Independence Day 2008
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Amid all the hoopla, hot dogs and fireworks, let's not forget the underlying reason for our celebration, and perhaps pause a moment to reflect on how remarkable (and unlikely) it is that we're still here, commemorating our 232nd Birthday.And it started with this remarkable document: Happy Birthday, America!
Source: InsureBlog - July 4, 2008
Speaking of Independence
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FoIB David All asked me to help introduce a new 'Net intiative designed to highlight the true costs and risks of government-run health care. It's just now being rolled out, and promises to become a great resource.Called BigGovHealth, it's presented by the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI). Its mission is to offer "news, information, and first-person experiences and views about government-run health care systems to help educate the public, the media and elected officials about the potential costs and consequences of more government control in health care."Do check it out.
Source: InsureBlog - July 3, 2008
Pre-Holiday Potpourri
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■ First up, we go south, and learn that:"A state court jury on Tuesday found two major pharmaceutical companies defrauded Alabama in a long-running Medicaid drug pricing scheme and ordered the firms to pay more than $114 million in damages."Although both companies denied that they'd done anything untoward, the jury disagreed. The alleged scam was not a short term deal, either; prosecutors claimed the scheme ran for some 14 years.My question is: why did it take so long for this to unravel?■ Our friends at The Industry Radar and the Kaiser Daily Report tell us that The Grand Experiment (aka Massachusetts Health Care Plan...
Source: InsureBlog - July 3, 2008
The Anti-Hailey: Unfathomable
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Earlier this week, we saw the lengths to which a loving parent will go to find some kind of treatment to save a child's life. Even given the long odds against a successful conclusion, one can certainly understand Mrs Goranflo's motivation.But what does one make of this:"A woman has been charged with withholding cancer medication from her 8-year-old autistic son, who prosecutors say likely will die because the cancer has returned."Kristen LaBrie's son Jeremy had been in remission from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and had a very positive prognosis. According to his doctors, young Jeremy had an 85-90% chance of recovery; that's no...
Source: InsureBlog - July 3, 2008
Senator Kennedy and Universal Healthcare
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The Boston Globe reports on Senator Kennedy's new efforts to prepare for universal healthcare. Lisa Wangass writes, Senator Edward M. Kennedy's office has begun convening a series of meetings involving a wide array of healthcare specialists to begin laying the...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 3, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
European Health Care: Germany
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National Public Radio has a brief overview of German health care. It is quite an interesting piece and shows the importance of access to health care and also how differently the government role in providing or financing or regulating health...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 3, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
More From Gary Cohen: Challenges Now, and Hopes for the Future
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Yesterday's discussion with Gary Cohen introduced us to Health Care Without Harm and the recent achievements of the green hospital movement in the United States. Today, Cohen speaks about green health care internationally, outlines the challenges facing the green hospital movement, and offers his both short- and long-term predictions for the movement's future.
Health Care Without Harm is part of a global movement; what lessons do you think the US health care system can learn from the international community?Right now we’re learning a lot from Europe. A typical Northern European hospital uses half as much energy as a typ...
Source: Pioneering Ideas - July 3, 2008 Authors: Pioneer Blog Team Tags: Conversations with Pioneers
Urgent Plasma Bleg
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I just received this email from one of our carriers:As we approach a weekend in which Americans gather to celebrate our good fortune to live in a great nation, it is also appropriate to consider ways to give back. DCPG is asking healthy men with Type AB +/- blood types to donate blood over the next few days in an effort to save the life of a fellow broker's brother.As many of you know, an ample supply of blood and blood plasma remains an urgent, unmet need in many communities. We all hear the appeals to donate blood and plasma, yet often postpone acting until the supply issue hits home. Yesterday, the issue hit home at DCP...
Source: InsureBlog - July 2, 2008
Stupid Lobbyist's Tricks
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Beginning this year, Ohio agents who wish to (continue to) sell Long Term care insurance are required to take a new, specially-designed, eight hour training course. A while back, I did that and, at the conclusion of the course, received a "temporary" certificate of completion. I was advised to wait a few weeks, and then log on to the AHIP site to download "the real deal."Well, one thing led to another, and I finally got around to getting my permanent cert. So one day last week, I clicked over to the site, and was stopped cold. The only way to sign in was to have an existing account (I was never given one, nor informed how ...
