Valentine’s Day, health policy nerd style

Do roses, chocolates and romantic cards for Valentine’s Day elicit nothing more than a stifled yawn from you?

May we recommend that you indulge this Valentine’s Day instead in an abundance of “Health Policy Valentines?”

Harvard health policy PhD student Emma Sandoe started this hilarious Twitter trend a few years ago.

“I was on my way home, it was about February 11th,” recalled Sandoe.  “I thought about all of the funny jokes you could make about health policy and Valentine’s Day, started tweeting, and it caught on.”

Since that day, ardent lovers of health policy have used the hashtag “healthpolicyvalentines” to communicate their feelings about this topic.

“Much like Obamacare enrollment, my love for you increased 53% in Jan.,” tweeted @NinjasforHealth.

“My love for you is like an accountable care organization – hard to define but I know it’s there,” wrote Alicia Samuels, whose Twitter handle is @publichealthPR.

The American Medical Association got really geeky with this tweet: “My dearest ICD-10 coder: Cupid has pierced my heart with his arrow (code W45.8XXA). “

Emma Sandoe says her favorite tweets are as nerdy as possible. “Stuff about Medicaid 1115 wavers, or something like ‘Medicare doesn’t cover long term care, but I do,'” she said.

Participants come from a “pretty great community of health policy nerds” as Sandoe puts it, and the romantic tweeting goes on for days before and after Valentine’s Day.

So – give it a try this Valentine’s Day.  And while you’re at it, try to top this missive from Patrick Ross:

“Girl, I’m tryin’ to keep readmission rates low, but you keep walking back into my heart.”