Health for life

Baron Von Munchhausen

Despite host Peter Segals occasionally highbrow insider cleverness, The Disease Management Care Blog remains a loyal fan of NPRs "Wait Wait... Dont Tell Me" radio show.  While the DMCB has its suspicions about the ratio of truly spontaneous wit to pre-planned ripostes, that wont stop it from turning to a part of the show called Bluff the Listener for bloggy inspiration.

BtL has guests try to guess which of three funny stories is based on a real true news report. The DMCB thinks health care is so wacky that itd be more challenging to guess which of the four stories below is false.

Unfortunately, if you win, getting the DMCB to put its voice on your home answering machine is unlikely to impress anyone. However, if you can pick out which story is a complete Munchhausenesque fabrication, you will deserve the respect of your friends and co-workers.

Ready to try to get some bragging rights?


Even doltish man-trolls know better than to try to organize an all-male blogging conference. Unable to reach out to that demographic, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius did whats best: appeared before the annual "BlogHer" Conference in an appeal to women bloggers to tout the benefits of Obamacare. Her outreach supplements plans to rely on celebrities to help with a nationwide drive to increase enrollment through the insurance exchanges. Next up will be effort to recruit motor scooter owners to sport pro-Obamacare ads on the back of their helmets.  Then its on to asking members of the European Beret Society to host recruitment drives at their monthly chardonnay tastings.

Answer here.


Al Lewis and Vik Khanna condemned the wellness industry in a Wall Street Journal editorial when they proclaimed that "workplace programs dont work." They went on to say that they are "ineffective at reducing costs, lack support in the medical literature, are unpopular enough to require incentives and are occasionally even harmful." Yet, the Khanna On Health Blogs “workplace wellness consulting” page suggests the authors’ unique consulting insights can help potential customers “do wellness right.” Did the DMCB mention that both individuals are lawyers?

Answer here.


Writing in a separate issue of the Wall Street Journal, former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean actually attacked Obamacare by criticizing its Independent Payment Advisory Board as a rate setting enterprise that is doomed to failure. Brazenly using Tea Party terms such as "bureaucrats" and "health rationing," Dr. Deans liberal-progressive apostasy prompted ACA architect Peter Orszag to curiously opine in a separate article in Bloomberg that the argument favoring IPAB is that it will be a much better rate setting body than Congress. If this keeps up, even labor unions will start criticizing Obamacare.

Answer here.


While partisan blood continues to spill over Obamacare in Washington DC, there is much good news outside the beltway.  Its been announced that the IRS will not only rely on self-reporting of income levels in setting premium subsidies. Even better, individuals who qualify for tax credits while buying their health insurance with the on-line exchanges will get a two-fer: 1) the option of applying the rebates to reduce their monthly premiums, and 2) confidence that there wont be any tax liability "claw backs" should their final income be higher than anticipated. Interest and penalties will be optional.

Answer here

Have you been stymied by health cares complexity? Are you unable to find that one intervention that predictably leads to a desired outcome? Are your best laid plans being upended by countervailing poverty and undereducation? Do you want to make a big splash that portrays your health care chops?

The Disease Management Care Blog says "No problem!" because the fix is simple:

Find a catchy health care motto.

Among the more famous are Richard Nixons "War on Cancer" and the geneticists "Personalized Medicine." The latest candidate is the term "AIDS Free Generation" embraced by Secretary of State Hillary Clintons at the International AIDS 2012 Conference. Ms. Clinton really stepped up with a compelling vision thing, got some major jumbotron time and launched a new nostrum into the global miasma of big government solutioning. Its enough to give the DMCB goosebumps. If this keeps up, humanity can look forward to a future where we all die of nothing.

Dont get the DMCB wrong. $150 million will save many lives, but the idea that HIV transmission will be completely halted in 2015 seems fantastical, naive and a little dishonest. Contrast that with William Bennetts reframing the "War On Drugs" with a more honest stretch goal of a "50%" reduction in U.S. drug abuse.  It didnt end well, but give the guy credit for telling it like it is.

The DMCBs conclusions:

1. Beware politicians with little reality-tested experience taking advantage of our desire for easy answers wrapped in short catchphrases. While our aspirations should exceed our reach, the DMCB cautions that we need to be on the lookout for health policy hope being undercut by hype.

2. Ms. Clintons political skills are considerable.  The DMCB finds it unlikely this political impresario will simply fade away.

3. This false god of health care perfection summed up with easy answers may be one of the reasons why all those local QI programs aim for "100% HEDIS compliance" and "zero" hospital readmissions. Who can blame them when our political class is leading the way?

The DMCB felt so strongly about this, it proposes its own motto: "Be motto free with the DMCB."