Source: InsureBlog - July 2, 2008
Can't Win for Losing: Another Tale from the P&C Side
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Our primary focus hear at IB is on life and health insurance (mostly health), but from time to time, we find interesting/infuriating stories from or about our P&C colleagues. For example:"Scientists say the jury is still out on whether rising sea temperatures will cause more hurricanes to hit U.S. coastlines. Yet some insurance companies are boosting premiums based on assumptions that they will. Others are withdrawing from coastal communities altogether."While calamities such as Hurricane Katrina make the news even years later, it's the day to day, season to season losses that really rack up the big dollars, and losses...
Source: InsureBlog - July 2, 2008
Cavalcade of Risk #55 is up!
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The Colorado Health Insurance Insider hosts this edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.Hosting slots are still available for late summer, so please drop us a line to reserve yours.
Source: InsureBlog - July 2, 2008
What Do We Need to Do to Fix the Medicare Physician Payment Problem?
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Whenever the subject of Medicare physician fee payments comes up on this blog, the reaction from physicians, particularly primary care docs, is predictable: "You can't cut us, we haven't had a Medicare raise in years, we are already dramatically underpaid, and if Medicare cuts our payments we are going to stop taking Medicare patients."
There is no doubt that doctors have a point--particularly
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - July 2, 2008 Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI
Parents and Health Care Issues
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The Boston Globe reports on a tragic case of an austic boy with leukemia whose mother apparently failed to follow a specific treatment regime and now faces jail time. The parents are divorced, their relationship is strained and it is...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 2, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
CMS Addresses Anti-Markup Provision in 2009 Proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule
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On June 30, 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a display copy of a Proposed Rule, which would revise payment rates and policies under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) for calendar year 2009.
In the Proposed Rule, CMS proposes 2 approaches to revising the anti-markup provision (at 42 CFR 414.50) for certain diagnostic tests. Under the first approach, the anti-markup provision would apply in all cases where the professional component (PC) or technical component (TC) of a diagnostic testing service is either: (i) purchased from an outside supplier; or (ii) performed o...
Source: Medicare Update - July 2, 2008 Authors: Michael Apolskis
Balancing Billing
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The LA Times reports on the California's recent move to prevent PrimeHealth from billing its privately insured patients for unpaid treatment received at PrimeHealth medical facilities. Daniel Costello writes, The Department of Managed Health Care, in a lawsuit filed Friday...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 2, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
Conversations with Pioneers: Gary Cohen of Health Care Without Harm
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Last month, we kicked off Conversations with Pioneers, a series of interviews with Pioneer grantees. The series continues this week with an interview with Gary Cohen (photo at left), executive director of Health Care Without Harm.Health Care Without Harm hosted its annual conference, Clean Med, last month and Susan Promislo and Theresa Kanter both posted updates from the conference. Working to drive environmental sustainability in health care, Health Care Without Harm has been on the forefront of efforts to accelerate the development, use, and diffusion of environmentally preferable products and practices in the health car...
Source: Pioneering Ideas - July 2, 2008 Authors: Pioneer Blog Team Tags: Conversations with Pioneers
2009 Joint Commission Standards: Now Available Online
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The Joint Commission's revised standards are now available online. Additional details about the revisions are available on the Standards Improvement Initiative web page.The timetable for the release of the new standards, manuals and scoring information is as follows: July 2008: Standards will be posted to The Joint Commission website August 2008: Scoring information will be posted to the website September 2008: Hard copy manuals will be available for Phase 1 programs (ambulatory, hospital, critical access hospital, home care, office-based surgery) November 2008: Hard copy manuals will be available for Phase 2 programs (be...
