Penelope Lemov

Recent Articles

• Elder Scare
• Nov 1, 2004
• Health care costs for retirees are like a hurricane that's gathering strength in the ocean before it makes landfall.

• Maine's Medical Gamble
• Nov 1, 2004
• Can broader insurance coverage bring health care costs under control? One state is betting on it.

• Nascent Patient Power
• Sep 1, 2004
• A new approach to cutting health care costs may end up transferring medical risk to consumers.

• Tenncare Tensions
• Jul 1, 2004
• Governor Bredesen aims to save TennCare, but one of his fixes flies in the face of a cherished national notion.

• A Mixed Picture
• Jun 1, 2004
• Bond rating experts at odds on state of states

• A Cure for Costs
• May 1, 2004
• rising price of health care.

• The Weight Line
• Mar 1, 2004
• States have a fiscal link to the obesity crisis--it accounts for 5 percent of their overall medical spending.

• Healing Health Care
• Jan 1, 2004
• The times may be ripe to form new--and surprising--alliances to solve the crisis in health insurance.

• Junkyard Blues: Pittsburgh's Fiscal Problems Run It Down
• Dec 1, 2003
• Credit downgrades happen all the time: The economy turns sour, budgets are stressed, the powers that be don't want to raise taxes or slash spending.

• Setting Up A New Shop
• Dec 1, 2003
• Oregon's former governor is pushing a rational way to control drug costs.

• The 'Medmal' Mess
• Nov 1, 2003
• When it comes to reducing medical errors, assessing blame is less effective than identifying patterns and steps to correct problems.

• Bad News Bear
• Nov 1, 2003
• Investment markets can falter. When they do, pension bonds can become a very risky business.

• Online Privacy
• Sep 1, 2003
• There's no going back. Money may be short, some basic services may be in a funding freefall, but online government is a way of life. "No one would dispute that information technology has become the backbone of commerce," wrote Nicholas G. Carr (next page) in a recent Harvard Business Review article.

• Rolling Medicaid Rules
• Sep 1, 2003
• Several states made changes in their Medicaid and SCHIP programs that will, in effect, push children off the rolls.

• The Pros of Cons
• Jul 1, 2003
• The assault on certificates of need, put in place decades ago to control health costs, couldn't come at a worse time.