compare data sets, but they’re pretty small beer. Physician Compare serves up Medicare data – just *try* to find intel on a pediatrician, or an obstetrician, in that reporting tool.

In a follow-up post of his own, Yaraghi clarified his position on online review sites like Yelp *not* being the right place for medical provider ratings based on medical training, outcomes, or efficacy of care. His closing graf is the money shot for me:

Patients’ involvement in their medical care is the best thing that could happen to our severely sick health care system. Patients should have access to reliable and valid data to help them decide about their medical provider. They should have the capacity to shop around and visit multiple providers. Healthcare is the most important service we obtain in our life and being able to choose who provides it, in my opinion, is a fundamental patient right. Currently available online patient reviews however, are not the correct measure to rely on when making such a decision.

Net/net here: Niam Yaraghi is a guy with an open mind on the idea of patient expertise. In the days and weeks to come, I hope that the e-patient community turns out in force to engage him in conversation, and to make their case for both patient expertise and the deep need for effective, accessible physician scoring – on number of procedures, on patient satisfaction, on recurrence rates, on all stats relating to the efficacy and humanity of their care – that people can use to find the best doctor for their healthcare needs.

If you’d like proof of the kumbaya here, [now updated with video capture] here’s the Google Hangout on Air  hosted by David Harlow, HealthBlawg, who started this whole thing with a Twitter DM.


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Medical Monopoly: Medicine has a major image problem

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medical monopoly image
image credit: Alec

When you hear the word “monopoly,” does it fill you with a warm and fuzzy feeling? (Unless you’re Hasbro, you really should say no, unless you’re a cyborg.)

Healthcare is a monopoly. We can’t DIY cancer treatment, or surgically repair a broken hip for ourselves, so we have to go to the medical-industrial complex to regain our health if we wander into the weeds, health-wise. We also have deep difficulty accessing pricing information. I’ve talked about that here and in even more depth on the Cancer for Christmas blog over the last few years. Maybe not a monopoly in the financial-reg sense of the word, but it sure is mighty like a game of Monopoly.

This “chaos behind a veil of secrecy” (all credit for that phrase belongs to healthcare economist Uwe Reinhart) has created the impression in healthcare customers that there’s no way to tell what something will cost before you buy it. You checks the box and takes yer chances. No Get Out of the Hospital Free cards. No pass-the-admissions-counter-collect-$200 option. That’s a rotten way to run a railroad (one of the original monopoly industries in US history), and an even worse way to run a hospital.

Dan Munro wrote about this, and the star-chamber cabal that actually sets the prices in healthcare, the RUC, on Forbes.com yesterday. I’ve talked about the RUC myself. And the search for price transparency, which seemed such an outlier activity just a couple of years ago, is now popping up in the Well blog on the New York Times site, as well as on Reuters. The Reuters piece has the addition bonus of quotes from my buddy Jeanne Pinder, founder of ClearHealthCosts.com. (Yesterday was a big day in medical price transparency.)

This is the central reason I registered the hashtag #howmuchisthat with Symplur, the healthcare hashtag registry. We all have to start demanding that prices be visible, and that the RUC stop cabal-ing around with our lives and our wallets. As more and more people are finding themselves with high-deductible health insurance, asking how much things cost before you make a healthcare decision will become the norm. If a healthcare provider can’t answer that question, s/he will find that s/he’s seeing the patient panel sinking fast, along with practice revenue.

Get with it, medicine. Remake your image, and your brand, to be clear as glass and user-friendly. Outcome metrics along with pricing would be really nice, too.

Smokin’ deal. Brand/Social media audit. Get 2013 started right, CHEAP!

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smoking hot stuff
make your brand smokin’ hot!

It’s almost 2013.

Want to set your brand storytelling on fire for the New Year?

Looking to get your branding on social media in sync and hotter than Christmas in July?

Longing to create some emotional heat in the hearts of your customers?

Here’s how you can get 2013 off to a smokin’ hot brand-storytelling start, at a bargain-basement price:

Brand / social audit deals from Mighty Casey Media!

Here’s how it works.

  • Want a brand audit? 
    • I do a full website copy review
    • You get a written report with specific suggestions on:
      • Brand story opportunities
        • Are you telling the best story possible?
        • Are there holes in your story?
      • Website copy improvements
        • Too many words?
        • Not enough words?
        • Words that don’t work?
      • Newsletter editorial calendar outline for 2013
        • Monthly and quarterly tips to increase your email newsletter’s open rate
  • Want a social media audit? 
    • I do a full social media platform review (including your company blog)
    • You get a written report with specific suggestions on:
      • Content creation/curation for the social platforms you use
        • What to share
        • Where to share it
        • Content sources that will amp up your social story-telling
      • Social platforms that could add brand engagement
        • Are there social opportunities you’re missing?
      • Blog editorial calendar outline for 2013
        • Tips for making your weekly posts eyeball magnets for your target audience

OK, I know you have a question:

How much is it?

