A colleague sent me a copy of this post. I think it’s satire, but I actually can’t tell for sure. It’s a story where a doctor waiting outside a hospital administrator’s office, finds a consultant’s trade magazine that tells them how they can control doctors. The comments on the original blog...
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The U.S. healthcare system has another measure of how poorly it compares to other countries. An editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine compares polls from developed countries on two measures: “All things considered, doctors in your country can be trusted” and “Satisfaction with the treatment you received when you...
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There was a fascinating article in The Atlantic written by one of America’s leading bioethicists, Ezekiel Emanuel, who is the brother of Rahm Emanuel, who left the Obama administration to become the mayor of Chicago. The article is entitled Why I Hope to Die at 75. Dr. Emanuel starts by debunking...
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If anyone thinks ACOs or other ACA concoctions have impacted the cost of healthcare, here are two examples of how the status quo has not changed. First, comes an article from the New York Times. I told the story of a man who had neck surgery http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/us/drive-by-doctoring-surprise-medical-bills.html?_r=0.  When he got his...
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A recent report from Rutgers University entitled “Unhappy, Worried, and Pessimistic: Americans in the Aftermath of the Great Recession” found that 70% of respondents described the typical American worker as not secure in their jobs and 68% of workers are highly stressed. A quote from the study is, “The typical American...
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First, we are all so thankful that our family physician colleague Kent Brantly seems to be recovering from his Ebola infection. When his family left Liberia, they had to leave all of their possessions behind, which should have been burned by now. If you would like to donate to help him...
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I must pause a week in my continued quest to highlight waste and excess in the American healthcare system to focus on a more pressing issue. Dr. Kent Brantly graduated from the JPS Family Medicine Residency Program 2 years ago after also completing our global/maternity care fellowship. He is the young...
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I’ll make this one very short. The same realities apply in the CMS documentation, coding, and billing rules that incentivize over-treating as they do for over-testing. If I see a patient with a cough, I don’t prescribe antibiotics, and I give the long speech explaining why they don’t need antibiotics, and...
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I’m continuing my series on the reasons there are so few family physicians in the U.S. and why the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is a root cause of this deficit. My conclusions are based on recent research on the topic. This specific issue is a detail that actually...
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I’m continuing my series on the reasons there are so few family physicians in the U.S. and why the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is a root cause of this deficit. My conclusions are based on recent research on the topic. If you hired an accountant to do your...
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