Lemonaid Health recently created a new sexually transmitted disease (STD) service that allows Americans to get tested and checked for chlamydia and gonorrhea, the two most common bacterial causes of STDs. It is a simple urine test that screens for both chlamydia and gonorrhea. The test is done at your nearest Quest laboratory and can be done once a year. Did you know? According to the US Preventive Services Task Force, all sexually active women ages 24 and younger should have a urine test to screen for chlamydia. Women in this age group are at increased risk for this infection. 3 out of 4 women who have the infection have no symptoms! If not treated, it can cause complications including more a serious infection and infertility as well as passing it to her partner. If you are a women age 24 or younger, be sure to […] Read More »
Category Archives: Consumer Driven Health Care
Get Tested and Checked for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea STD? Do it online with Lemonaid Health!
Posted on August 7, 2017
Why UCLA Health System Will Win – The Importance of Service and Brand
Posted on October 3, 2015
An email from March 2012, my commentary and insights from an email titled – Why UCLA Health System Will Win. Enjoy! I recently stumbled upon the current issue of UCLA MEDICINE, which had an interview with DAVID T. FEINBERG, M.D., M.B.A., CEO of UCLA Hospital System, Associate vice chancellor for UCLA Health Sciences and now, president of UCLA Health System who spoke on what it will take to be successful. He is most proud that the his organization is really “obsessed with being patient centered, in making sure that whoever comes through our doors is treated like they are someone in our own family. That’s our standard…” 99th percentile in patient satisfaction is not enough Also though being in the 99th percentile in the patient satisfaction for the inpatient setting, Dr. Feinberg notes that it means that “eighty-five out of 100 patients would refer to us, but 15 would not. […] Read More »
The Thrifty Patient – Book Review / Testimonials
Posted on July 15, 2013
I’m humbled and privileged to review high praise and testimonials for my book –The Thrifty Patient: Vital Insider Tips for Saving Money and Staying Healthy from those working hard to make health care more accessible, higher quality, and more affordable. In an ideal world, our health care system would be incredibly simple to access, extremely convenient, and intensely personal. It would allow patients to focus on staying healthy and healing and getting the right preventive care and treatment the first time and every time. It would not have them worrying about medical errors, wrong site surgeries, unnecessary surgeries / procedures / treatments, their own (patient) safety among other things. We are not there yet. Nevertheless, those who have provided the testimonials are also making our future system that much better though their work, actions, and words. As we all build to fixing our health care system completely, books like The […] Read More »
Recasting the Patient as Consumer – Good Idea? Consumer Driven Health Care?
Posted on June 13, 2013
Are patients now consumers? I recently jumped at the opportunity to attend the 2013 Healthcare Innovation Summit at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Subtitled IT-Enabled Disruption, it featured opening keynote speaker Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Stanford psychologist and lecturer Dr. Kelly McGonigal, and many other interesting people asking – how do we change health care? Recasting the Patient as Consumer As a practicing primary care doctor, the most intriguing session was labeled – “Recasting the Patient as Consumer”. I have major reservations that this is what patients really want. I have some skepticism on whether consumer driven health care can truly make care more affordable (here, here, here, and here). Was the current fad of pushing the onus of health squarely on the individual may be too simplistic? Panel members included: Ron Gutman, founder and CEO of HealthTap Bassam Kadry, Anesthesiologist and Participatory Medicine Advocate Ann Lamont, Managing Partner of […] Read More »
David Goldhill Replies to My Post “Disappointing, Dangerous, Frightening” on His Interview on Healthcare
Posted on May 9, 2013
David Goldhill, CEO of the and author of the September 2009 Atlantic titled How American Health Care Killed My Father and book titled, Catastrophic Care – How American Health Care Killed My Father — and How We Can Fix It, recently responded to my post – Malcolm Gladwell and David Goldhill Interview on Health Care – Disappointing, Dangerous, Frightening His comments in his entirety: While I’m appreciative that you came to hear Malcolm and I discuss health care, you really don’t seem to understand much of what we were talking about. My work is an attempt to think about health care as an industry, and using comparisons to how other industries behave to understand why health care delivers such mixed performance — with extraordinarily high rates of error — at such high cost. My argument is a systemic one: bad industrial outcomes are a result of badly structured economic incentives; […] Read More »
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