Efforts to make medicine cheaper, more efficient underway

The Minneapolis Star Tribune: "One of Minnesota's largest providers of supportive housing for seniors will begin testing telemedicine and sensor technology to help frail seniors stay healthier and delay institutional care under an $8 million grant announced Wednesday. It will be the largest project of its kind in the nation, involving about 1,600 clients in 40 rural cities." That's according to the grant recipient, the Good Samaritan Society (Wolfe, 6/23).

The Highlands Ranch (Colo.) Herald: "Urgent care facilities are becoming a popular alternative to primary care doctors and emergency rooms for treating common ailments. These centers offer convenience and can be an attractive, affordable option for uninsured patients. More than 600 facilities opened in the United States between 2008 and 2010, according to the Urgent Care Association of America" (Sackett, 6/24).

The Wall Street Journal: "[i]nvestors say they are focused even more intently than before on companies with products that aim to lower the cost of health-care. Leslie Bottorff, a general partner at Onset Ventures, said she anticipates there will be opportunities to invest in health-care providers, infrastructure, and technology, as they all provide ways to take costs out of the system without affecting how doctors are paid. 'You can't scale doctors,' she said, speaking on a panel at the Dow Jones Limited Partner Summit in New York" (Rossa, 6/23).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.