Kaiser Permanente has been a leader in integrated healthcare for decades. It started as a plan to cover workers building the Hoover Dam, and has spread to become a dominant force primarily on the west coast. It has over six million members in California alone. Kaiser does a lot of things...
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On Sunday, CNN will have two shows on healthcare. The first one starts at 7 ET/6 CT. Then there is a reaction show on how to fix healthcare at 9 ET/8 CT. Sanjay Gupta will be the host. But the real reason to watch is that one of his guests will...
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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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A friend of mine told me about her annual trip to the gynecologist (and no, I did not give her much of a hard time about this. I don’t want to repel too many friends as they make common personal health decisions). She was feeling a little sick that day and...
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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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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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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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I’m subscribed to a service that sends out daily emails about philanthropic funding in healthcare. It’s full of regional and national foundations who, with the best of intentions, are trying to make our healthcare system better. Most of the funding falls under two categories: 1) infrastructure building such as new wings...
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