The PPACA (The Obama Healthcare Law) includes a provision that employers may use up to 30% of the employee’s health insurance premium for wellness incentives. An article in the NEJM discussed some of the difficulties of this seemingly straightforward effort to prevent the onset of chronic diseases and lower healthcare costs....
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One of my favorite parts in the journal BMJ is the occasional column written by Dr. Iona Heath, the president of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Her thoughts have helped me understand the similarities and differences between the U.S. and British physicians, healthcare systems, and culture. And I love her...
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All of us want to live long healthy lives, but what if the lives aren’t really healthy? A study in the Journal of Gerontology concluded that our increasing national life expectancy – which is still low compared to the rest of the developed world – has not increased lately. More disturbing...
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A recent study in Annals of Internal Medicine looked at what happened when patients were cared for in the hospital by private physicians (presumably often their personal physicians) compared to hospitalists. For a little background, hospitalists are doctors whose job is limited to taking care of patients in the hospital. They...
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