Source: Health Care Law Blog - July 1, 2008 Tags: Joint Commission
Sermo Physicians Launch Doctors Unite Campaign
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Can online social networking by health care professionals be the catalysts for group action and change in the health care industry?Fellow friend and health blogger,Fard Johnmar,at Healthcare Vox explores this question and more in his post, "Sermo Docs Launch An Online Health Reform Movement: Will It Matter?". A current effort social networking campaign lead by the physicians who participate in the physician-only social network Sermo (think Facebook for doctors).The online effort - called "Doctors Unite" is an open letter to Americans to highlight the challenges physicians face in delivering appropriate patient care and tar...
Source: Health Care Law Blog - July 1, 2008 Tags: social networking health 2.0 sermo social media
Health Care Consumers
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Earlier this year, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions published a survey of health care consumers that covers a lot of ground. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone who’s interested in learning about what’s on consumers’ minds these days. The report itself is quite long, so I won’t try to capture everything it says here, but it does make some important points that are worth repeating.
First, the health care consumer is not monolithic. He or she is a bunch of different types of people - with very different views of the system, and how to approach it. Deloitte breaks the consumer up into six c...
Source: HPHC - July 1, 2008 Authors: Charlie Baker Tags: Health Care Consumers
Appalling - Again!
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IB readers may recall our story last summer recounting the (tragic) misadventures of Martin Luther King Hospital in California. There a woman was left writhing in pain, vomiting up blood and moaning in sheer agony while the ER staff did nothing to help.Well, this unconscionable behavior is apparently not the exclusive province of the West Coast:">"Video from a surveillance camera at a Brooklyn hospital shows a woman dying on the floor of a psychiatric emergency room while staffers initially ignore her."The good news is that a handful of staffers were canned. The bad news is that this facility, like Grady in Atlanta, is run...
Source: InsureBlog - July 1, 2008
An Exemplary Grand Rounds
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Dr Rich, host of the Covert Rationing blog, presents this week's edition of the best of the medblogs. The theme is - no surprise - independence, and most of the entries reflect this. And while you're there, be sure to check out the accompanying illustrations.If time is money, how do you determine when you've gotten your money's worth from your physician? Over at Rural Doctoring, family physician Theresa Chan explores this valid (but not so obvious) question.
Source: InsureBlog - July 1, 2008
Healthcare Futures
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A welcome to Michael Ryan, FACHE, Chairman of Executive Impact Group, now blogging at Healthcare Futures. Mike is a recognized eHealth, healthcare and social networking pioneer having served as a founder, executive, advisor and board member of numerous companies. He also has a West Virginia connection to my wife who grew up in the Morgantown area that we uncovered when we first met.Healthcare Futures plans to explore health care industry news, trends, and future visions from Michael's view over his career as an observer, executive, advisor, author, innovator, patient and online pioneer.Check out his recent posts on the nee...
Source: Health Care Law Blog - July 1, 2008 Tags: blogger health care
Connecting for Health: Another wave in the shift to consumer controlled health information
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The recent announcement of the Common Framework for Networked Personal Health Information by the Connecting for Health collaboration lead by the Markle Foundation is just the next wave in what may be a tidal shift. The tidal shift is one centered on the input, control, ownership, and administration of health information that results from the active and real use of PHRs by consumers.Those participating in and endorsing the Connecting for Health initiative are a diverse group of health care and technology companies, including Google, Microsoft, Intuit, WebMD, Dossia, BlueCross BlueShield, AARP, AAFP, SureScripts and others.W...
Source: Health Care Law Blog - July 1, 2008 Tags: health 2.0 HealthVault Google Health PHR health information technology Microsoft health care
Women and Health Insurance
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Ezra Klein reports on the findings of Jon Cohn regarding the health insurance industry and women He writes, Jon Cohn peers into insurance price differentials and comes back with a depressing, but unsurprising, finding: Insurers charge women more than they...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 1, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
Emergency Room Malfunction - Again
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Wasn't fairly recently that we read about person dying in the emergency room after she fell to the floor and displayed symptoms of severe distress. It seemed too terrible to repeat - but yet today we read about an emergency...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 1, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
New Medicare Rules for Hospice
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The Washington Post reports on the new Medicare rules for hospice care. Alicia Ault writes, Twenty-five years after Medicare began paying for hospice care, the federal health program has issued a new rule calling hospice providers to closer account on...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 1, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
FDA - More Bad Produce?
