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What's New with The Lund Report

Our breaking news stories and commentaries are giving The Lund Report the distinction of being the prominent source of health policy news in the Pacific Northwest. Learn more about our evolving role in this timely article.
June 19, 2013 -- The Lund Report drives dialogue in healthcare with innovative thinking, original analysis and investigative reporting. Committed to increasing the health of Oregonians, we give professionals and the public the keys to unlock Oregon’s healthcare system. Read More >>

Inconsistent Oregon Healthcare Workforce Policies Undermine the Triple Aim

The author maintains that Senate Bill 2, which would give $4.9 million in scholarships to OHSU physicians will perpetuate discrimination against other teaching colleges such as the National College of Natural Medicine.
OPINION – June 19, 2013 -- The Lund Report article on June 13, “OHSU Scholarship Bill Passes Budget Committee Over Bates’ Objections,” examines Sen. Alan Bates’ opposition to SB 2, which proposes giving $4.9 million in scholarships to OHSU’s doctors who agree to serve in rural, underserved areas. The National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) concurs with many of his objections to this bill. We have additional concerns, however, and believe the bill as written will ultimately undermine its goal of improving patient access to qualified physicians in underserved communities. Read More >>

Privacy Rights Can Threaten Physician-Patient Relationship

The author comments on Edward Snowden’s leak of top-secret documents asserting that we should demand a right to privacy, which is our fundamental intellectual and spiritual property.
OPINION – June 11, 2013 -- Edward Snowden’s dramatic leak of top-secret documents to Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald is jolting. While Congress and the White House express moral outrage over the laws he broke, we should give pause to Snowden’s wrenching statement. "The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change." Read More >>

Insurer Considers Treatment Experimental, Yet Patient Still Alive Six Years Later

An article appearing in Scientific American discusses the Blood Brain Barrier Disruption procedure pioneered by Dr. Ed Neuwelt of OHSU which has been successful.
OPINION – June 11, 2013 -- I never imagined I would hear these words – “You have cancer. A tumor in the brain.” Lying on the hospital bed, paralyzed on the right side of my body, I gasp! The doctor continues with – “It’s a rare cancer – Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma. Right now you are looking, at most, a three week survival.” Read More >>

Hospital-to-Hospital Clinical Integration Programs Represent Good Alternative

Such programs can improve outcomes, reduce medical errors and hospital lengths of stay and lower infection rates, according to the author
OPINION – June 4, 2013 -- In many areas of the country, hospital providers are developing Centers of Excellence, Preventive Care, and Service Line Improvement models with other hospitals to provide greater quality care at lower costs. These models generally do not involve the often high costs of an acquisition and its attendant integration costs. There is a recent trend toward even greater coordination by and among non-affiliated hospitals across the board through hospital-to-hospital (H2H) clinical integration (CI). Such programs can obviate the need for hospitals “to be acquired” to compete in today’s marketplace, and thus can help stem the tide of increases in healthcare costs. Read More >>

Physician, First Do No Harm - To Yourself

A retreat for physicians allows them to say the word suicide out loud for the first time.
OPINION – May 21, 2013 -- A psychiatrist in Seattle had picked out the bridge.  At 3 a.m. he would swerve across his lane and plunge into the water. Everyone would assume he fell asleep. Read More >>

Cost of Coverage – The Real Measure of Health Reform Impact

The author who runs an insurance agency in Roseburg, contends that only low-income Oregonians and people on Medicaid will benefit from the insurance reforms under the Affordable Care Act
OPINION – May 20, 2013 -- Prior to actual plan pricing being available, everyone, including me, tried to predict how much the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would increase premiums. Estimates generally ranged from 25 percent to 38 percent, and I was on the high end. So we all knew premiums were most likely going to increase, we just weren’t sure how much. All these efforts to predict were generally done on a false assumption that similar plans to the new Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze plans were available already, and all we had to do was predict the added cost of the new 2014 ACA requirements. These included a change in rating methods, added preventive benefits and guaranteed issue with no health restrictions, in addition to added fees and taxes. None of these plans actually existed. We knew prices were going up but not actually how this would impact the people who buy health insurance and those who haven’t, but are now required to or pay a fine. Read More >>

128 Students to Receive $2,000 KAISER Permanente Health Care Career Scholarships on May 18

May 15, 2013 — When Annel Mendoza was 6 or 7, she learned her cousin had a heart murmur. After watching her cousin go from surgery through recovery, Mendoza decided that she wanted to become a heart surgeon. Read More >>

What is the Successful Path to Healthcare Cost Containment?

The author not only shares his preferences for a health plan but encourages readers to come up with their own alternatives.
OPINION – May 13, 2013 -- The rise in healthcare costs has inflamed our public policy debate for decades, leaving a trash heap of unsuccessful pursuits and discredited experts. The cost of a robust health insurance policy, left unsubsidized is hard to justify for most sensible individuals. And subsidies in all forms are inflationary. Isn't it essential that we break this behavior of pursuing unproven policies merely because we believe in their likely merit? We do not even have consensus that the cost of healthcare should have influence on our personal demand for services. How do we possibly control costs when so many believe costs to be an offensive consideration? So what is the right path forward? What health plan constraints would you accept? Read More >>

Oregon’s Health Insurance “Experiment” Must Lead to Improved Health Outcomes

The medical director of the North by Northeast Medical Center has declared her center a heart attack and stroke-free zone.
OPINION – May 10, 2013 -- There has been a lot of attention paid this week to “Oregon’s Health Insurance Experiment.” The term refers to a study, published in the May 2, 2013 New England Journal of Medicine, which set out to calculate the effect of Medicaid coverage on health behaviors and health outcomes. Differences were examined between about 6,000 low-income Oregonians randomly selected by lottery for coverage under the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) and another approximately 6,000 who were not selected and went without health insurance. Read More >>
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