Public Citizen put together an important report in May that was mostly missed by the press (including me).
It's a comprehensive and critical investigation of The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), created by the Health Care Quality Improvement Act 19 years ago, ostensibly to protect patients from rogue doctors.
Lack of primary care and attention to chronic disease are the real ills of the health care system, panelists said at a seminar on health care reform for California Broadcast Fellows.
Anthony Iton, public health officer for Alameda County, says that 3 out of every 4 health care dollars goes to the treatment of chronic disease. "It is the elephant in the room. If you're not talking about chronic disease, you're not talking about health," he says.
Stan Rosenstein is a principal advisor at Health Management Associates. Previously, he was deputy director of medical care services and head of Medi-Cal for the California Department of Health Services. He began his career in state government in 1974 and joined the California Department of Health Services' Medi-Cal program as an analyst in 1977.
Keith Alley is the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UC Merced. Previously, he served as vice chancellor of research, the lead campus research officer, and was responsible for the development and support of research opportunities, initiatives and partnerships. In his dual position as dean of graduate studies, he also oversaw graduate degree programs and all issues related to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Julie Barnes is the director of health policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Previously, she served as deputy director of the health care policy program at the New America Foundation. In that role, she headed the program's Health Care Reform Communication Project, the purpose of which was to educate industry stakeholders and policymakers about the issues in the health care reform debate, facilitate discussions about those issues among the key players, and mediate those discussions to identify areas of agreement. Ms.
