by Wendy Lynch, PhD, Co-Director Altarum Center for Consumer Choice in Health Care. Reposted with the author’s permission from HCMS Group Blog, November 2011. http://www.hcmsgroup.com/paying-patients-take-drugs-or-helping-them-make-informed-choices/ . It’s hard to imagine something scarier than a heart attack: crushing pain, combined with the realization that the organ you rely on to beat every second of every day […]

by Richard Payne, MD Professor of Medicine and Divinity, Duke University The long recognized fact that human behavior is complex, not always rational, and driven by a number of factors—physical, psychological and economic—is receiving much renewed attention.   Recent bestselling books, such as Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely, and […]

Jeffrey Moe, Ph.D. Executive in Residence and Adjunct Associate Professor, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University The Wall Street Journal published a December 20, 2010 article describing how the 3rd highest number of “spinal fusion” procedures (fusing two or more vertebrae to alleviate back pain) for Medicare patients (2004-2008) occurs in Norton, Ky.  The […]