Information gaps are a significant impediment to the reports’ usefulness to policy-makers. Nonetheless, these reports can and should inform our discussion and debate as we search for a durable solution to the problem.

While Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield have recently ceded ground on coding and reimbursement methodologies, it remains to be seen whether insurers and physicians will be able to develop the necessary level of trust and collaboration to make innovative systems work.

Philadelphia City Councilman Michael A. Nutter has introduced a bill with moderate smoking restrictions. It’s time that Philadelphia join over 200 local governments in curbing our nation’s third leading cause of preventable death.

Despite all of the hype, the settlement appears to be short on public health policies and long on special legal protections for the tobacco industry. And there is no guarantee that any of the settlement money coming to Pennsylvania will be spent on tobacco control, public health or health care.

The sad spectacle of Allegheny’s nine Philadelphia-area hospitals losing tens of millions of dollars a month should give us pause.