Health Care Reform Now!: A Prescription for Change | 
| Author: George C. Halvorson
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 160762
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1.5
ISBN: 0787997528
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.433621
EAN: 9780787997526
ASIN: 0787997528
Publication Date: August 17, 2007
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Product Description
The United States spends more money on health care by far than any other country and yet nearly 50,000,000 Americans are uninsured at least part of the time each year. Health Care Reform Now! is written for anyone who cares enough about our health care situation to consider serious alternatives to the current system. In this book George Halvorson—an internationally known health care leader and author—offers a sensible approach to health care reform and universal coverage that can work for all stakeholders. Step by step, George Halvorson outlines a game plan for a truly world-class health care system that will appeal to policy makers on both ends of the political spectrum and will deliver health care with improved quality, better access, provider accountability, performance transparency, consumer choice, and individual empowerment.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Great Practical Guide to Health Care Reform July 6, 2008
George Halverson does an exceptional job at laying out the major issues facing the United States health care sector and systematically making practical suggestions for reform. Having been on the inside of Kaiser in California, Halverson has an in-depth knowledge of the complex interplay between physicians, payers, patients, providers, hospitals and the government. Four of his most powerful messages are how to harvest existing personal health records, the need to focus on chronic disease, how to create intermediary agents that pursue high quality and efficient care, and the fundamental necessity of universal health care coverage. Although that last reform is left-leaning, the author's perspective is balanced and he supports reforms to make health care markets work and reduce unnecessary administrative waste. One of his most resounding messages is that we get what we pay for in health care; currently we have over 9,000 billing codes for treating disease and not a single way to bill for a cure or maintaining wellness.
As a health care professional for the past six years, I highly endorse this book to both novices and experts alike. The challenges that await health care reform are large and complex, but it is the articulate and well-though advice of veterans like George Halverson that will make long-term advancement possible.
 A Good, but Flawed Start March 8, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Halvorson has initiated a public conversation about health care in the United States. Halvorson postulates that adequate healthcare can be provided to everybody without increasing the cost of care. He would take advantage of the following:
* A small minority of the health care consumers use the major portion of health care dollars. The bulk of this is attributed to chronic illness that goes untreated until it becomes an acute (and expensive) crisis.
* The multi-provider model of health care currently in the market is extremely inefficient, especially when coupled with paper medical records.
* Cost shifting as the uninsured present to hospitals or emergency departments where they cannot be turned away. This is the most expensive care possible. These costs are shifted to private insurers.
Halvorson designs the idea of an IV or Infrastructure Vendor. The IVs will create medical record systems allowing individual providers access to all the information they need for a patient's total care. Reminders for tests and treatments for chronic illness will come up.
Halvorson sees that one primary problem with the American health care system is a badly incented market. Financial incentives exist for treating illness, not for securing health. His solution is to capitate payments for chronic illness so that the providers have more incentive to keep their patients healthy.
Finally, Halvorson would require health coverage for everybody so that no cost-shifting occurs. Halvorson embraces the "six sigma" concept for health care providers adhering to best practices and evidence based medicine.
Halvorson's reliance on medical information systems to help solve health problems is wishful thinking. The system deployed by Kaiser has been described as implemented in a way that fails to fulfill the requirements that Halvorson raises. One employee told me that she could order a vasectomy on a woman without raising any errors or flags.
Another problem is Halvorson's failure to address the roles of line workers. While he cheers for 6-sigma, he ignores the wisdom of Total Quality Management or other programs designed to allow worker input to help solve system problems. Again, this is a complaint of Kaiser employees who have some influence in corporate processes, but are mostly ignored when it's time for the big decision.
Still, Halvorson has good ideas, which ought not to be totally discounted. Providing preventative health care for chronic conditions CAN drastically lower care costs. Kaiser is one of the few insurance systems that provides full chemical dependency care at no extra charge, thus saving the costs of liver transplants, heart failure, pancreatitis, and other drug and alcohol related problems.
Think of this book as a conversation starter ... a point of starting a national dialog to move national health care forward.
Comprehensive view of opportunities for change. February 5, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is an excellent view at a most interesting time in our history. While some may not follow the level of detail, anyone who has experience within the healthcare arena (patient, provider, payer) will find this overview very interesting and thought provoking. A great 'must read' for those seriously thinking about how to improve healthcare in this country.
Book review : Health Care Reform Now by B. Halvorson November 4, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Exceptionally well written book with excellent, easy to understand, and timely problem definition. Obvious the author has significant experience, knowledge, and understanding of our health care system - and it's good and bad sides. A prescription for change is well founded and argmented Solution, well solution is neither that simple nor obvious. Universal Coverage Solution based on the reports from all countries, which have such coverage today, appears to leave quite a few open questions and unacceptable results. Could Universal Coverage be made acceptable and suitable to this country? I take the authors invitation for building a national consensus about the shape and form of the Universal Coverage for Health Care in our country very seriously and as a major contribution and message of the book. A stepping stone in building a just right health care system we all need. A book worth reading..Health Care Reform Now!: A Prescription for Change
 Disappointed to Find Few Interesting New Ideas in this Book October 14, 2007
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
I wanted to read this book to learn more about Kaiser's electronic medical records system. I had read about Kaiser's HealthConnect project to convert paper files to an electronic medical records system in a Wall Street Journal article about a young Kaiser employee, a whistleblower named Justen Deal; Mr. Deal wrote in an email sent throughout the company that Kaiser (headed by Chief Executive George Halvorson, the author of this book), was wasting up to 1.5 Billion Dollars every year on projects, primarily on the HealthConnect system.
Overall, I was disappointed to find few interesting new ideas in this book, and little concrete evidence as to how electronic health records have actually improved health care.
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