Houston Healthcare Initiative's Podcast

Enhancing Population Health Approaches After Covid - 19. On this edition of the Houston Healthcare Initiative Dr. Steven Goldstein, will discuss the reversals in preventative care the American public experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic and what we can all do to stay healthier, and possibly live longer by re-committing to prevention as part of our collective health regimen. To learn more, please visit www.houstonhealthcareiniti...

Even in the year 2021 the more things change, the more they stay the same. By that I am referring to the off-label prescription options doctors have always had that are still controversial when it comes to the ongoing global Covid 19 pandemic. Off-label prescribing is when a physician gives a drug that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved t...

There were a lot of unintended consequences of the Covid-19 lockdown. Sadly, at a time when Americans should have been focused on their health, as a population we did anything but. During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown the average American gained two pounds a month. Americans in general were never known for healthy diets or enthusiasm for working out. But a bad problem got way worse during 2020 and the early month of 2021. To help ...

Access to and paying for healthcare is a topic that Dr. Goldstein talks about a lot on the podcast and this one is no exception. But in this case access to primary care is a matter of the number of doctors who choose to pursue primary care as a career. Pay for those roles is lower than it is for most specialists. A lower number of primary care doctors are linked to 85 deaths every day according to a study published by the National ...

In this installment of the Houston Healthcare Initiative podcast, respected neurologist and founder of the Houston Healthcare Initiative, Dr. Steven Goldstein, will explain the often-overlooked benefit known as the Health Savings Account. The Health Savings Account or HSA is a type of savings account that is used for medical expenses. Congress established them in 2003 for those with high deductible health insurance. It is a way to ...

During the lockdown that was borne of the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans gained weight. How much you may ask? The American Psychological Association’s “Stress in America” poll, conducted in late February 2021 found that 42 percent of people surveyed reported they were heavier than the previous year. Sadly, this is not a new trend, but lockdown and isolation made it much worse. The pandemic and lockdown brought a lot of significant ch...

For those who ever tried something that said on the label ‘one size fits all’ there is some shared learning because one size never fits all. This is true for socks, t-shirts and healthcare. Yet in spite of this collective experience, we settle for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies who approach patients with templates designed to treat everything and everyone the same or at least very similarly. Instead of an emphasis on in...

On this edition of the podcast, Houston based neurologist and the founder of the Houston Healthcare Initiative Dr. Steven Goldstein, will step us through the numbers associated with health insurance and hospitalization costs. Additionally, he will describe the profits hospitals and health insurance companies accrue and help us all decide was this a good way for all of us to spend money. Now make no mistake, neither one of us is aga...

In a time when so many lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 Pandemic….

Job & Health Insurance Loss Come and Go Together; How To Find Affordable Coverage 

March 2, 2021 -- In December 2020, 66% of Americans who answered a survey said they fear they won’t be able to afford health care this year. Of the 41% of respondents who are very or moderately concerned about health-care costs, 53% are parents with children. The amount of ...

This week respected Houston based neurologist Dr. Steven Goldstein will discuss the price’s patients are charged by doctors and hospitals. Specifically, on the new rules about healthcare price transparency. Specifically, on the new rules about healthcare and price transparency. What needed to change on disclosing prices and is anything different as a result? Of course, there are ways that the hospitals are playing around with the i...

A healthcare company blessed with lots of money, high tech abilities and really smart people will close up the end of January. Of course, this was Haven, the joint venture between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan-Chase. Its purpose was to use the leverage of its tens of thousands of employees and its expertise in technology to improve the healthcare system. What lessons can we learn from its failure to accomplish its mission...

Those with an interest in reforming the healthcare industry will be very interested in the topic of this podcast as respected neurologist Dr. Steven Goldstein tells us all about how some very large organizations tried and failed at reforming their employee health insurance. This is a story about an organization that was called Haven. When it was formed, the three companies had a lofty goal: to provide U.S. employees and their famil...

That times are unsettled was never truer than in 2020 and 2021 will start out that way. But in an unsettled time with so much of the nation’s attention turned to medical care, could it be the time to really push healthcare reform and what might that reform look like? Americans remain in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. What can we learn from it and how can this influence our thinking when it comes to healthcare reform? Or is it ...

There are currently 120 Coronavirus/Covid-19 vaccines in development and a race to be the first one available for the public. Being first with this vaccine will mean big rewards for the maker in the form of profits and scientific prestige. Along with these developments there is political pressure to not only be first but be first by election day. Regardless, the benefits of a vaccine for this extremely contagious virus will ultimat...

A group of U.S. doctors known collectively as the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons or the AAPS recently sued the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for limiting use of hydroxychloroquine, and the right to prescribe hydroxychloroquine as an off-label treatment for the Coronavirus/Covid-19 virus. But there is a larger issue here that will eventually transcend the Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic and that is who ultimately...