I imagine many of you have heard about the fantastic article in Time magazine called Bitter Pill, written by Steven Brill at: http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/ In a nutshell, it exposes the absurd system of chargemasters and bills the hospitals use to obfuscate their prices. It exposes the unconscionable reality that the uninsured, who...
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I recently received this email message from one of my residents who has moonlighted in a local commercial urgent care center. This message is reprinted with his permission just as I received it, except I removed the brand name. “Hey Dr. Young, I’m looking for some basic mentoring advice.  I’ve been moonlighting...
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Two recent studies should remind us of the limited usefulness of routine screening mammograms. The first study looked at 30+ years of breast cancer outcomes in the U.S. before and after routine mammography became common practice. It found that the rate of breast cancers that had not spread beyond the breast...
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The PPACA (Obamacare) includes provisions for hospitals and other entities such as physician groups to cooperate to make systems work better, save money, and share those savings between Medicare, the hospitals, and the other entities. These efforts are doomed to underperform for many reasons. One of the biggies is that these...
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