That’s easy.

$250 each.

Want to get both?

$400 if you buy both.

(That’s a $100 savings, in case your calculator’s broken.)

The catch? There are only 10 of each available.

If you want to take advantage of this deal, here are the steps:

  • Decide you want to buy
  • Email me with your web and/or social links by Monday, December 31, 2012

That’s it!

You’ll get your written report by January 9, 2013, along with a PayPal invoice.

Simple.

So what are you waiting for?

GO!

 

HealthWorksCollective video interview series … and me

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I had the privilege of talking to Joan Justice, who’s heading up the new HealthWorksCollective channel, which is part of the Social Media Today online media empire. My topic is the one that is becoming my tagline: healthcare costs, and “how much IS that?”

Paranoia: American as apple pie. And gunpowder.

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Yesterday (Monday, April 2, 2012) the US Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision on the legality of strip searches in jails and prisons.

strip searchThe news is not good for anyone who gets arrested – guilty or not – and proves that the precept of “innocent until proven guilty” is sinking beneath the surf of paranoia that has marked the last decade, and has been a dark underbelly of the American character since Columbus landed all those moons ago.

Which leads me to reflect on the fact that it appears that the more open and social global society becomes, the more paranoid some sectors of society in turn become.

Look at the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin incident in Sanford, Florida. Would Martin have been in danger of being pursued and shot by a self-appointed neighborhood watch volunteer if it were not for some serious societal paranoia that drove Zimmerman to feel that he needed to wander the streets strapped with a 9 mil?

Full disclosure: I’m a gun owner. Additional full disclosure: if someone breaks into my house when I’m there, they run a risk of getting a face-full of lead. However, I don’t walk in paranoia when walking the streets of the city where I live. And I didn’t on the streets of New York City for the 27 years I walked there, even though I often found myself in dangerous places because of my work in TV news.

The Kinks song “Destroyer” says it all:

Silly boy you got so much to live for
So much to aim for, so much to try for
You blowing it all with paranoia
You’re so insecure you self-destroyer

Paranoia, the destroyer
Paranoia, the destroyer

As a culture, I think we need to take a long hard look at how we view our fellow citizens, and how we react to their presence in our vicinity. How do you tell if someone “belongs” in your community? Is it based on clothing, demeanor, skin color, language, the car they drive, what?

If your negative-perception radar is pinged simply because someone looks different than you, or different from what your definition of “normal” is, what does that mean about you? Does it mean you’ll shoot a dwarf who walks down your street because s/he is different?

Think about it. Your behavior could lead to a strip search … of you.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

FDA paranoia – who knew?

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In its rigorous search for food & drug safety, the FDA added searching through the personal emails of agency employees who questioned FDA decisions.

That would be an oops – for both sides of that story.

fda titanic
(c) PBS | Frontline

Here’s the lowdown: on Sunday (Jan. 29, 2012) the Washington Post reported that the FDA was being sued by staffers – scientists and doctors charged with testing medical devices – for harassment and wrongful dismissal as a result of the agency’s surveillance of their personal email accounts. That email surveillance revealed that the FDA staffers were contacting Congressional staff with whistle-blower complaints about FDA approval of devices that the scientists and docs thought were a risk to patients.

Hue and cry! Bad FDA!

Actually, I agree that the snoopy surveilling of personal email accounts is creepy, even wrong.

However, here’s the rub: the FDA staffers were accessing their personal email using computers at work. At the FDA. Within the Federal government IT infrastructure. You know, the people that oversee other stuff like Echelon. And the Pentagon. Gee, FDA guys plotting whistle-blower campaigns on work computers – stupid much?

On the FDA side of the story, we have creepy fascist tactics deployed by an agency that should be all about making sure that no pharmaceutical, no medical device, no food product makes anyone sick. Or worse, dead.

The record there? Not so stellar. Can you say Vioxx?

On the outraged-former-employee side of the story, we have some folks who thought they were veryvery smart (scientists and MDs always think that, trust me), but who played veryvery stupid on the interwebz.

Accessing personal email on a computer that belongs to your employer is pretty dumb if you’re doing or saying anything that casts a shadow on the hand that feeds you. Yes, that means you become the bad dog, and that’s not a great role to play. Because “no-no-bad-dog!” translates to “your ass is fired” in this scenario.

Even if you’re on your own computer, and you’re using your employer’s network or VPN, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

It boils down to this: just like anything else on the web, don’t put anything on it/through it unless you’re willing to either have it on page 1, above the fold, of the WaPo or the New York Times. Or your boss’s desktop.

The saddest part of this story is that the FDA really does need a total tear-down. It’s become too obstructionist to what could really improve public health, and too easy-peasy for big-money players who want to make the system work for Citizen Corporate, not Mr./Ms. Every-patient.

This lawsuit could become quite the precedent-setter, if it gets past the lower courts with its plaintiffs intact.

Stay tuned for further developments. I sure will.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …