Monday, August 24, 2009
MO Hospital System, Whole Foods CEO Win "Best, Worst Prevention Idea of the Week" Honors
2 comments Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 2:20 PMAn Ozarks hospital system’s use of prevention improve care to Medicare patients while cutting costs was named Partnership for Prevention's "Best Prevention Idea of the Week," while the CEO of Whole Foods’ repeated calls for personal responsibility while was “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”
The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters <http://preventionmatters.blogspot.com/> , the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.
St. John’s Uses Prevention to Improve Medicare Service, Save Money
The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters <http://preventionmatters.blogspot.com/> , the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.
St. John’s Uses Prevention to Improve Medicare Service, Save Money
St. John's Health System of Springdale, Mo., improved care of its 30,493 Medicare patients so much in the third year of a Medicare project -- while also cutting Medicare costs -- that St. John's has earned back some of the savings. The health system will receive $3.2 million from Medicare for its achievement, as one of only five groups that earned incentive money for its success. The physician groups focused on 32 quality measures, focusing on diabetes, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, hypertension and cancer screening. Evidence showed that the focus on prevention will reduce complications from the disease, reducing the need for care or emergency room visits in the future, officials said. And St. John’s officials said their efforts can be replicated at small rural facilities.Whole Foods CEO Stresses “Personal Responsibility,” Ignores Community Role in Health
In a Wall Street Journal column, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey opposed increased government spending and control in health care, suggesting instead that Americans “should use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health.” The boutique grocer listed several pro-business alternatives to reforms advocated by the White House, but none of them addressed making more healthy choices available to underserved populations who don’t have supermarkets in their neighborhoods and can’t afford to pay $39 for a pound of goat cheese.Thursday, August 20, 2009
Doctor Rebuts Whole Foods' "Personal Responsibility" Argument
0 comments Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 12:04 PMWhole Foods CEO John Mackey garnered a lot of attention with a recent Wall Street Journal column in which he opposed health reform legislation in favor of increased "personal responsibility." The column drew an interesting rebuttal from Dr. Rahul Parikh, a pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area and a frequent contributor to Salon.com and The Health Care Blog.
Parikh says Mackey's view, while widely shared, "doesn’t take into account the socio-economic factors that pressure many Americans into chronic illness." He said that reality was impressed upon him by a recent trip to the supermarket in which he set a budget of $40.
"I spent half of that money on fresh, healthy foods and the other half on processed foods," Parikh says. "I took my grocery bags home and counted up the calories per d ollar that I spent on both types of foods. For the healthier choices, I got 140 Calories per dollar; for the processed foods, I got 370 Calories per dollar. "
"...Add the consequences of my little experiment to some other factors, like the lack of access to fresh foods in poorer communities (Mr. Mackey, do you have any stores in low-income areas?), or a lack of safe places to get out and exercise, and you can see that prevention has as much to do with class, income, and communities as it does with personal responsibility," the doctor concludes.
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