Mark Draper

Are US Reimbursement Trends Stifling Medical Device Innovation?

The increasing clout of hospital General Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), insurers and other large payors in US medical device purchasing and …

Low Health Bills Slow Economy

Teasing out the link between moderation in health spending and subpar economic growth is a daunting but important task that could have a big and unpredictable impact on the American economy in the years and decades ahead.<p>On the one hand, the growth in health spending, which has been gobbling up a …

The Quasar Main Sequence - Sky & Telescope

<b>A new diagram suggests two physical properties — how efficiently the black hole feeds and the system's orientation — lie behind quasars' …

Bracing for New Challenges in Year 2 of Health Care Law

The first year of enrollment under the federal health care law was marred by the troubled start of HealthCare.gov, rampant confusion among consumers and a steep learning curve for insurers and government officials alike.<p>But insurance executives and managers of the online marketplaces are already …

Distant Black Hole’s Spin Clocked - Sky & Telescope

<b>A new measurement could be the farthest back in time astronomers have ever reached when measuring a black hole’s spin.</b><p>The quasar Q2237+0305 is split …

Medicare to Start Paying Doctors Who Coordinate Needs of Chronically Ill Patients

WASHINGTON — In a policy change, the Obama administration is planning to pay doctors to coordinate the care of Medicare beneficiaries, amid growing evidence that patients with chronic illnesses suffer from disjointed, fragmented care.<p>Although doctors have often performed such work between office …

Astronomers Happen Upon The Most Distant Lensing Galaxy Ever Discovered

Busy Doctors, Wasteful Spending

OF all the ways to limit health care costs, perhaps none is as popular as cutting payments to doctors. In recent years payment cuts have resulted in a sharp downturn in revenue for many hospitals and private practices. What this has meant for most physicians is that in order to maintain their …

The Bare Truth About Hospitals, And Why It's Time For A Revolution

Going to a hospital for patient care has become almost more painful than an ailment itself. Hospitals—whether wittingly or not—are very militaristic with their uniforms, processes galore, hierarchy and power struggles—the unfortunate byproduct of being raised in a world that subscribes to the …

Planet X --"The 9th Planet May Have Influenced the Evolution of Life on Earth"

Though scientists have been looking for Planet X for 100 years, the possibility that it’s real got a big boost recently when researchers from Caltech …

In 2012, the Earth Dodged a Solar Bullet

In July 2012 the Earth dodged a bullet. Or more accurately, the bullet was misaimed. But had it hit, we’d have been in big trouble.<p>Phil Plait writes</b> …

Fermi Finds 'Transformer' Pulsar

For the first time, scientists have watched a pulsar transition from a low-energy system to a high one.

The Black Hole That Birthed the Big Bang

In his Allegory of the Cave, the Greek philosopher Plato described prisoners who have spent their entire lives chained to the wall of a dark cavern. …

Milky Way is about half as massive as Andromeda galaxy, say astronomers

An image of the Andromeda galaxy, Messier 31. Image credit: Adam Evans<p>Our Milky Way galaxy is less massive than astronomers previously thought, …

Collider Reveals First Glimpse of Higgs Boson at Work

An extremely rare collision of massive subatomic particles could reveal the nuts and bolts of how the subatomic particles called Higgs bosons impart mass to other particles.<p>The Higgs boson particle, which was detected for the first time in 2012, is essentially tossed around like a ball between two …

Any Insurer Angst On Obamacare Subsidies May Emerge This Week

If there is any anxiety from the health insurance industry in regard to the potential for certain Americans who signed up for medical coverage on the federally-run exchange to lose coverage, it could emerge later this week.<p>A parade of publicly-traded health insurance companies are expected to …

Lawmakers Reach Deal on a Fix for V.A.’s Health Care System

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement during the weekend on a legislative package intended to stabilize the Department of Veterans Affairs’ sprawling and embattled health care system, according to people briefed on the deal.<p>The leaders in the negotiations — Senator Bernard Sanders, a …

The 5 Massive New Telescopes That Will Change Astronomy Forever

The biggest building boom in the history of astronomy is upon us. In Chile and Hawaii and in space, astronomers are getting powerful telescopes that …

Why Do Other Rich Nations Spend So Much Less on Healthcare?

The U.S. delivers roughly three times as many mammograms, two-and-a-half times as many MRI scans, and a third more C-sections per capita than the average OECD country.<p>Despite the news last week that America's healthcare spending will not be rising at the sky-high rate that was once predicted, the …

Busy Doctors, Wasteful Spending

OF all the ways to limit health care costs, perhaps none is as popular as cutting payments to doctors. In recent years payment cuts have resulted in a sharp downturn in revenue for many hospitals and private practices. What this has meant for most physicians is that in order to maintain their …

More Eyes on the Skies

The future, it is often said, belongs to those who plan for it. And astronomers have been busy working the proverbial smoke-filled rooms (or whatever passes for them today) where the destiny of big science is often shaped and crisscrossing one another in airports on fund-raising trips. Now they are …

What If Healthcare Spending Doesn't Destroy America?

The politics of health and the psychology of planning for the future<p>One of my favorite lessons from Daniel Gilbert, the Harvard psychologist, is that the future is rarely as hellish or as heavenly as we imagine it to be. It's not an argument for ignoring future realities—savings are still crucial, …

The Global Slowdown in Medical Costs

We tend to think of health care as a local good. Most people use the doctor or hospital in their neighborhood. China does not export medical care. Health and life spans differ from country to country, even county to county.<p>But when it comes to health care spending, the picture is starting to look …

Stalking the Shadow Universe

For centuries people have found meaning — or thought they did — in what they could see in the sky, the shapes of the constellations echoing old myths, the sudden feathery intrusion of comets, the regular dances of the planets, the chains of galaxies, spanning unfathomable distances of time and …

America's Most Generous Companies

What is the most generous company in the United States? According to a new survey by <i>The Chronicle of Philanthropy</i>, New York-based aluminum giant Alcoa (together with its foundation) gave away the highest percentage of its profits, 12.1%, in 2013. In raw dollars, Alcoa’s $39 million in donations …

Artificial spacetime experiment could show tantalizing effects of gravitational waves

The censors, name callers and twaddlers must be censored systematically<p>this time I suggested an IP ban, and I hope the site complies<br>this is ONE TIME …

Scientist find that 80 percent of all light in the Universe is missing

According to observations made by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope, the Universe is <i>missing</i> 80 percent of all its …

A New View of Europa

Europa is like a spherical ice cube that has partially melted. In fact, if you shook this small moon of Jupiter, you might hear a sloshing sound.<p>That’s because a deep, global ocean lies beneath the moon’s frozen, criss-crossed crust – an ocean that might be as much as 100 kilometers deep. In fact, …

What Do We Really Know About Obamacare's Impact On The Number Of Uninsured?

, Contributor<p>There’s been quite a bit of bad news about Obamacare in recent weeks:<p>a SCOTUS smackdown on the contraception mandate overreach,<br>• the possibility of an even more momentous court decision being handed down next week,<br>• worrying signs of more rate shock to face Exchange plan buyers next fall, …

What is the shape of the universe?

From World Science U, Science Unplugged provides hundreds of short video answers to a wide range of questions from "What is a Higgs Particle?" to …