• Reform with Revenue: Unfunded Promises go Unfinished

    Accountable Care Organizations, Value Based Purchasing, and Healthcare Exchanges – we are adrift in healthcare reform plans and strategies concurrent with a looming debt ceiling debacle.  Amid the rhetoric, pundits, and industry leaders engaged in reform discourse, the cost of healthcare continues to spiral. Projects for 2011 cite the US government’s expenditure for healthcare will…

  • John, Walt, Gene — Where are you today?

    Space is the final frontier and when you wish upon a star; all your dreams really do come true.

  • Workplace Rape

    Does the following scenario resonate with you? Your telephone rings and the CFO are on the line.  He is reviewing a demand analysis that you have been working on for a new technology acquisition.  The first statement after you say hello is, “What the #$*!@ are these numbers? They make no sense.  You idiot.” You…

  • Medicaid: Deal with it!

    The winds of change began blowing early in the year as several governorships changed, state budgets were pushed to unprecedented limits, and the pace of recession recovery – specifically employment and corresponding health benefits.  Six months later, there is ample evidence of significant cuts in state Medicaid funding resulting in emergency department challenges, primary care…

  • Physician Integration – The Meaning Behind the Words

    Sound bite and slogan, strapline and headline, at every turn, we meet hyperbole.  The soaring inflation of the English language is more urgently in need of control than the economic variety.”    (Trevor Nunn, b. 1940, in Evening Standard, 3 June 1999. The senior partner of a clinical group I was associated with over a decade…

  • Three Characteristics of Great Leaders…Plus One

    The other day I was asked to speak about leadership.  The idea of approaching a topic as broad as leadership.  The idea of saying anything of value in a ten-minute window was daunting to say the least. I started to think about different leader role models that I have worked with or connected to.  A…

  • Everything I Need to Know I Learned at 13

    A Jewish child who reaches the age of 13-years becomes a bar (son) or bat (daughter) mitzvah (of the commandments).  Culturally, this right of passage from childhood to adulthood signifies becoming an adult member of the community.  In modern times, the child will spend years studying history, Hebrew language, culture and customs, bible and commentaries. …

  • Healthcare From the Inside Out: It’s my turn

    The last few months have provided a new perspective of healthcare for me.  Against a backdrop of healthcare reform, passage of the Affordable Care Act, release of proposed Accountable Care Organization regulations, and a proposal from Congressman Paul Ryan on behalf of the Republican majority to transform Medicare, I have had a full knee replacement…

  • Thank you Mr. C for the happy days…a letter to my children

    A letter to my children… Good night Mr. C.  Thanks for the happy days. Earlier today Tom Bosley died.  Bosley played Howard Cunningham on Happy Days.  His acting credits were decades long; for my generation he was, and will always be Mr. C.  From 1974 to 1984, Happy Days followed a typical television family from…

  • Tweet that Rick Sanchez

    Last week I took part in a training session on social media.  Honest – I still don’t get it.  Blogs make sense to me; it is similar to a newspaper or television broadcast.   Social media has always been somewhat foreign to me; but, the idea of communication crossing time and space, bringing the world closer…