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The Washington Post reports that it may be more than just tomatoes that contain the salmonella that has sickened more than 810 across the United States. Annys Shin reports, Tomatoes carrying a rare form of salmonella that has sickened more...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 1, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
Save the Date - New Frontiers in Personal Health Records
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Mark your calendar now -- we're pleased to announce that details have been set for "New Frontiers in Personal Health Records: A Report Out from Project HealthDesign and Forum on Next-Generation PHRs." Here's the logistical info:
Date: September 17, 2008
Time: 8:00-5:00
Location: Westin Washington, DC City Center
RSVP: Erica Garland, GYMR Public Relations
We hope you can join us to explore the vast potential for personal health records (PHRs) and related technologies to help consumers take charge of their health like never before. The event also provides the opportunity to showcase the array of next-gen...
Source: Pioneering Ideas - July 1, 2008 Authors: Susan Promislo Tags: Events Grants & Grantees Health IT
Movin' on up!
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Those folks who pay attention to these things may have noticed that we've been in the Top 20 at Wikio (Health) for quite some time, most recently at #16. I just received confirmation from the Wikio folks that that's about to change:"I am contacting you about the new Wikio ranking for July. Your blog InsureBlog moved from 16 to 11 this month."Awesome!While I'm still relatively clueless about how those rankings are determined, it stands to reason that readership plays at least some part, and so I'd like to thank our loyal (and brilliant, of course) readers.UPDATE: I've just received a follow-up email confirming that we're #10.
Source: InsureBlog - June 30, 2008
Another Ethical Conundrum: Little Hailey
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When is someone too sick to be helped?"Two airlines this weekend declined to fly Miranda Goranflo and her daughter Hailey to Beijing, where the 5-year-old was to receive stem-cell treatments for a rare fatal disease."Little Miranda (and her baby brother) suffers from Late Infantile Batten Disease, which causes loss of muscle co-ordination and seizures that do not respond to anticonvulsant drugs. It is (apparently) always fatal. Other than this new, experimental treatment, there is no cure; a patient's life expectancy is about age 12.Once Hailey (and her mother) had reached Vancouver, Air Canada insisted on making their own...
Source: InsureBlog - June 30, 2008
What's Your Sign?
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Are you predisposed towards nearsightedness? Is there a chance you might be (or become) schizophrenic? What's your risk of cancer or heart disease?According to some psychiatrists the month and time of year you were born gives some indication of your future health.The association between birth season and health, meanwhile, has been confirmed repeatedly by studies published in peer-reviewed journals.It was first noticed with the neurological disorder schizophrenia; subsequent research has shown the month of birth can influence your risk of suicide and chance of developing certain cancers, Crohn's disease, coronary heart dise...
Source: InsureBlog - June 30, 2008
Unfair to Men
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Tova Hack of Valencia, California is now paying more for her health insurance. She just got a renewal on her Blue Cross plan and the premium has increased 20% to $119 per month.Because she is a woman.She is crying foul."I don't think it's fair at all," said Hack. "I'm in perfectly fine health."So?Would she have been satisfied with the increase if her health was poor?as far as Blue Shield is concerned, Hack and all other women are somehow more accident-prone, or more likely to break a bone, or more susceptible to costly ailments.Why? Because they're women.Says who?"Our egghead actuaries crunched the numbers based on all the...
Source: InsureBlog - June 30, 2008
Carnival of Personal Finance is up
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This week's edition is overflowing with helpful finance tips and info. Host Greener Pastures presents his CoPF with a "green" theme, which is interesting.Check it out!
Source: InsureBlog - June 30, 2008
Mountain Stage: The Gold at the End of the Rainbow
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A memorable 2008 FestivALL ended last evening with a great Mountain Stage performance at the Clay Center. One of the best all around performances I can remember in recent past.A storm rolled through Charleston about 15 minutes before the performance and I captured the following photos. Coincidence or not? Well the pot of gold at the end of FestivALL was the "Gold" Mountain Rebels.Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels were excellent as expected as the headliner. The Gold Mountain Rebels had a smooth tight sound that mixed well with Dylan's voice and lyrics. I really enjoyed the performances by singer songwriters, Andy Da...
