A recent report in USA Today disclosed the range of deductibles in the silver health insurance plans under the federal exchange of Obamacare. The authors concluded that in regions with less competition, the costs were higher. Families that make more than 250% of the federal poverty level — about $60,000 for...
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First of all, I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and I wish everyone a happy New Year’s. As my longtime readers know, there will are lots of things I hope improve in our healthcare system in 2015, but I’ll just mention one wish today. My wish is that the...
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It’s the reenrollment period for the Obamacare plans. Estimates before Obamacare was created on its effects on costs were all over the map. Some pundits thought costs would come down; some pundits but costs would go up. The early returns are in, but as might be expected, the findings are all...
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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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I assume many readers of American HealthScare have already read this piece from the New York Times. But just in case you haven’t, if you have any anti-nausea medicine at home, take it 30 minutes before reading this. I continue to be flabbergasted that the private sector allows this to happen....
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The case of Jahi McMath is incredibly sad. She is the 13-year-old girl in Oakland, CA who had tonsil/adenoid surgery to treat sleep apnea. Her throat began bleeding profusely hours after the surgery. This ultimately led to her being placed on a ventilator, experiencing period of low oxygen in her blood...
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The American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology just published new guidelines for screening and treating cholesterol. In some ways these guidelines are more like the British guidelines. Instead of setting up doctors and patients to fail by calling for certain cholesterol number targets as in the old U.S. guidelines (LDL level...
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Yet another study has documented the obvious: that the Medicare fee schedule is heavily weighted to favor procedural services. Sinsky and Dugdale added to the previous documentation of this institutional bigotry by being sure to capture the other demands on physician time besides the procedure itself. This includes time spent talking...
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I’m back to my usual comments after my long series on the many ways family physicians deliver better care at a lower cost. When our article came out that I’ve been commenting on, I was in the middle of griping about Dr. Oz again. I’ll pick up where I left off....
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