Posts Tagged: reform

Portraying Government Procurement: Is It The Media Or The Culture?

From The Acquisition Corner Recent testimony by Steve Schooner, co-director of The George Washington University’s Government Procurement Law Program, and others before the House Armed Services Committee’s Defense Acquisition Reform Panel, helped paint the picture and made valid points about how the media portrays the federal acquisition environment and the current state it is in.Read… Read more »

US Health Care: Why Privatization Is Inefficient – Part 4 of 4

Arguments Against Universality It is often argued that socialized medicine in the US would introduce a wealth of problems, worse than those currently faced. Government is often regarded as wasteful, rigid and out of touch with the real needs of its citizens. In comparison, private management of health care is often portrayed as offering increasedRead… Read more »

Government 2.0: How to Get Involved

Harvard and FutureGov research into Frontiers of Service in a Networked World: Complete our survey, tag content HKS20 (#HKS20 on Twitter), leave comments to the blog by Friday 26th February to share your thoughts on the current and future use of technology in public service delivery: http://ow.ly/1979M Reform is the New Change: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33265.html Do ItRead… Read more »

US Health Care: Why Privatization Is Inefficient – Part 3 of 4

The Industry of Illness It is a reality of our time that the same companies promoting health care products are also largely responsible for underwriting their research. Skepticism about this model of business has led to pharmacoeconomic studies of the popular antidepressants, which demonstrate a clear association between study sponsorship and quantitative outcome (Baker etRead… Read more »

US Health Care: Why Privatization Is Inefficient – Part 2 of 4

Spending More, Getting Less — The Public System Because of their identity as government programs, societal scepticism about the US government’s ability to manage efficiently, and the relative reduction of power and status allotted to the primary recipients of public health care (the poor and elderly), Medicare and Medicaid are often the target of spendingRead… Read more »

US Health Care: Why Privatization Is Inefficient – Part 1 of 4

As I write this, the Obama Administration is still pushing for a major overhaul to the American health care system — a plan with with an uncertain future since the Democrats lost their Senate vote last month. As a Canadian who lived and worked in the United States for a number of years, I considerRead… Read more »

One parity goal reached, yet others remain

BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE Issue Date: Online ExclusiveOnline Exclusive One parity goal reached, yet others remainFour more doors must be opened in order to ensure fair, effective care for behavioral health by Ronald W. Manderscheid, PhD, Executive Director, NACBHDD On Tuesday, Feb. 2, the U.S. Departments of HHS, Labor, and Treasury published the long-awaited “Interim Final Regulations”Read… Read more »

Insourcing Debate Is About Strategy, Not Numbers

From The Acquisition Corner As the federal government continues to find ways to move contracted work back in-house, it must overcome some major obstacles. One area that has been significantly neglected is effective human capital planning. As a result, the government’s lack of in-house resources has increased its reliance on contractors to help it performRead… Read more »

Execution is the Key to Improving the Federal Acquisition Process

From The Acquisition Corner As 2009 is now in the books, the year ended with plans submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the 24 federal agencies that account for 98% of contract actions. As reported by NextGov, these agencies have identified $19 billion in acquisition-related savings, also announced by OMB inRead… Read more »