Source: Health Care Law Blog - June 30, 2008 Tags: FestiVALL Charleston WV West Virginia
District Court Denies Motion to Halt DMEPOS Competitive Bidding
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On June 30, 2008, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a Memorandum Opinion and order denying the American Association for Homecare's (and other plaintiff's) motion for a preliminary injunction to stay the Medicare durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) competitive bidding program, which is scheduled to commence on July 1, 2008.
According to the Memorandum Opinion, the U.S. District Court denied the motion because the Court concluded that the plaintiffs were unable to demonstrate an irreparable injury. The action was filed in the U.S. District Court for ...
Source: Medicare Update - June 30, 2008 Authors: Michael Apolskis
CMS to Temporarily Suspend Medicare Physician Payment Cut
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The Associated Press reports in an article that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will hold physicians Medicare claims for services furnished on or after July 1, 2008. According to the article, the holding of claims is intended to temporarily delay the implementation of the 10.6 percent reduction in the Medicare payment rate for physician services until Congress returns from the July 4 recess and has time to address the scheduled payment cut.
On June 24, 2006, the House of Representatives passed Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R.6331) in a 355-59 vote. As introduced, H...
Source: Medicare Update - June 30, 2008 Authors: Michael Apolskis
Uninsured Skating on Medical Bills
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Much is made of the uninsured, and especially when the press reports how much they are "overcharged" for services. But very little is made of how much the uninsured actually PAY for medical services.Grady Hospital in Atlanta is in crisis and services have been cut and more cut's will continue. A more recent casualty of mismanagement at Grady is the impending cutback in ambulance services.According to the AJC, the Grady medical transport unit lost some $8.7 million in the recent year.The reports indicate it costs Grady on average about $322 to transport a patient. Figures by type of patient play out as such.Medicare patient...
Source: InsureBlog - June 29, 2008
CT Scans and New Health Technologies: A Cost/Benefit Analysis
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The New York Times has a long front page article today on the value of CT scans and other new technologies that doctors feel they need to use for patient health without much proof that they promote and health. There...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - June 29, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
Still More FestivALL: Blues & Brews kicks off weekend events
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Sorry for a lack of substantive health care posting the last couple of weeks. The result of being just too busy with client legal matters.
This morning I was catching up on my RSS feeds and saw these great photos by Rick Lee (photo to right by Rick of Sonny Landreth) from last nights Blues, Brews & BBQ. Looks like everyone had a great time. We sat on the porch last night after the kids went to bed and caught some of the great music.
Today Capitol Street comes alive with artists, performers, etc. Don't miss the fun. Looking forward to watching Jesse & James, Monkeys in the House, Expert Liar Bil Lepp, a variety of...
Source: Health Care Law Blog - June 28, 2008 Tags: FestiVALL Charleston WV West Virginia
Commenting - Part 1
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I am a lurker. Some might even call me the world's most dastardly lurker. Part of the reason is because I’m shy, but mostly it’s because I suck at commenting. If you don’t believe me, here are the last 5 comments I’ve left on blogs during the past 3 months:
1. Feel better soon! Now I'm gonna go out and get me one of those cute c-collars.
2. I do love me some dinosaur porn.
3. Great
Source: Addicted to Medblogs - June 28, 2008 Authors: Medblog Addict
Run For the Hills, the Doctors Are Coming, the Doctors Are Coming!!!!
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What is the one thing no human being should want to be next week?
A Republican Senator at a Fourth of July Picnic.
