In the U.S., only two industries are exempt from the consumer protections provided by federal anti-trust law: baseball and the health insurance industry.  These two seemingly different industries are subject to antiquated laws: in the case of health insur

Modern continuing medical education (CME)  suffers from some of the same problems Abraham Flexner laid out in his report on undergraduate medical education nearly a century ago, according to a new paper in JAMA. Researchers Eric Campbell and Meredith Rose

House prepares to bring a strong reform package to the floor On Thursday, House leadership unveiled a strong health reform package and plans to begin debate on it late this week.  The House bill gelled in the middle of last week when leaders judged that a

While most eyes have shifted to the House, with the release yesterday of their bill, persistent rumors swirl around the Senate that the combination of the HELP and Senate Finance bill will actually offer less financial protection for the lowest income wor

Over at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation blog, Community Catalyst director Robert Restuccia talks about some of the less obvious reasons Massachusetts is an important model for national health reform: Massachusetts as model -- it's a common claim in hea

What’s Goin’ On: Untangling the debate on public option The big story of the week was undoubtedly the political resurgence and maneuvering around the public option – a resurgence we’re glad to see. But with legislative leaders keeping their cards close to

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education will publish a list of continuing medical education courses and companies that have violated its commercial bias standards, reports the New York Times. The accrediting group, which is supported by

A substantial and growing cadre of prominent Republicans have come out in favor of health reform recently. A partial list: former majority leaders Bob Dole, Howard Baker and Bill Frist (who this week disputed critics who claimed that Obama was promoting s

Today, over at the PAL blog: the ban on pay-for-delay generic drug settlements which just passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, what it could mean for patients and insurers, and how the Senate and House versions would work. Here's more at Reuters.