It is so hard to push back against the influence of GIMeC, because people often make up their minds about reality based on stories of other people.  How many times have you seen this story on the TV news, magazines, or TV dramas? A person had some sort of pain or...
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The GIMeC (Government Industrial Medical Coalition) ignorance fairy has been busy lately, flying around waving her crooked wand at the unsuspecting public. The claim this time is that efforts to prevent diabetes save money. Two articles making this claim were published at nearly the same time. The first was an article...
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A very insightful editorial appeared recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine.The article gave several examples of overdiagnosis in medicine, but I thought the authors did a particularly good job explaining the false hope of CT scanning to detect pulmonary emboli. Emboli occur most often when a blood clot in the...
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I’m back from my final CMS Innovation Advisors meeting in Baltimore. I was one of the speakers for this final gathering where I shared my proposals to create a fairer and better payment system for family medicine. A lot of people have asked me what I propose. I provide a general...
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Answer: Stop putting so much money into the healthcare industry. Since the recession started, jobs in healthcare have grown while jobs everywhere else have declined. Business revenue that could have gone to higher paying jobs or more jobs have been sucked into the great health insurance black hole. Government obligations to...
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OK, it’s really called the American Medical Association, but it most often represents the world view of ologists not primary care. The House of Delegates of the AMA is 80%-85% ologists. When there is any conflict between the views of primary care vs. those of the ologists, guess who usually prevails....
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I admit I can be naïve at times. But all I could do was shake my head in disappointment after watching Meet the Press today. The topic was the impact of the nomination of Paul Ryan on the national debate on the economy, Medicare, and the role of the government in...
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In many, many of my previous posts, I’ve complained about the bigotry against and ignorance of family medicine by the rest of the medical establishment and the greater society. Today I will challenge my family physician colleagues to do more. A recent survey by the AAFP found that fewer than 20%...
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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended that most women only undergo a Pap smear every 3 years starting at age 21, and even less frequently after age 30 if they also are tested for the human papillomavirus with the Pap smears. A few weeks ago, the OB/Gyns published guidelines...
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A report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) found that the Medicare Advantage option wastes $8 billion per year. This option was started under the 2nd Bush administration under the belief that an HMO-like product operating as a for-profit insurance option could lower costs through care management, wellness, and prevention. Medicare...
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