In the most amazing turn of events I have seen in 20 years of following health care policy in Washington, DC the Democrats have the Republicans backed into an awful corner over the issue of the July 1st automatic 10.6% Medicare physician fee cut and corresponding private Medicare
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - June 28, 2008 Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI
Informed Consent or Compelled Speech
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The Eighth Circuit has overturned an injunction granted to Planned Parenthood that prevented the South Dakota informed consent abortion statute from going into effect. The ASCBlog reports on the case and states, An en banc panel of the U.S. Court...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - June 28, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
Paging Dr Willy Wonka: Chocolate Update
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Over the years, we've touted the benefits of chocolate-based health care: whether you're pregnant, overweight, or just suffering from high blood pressure, chocolate seems to be the "go to" dietary hero (well, maybe next to tomatoes). It's not enough, apparently, for scientists merely to acknowledge cocoa's seminal role in the health care arena; now they want to map the delicious pod's genome:"Government scientists are launching a five-year project Thursday aimed at safeguarding the world's chocolate supply by dissecting the genome of the cocoa bean."It seems that there are a host of challenges that affect cocoa crops, from...
Source: InsureBlog - June 27, 2008
Doctor discipline measure draws mixed reaction
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Gov. David A. Paterson’s measures aimed at improving patient safety and putting more teeth into physician discipline drew a mixed reaction yesterday from experts in health care and the legal profession.
During his news briefing yesterday, Paterson alluded to Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, the Long Island physician caught in controversy after more than 10,000 of his patients were notified they might have been exposed to hepatitis C, B and HIV.
Under the governor’s plan, physicians would not be able to practice while an investigation is under way. But that denies doctors the right of due process, said Dr. Melissa Palm...
Source: Doc Advocate - June 27, 2008 Authors: Mike Tags: Comman
Nationalized Health Care: Ruh Ro!
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"(T)he chairman of a government committee reviewing...health care this year...concluded that the system is in "crisis."For example:"Sylvia de Vires....afflicted with a 13-inch, fluid-filled tumor weighing 40 pounds, was unable to get timely care."And she's far from the only one:"At some hospitals, seriously ill patients are kept in ambulances for hours so as not to run afoul of the regulation."Wow, sure sounds like we need to switch to a Canadian-style, nationalized health care system, and right away!Or maybe not: "the chairman" cited above is actually considered the "the father of Quebec medicare," the system on which Can...
Source: InsureBlog - June 27, 2008
Cavalcade of Risk #55: Submissions Due
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Our friend Jay Norris hosts next week's Independence Day edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. Submissions are due by next Monday (June 30th), and Jay requests that you include:■ Your blog's url
■ Your post's url
■ The post's trackback URL (if available)
■ A (brief) summary of the postYou can submit your post via Blog Carnival or email.We're scheduling late summer, so please drop us a line to reserve your Cav.
Source: InsureBlog - June 27, 2008
Medicare Delayed
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The New York Times reported yesterday on the delay in the Senate's consideration of the Medicare Bill which would have blocked the 10 percent automatic cut in Medicare payments to physicians scheduled to begin in July. Now, those cuts are...
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - June 27, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
Some Happiness for Your Day
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Please click here --- I want that guy's job - fun dancing, travel and opportunity to show how much we all have in common with each other. More information about Matt and his mission can be found here.
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - June 27, 2008 Authors: HealthLawProf Hodnicki
Personal Health Records on the Hill
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Last week, I joined the Project HealthDesign grantees in DC as they shared their projects on Capitol Hill. It was an opportunity for the grantees to brief members of Congress and their staff about personal health records (PHRs) and the importance of engaging patients in the design and functionality of PHRs. We've talked about Project HealthDesign before on this blog, so you may remember that Project HealthDesign focuses on the patient or end user. (Conversely, most PHRs available today respond to the needs of healthcare systems or providers.) I loved hearing from the research and design teams how the patients, through thei...
Source: Pioneering Ideas - June 27, 2008 Authors: Theresa Kanter Tags: Grants & Grantees
Macfie, McCain, and McPrizes
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In late 19th Century Britain, a British Member of Parliament, Robert Macfie, vigorously advocated awarding governmental cash prizes to inventors whose inventions proved useful, and pressed for such a reward system to replace patents. Patents are usually justified on the grounds that they promote technological innovation. The United States Constitution is rather explicit about this, granting Congress the right to set up a patent system "To promote the Progress of...[the] useful Arts". However, the monopoly right to exclude that a patent confers to its owner can also create a deadweight loss to society. Macfie's system of go...
Source: BioLaw: Law and the Life Sciences - June 27, 2008 Authors: Andrew W. Torrance
