In NYT op-ed, Mostashari offers proof of ACA success
Former ONC head Farzad Mostashari, MD, MSc, penned a New York Times op-ed, along with Bob Kocher, MD, former special assistant to President Obama on healthcare and economic policy, making a case for the Affordable Care Act successfully lowering healthcare costs and delivering better care.
Mostashari and Kocher provided an update on the situation in McAllen, Texas, which was the subject of Atul Gawande's landmark 2009 New Yorker article "The Cost Conundrum." Gawande, a surgeon and New Yorker staff writer, examined and detailed why healthcare in McAllen was so costly yet its citizens suffered from poor health.
The op-ed says the community now has lower healthcare costs and better health.
"Five years later, the situation has changed," Mostashari and Kocher wrote. "Where McAllen once illustrated the problem of American healthcare, the city is now showing us how the problem can be solved, largely because of the Affordable Care Act that Mr. Obama signed into law in 2010."
After leaving the Office of the National Coordinator and the Brookings Institure, Mostashari founded Aledade, a startup dedicated to helping physicians form accountable care organizations. Kocher joined venture capital firm Venrock, which has invested in Aledade.
Read the op-ed op-ed.
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.