Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S.Health Care System

In this impassioned and often vitriolic book - a follow-up to the author's bestselling Bleeding Edge: The Business of Health Care in the New Century - U.S. health care industry expert J.D. Kleinke offers an unflinching look at our broken health care system. Throughout the book, Kleinke - who was once a vocal advocate of the managed health care system - explains what went wrong and attempts to answer such perplexing questions as: Who's in charge of the American health care system? How does managed care work ...or not work? Why have hospitals become so complex? What are the prospects for reform? Does the Internet change anything? Can we solve the growing problem of the uninsured?

Table of Contents:
Preface; Acknowledgments; About the Author; 1. Wars, Strikes, Riots, and Acts of Congress; The Accidental Patient; The Accidental Provider; Is There a Doctor in the Corporation?; A Medical Chicken in Every Pot?; I'm from the Government, and I'm Here to Audit You; Back Alleys and "Integrated" Care Systems; Chocolate and Vanilla Politics; 2. Playing with the Boss's Money; Ten Thousand Little Health Care Systems; Life in the Data Mines; Continuity Conundrum; Stuck in Fifty Catatonic States; Toward a New Federalism?; Who Benefits from the Proliferation of Benefit Plans? 3. The HMO Will See You Now; Diagnosis: Organizational Multiple Personality Disorder; Data Speak Louder Than TV Ads; MCO Multiple Personality Disorder, Deconstructed; Who Buys an Ounce of Prevention?; You Get What You Pay For; 4. The Health Care Jobs Program; The Managed Care Jobs Program; Life on the Hospital Chain Gang; Old South, New South; Spoonfuls of Sugar; 5. Chaos in the Clinic; Having a Bad O'Hare Day; From Here to Infinity; Why It Is Called Medical "Practice". Rational Irrationality; Misguidelines; My Data Can Beat Up Your Data. From Infinity Back to Here; 6. Vaporware.com; Nightmare on Wall Street; A Fix for Health Care's Permanent Love Triangle?; Is There a Doctor in the Corporation.com?; Whose Preferred Provider? Open Your E-mail and Say "Ah"; Nightmare on Wall Street: The Remake; 7. A "System" for the Uninsured; A Not-for-Profit Hospital by Any Other Name; Waiting for Godot's Reform Plan; 8. A Simple Plan; My Tax Break Is Your Tax Break; ERISA (or Something Like It) for All; The Benefits of Standard Benefits; 9. Personal Effects; References; Index; Contents viii

About the Author :
J.D. Kleinke is a medical economist, health information technology executive, and the founder and President of HSN, a medical software development company headquartered in Colorado. During the 1990s, he served as Vice President of Corporate Development for HCIA Inc., helping grow the company from a start-up hospital data analysis firm into a pioneering, publicly-traded provider of health care information systems and products. Before joining HCIA, Kleinke was Director of Corporate Programs at Sheppard Pratt Health System, where he developed and managed the nation's first provider-based managed mental health care system. Kleinke's work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, JAMA, Barron's, Health Affairs, the British Medical Journal, Modern Healthcare and numerous other publications.

Review :
"The book is interesting, easy to read, and flows smoothly." (Journal for Healthcare Quality, October 2002)