I’ve complained about CMS/Medicare many times in previous posts, but this time they deserve praise. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell floated a proposal to allow Medicare to change how it pays for cancer drugs. According to an aritcle in the New York Times, ALL members of the Senate Finance Committee signed a letter...
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The Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC) just released its annual report on Medicare expenditures. Congress technically votes on the fees that Medicare pays, but it created MedPAC to serve as its primary advisor. If MedPAC sounds familiar to some, it may be because of reports in the past of the American...
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Hello again!  I haven’t written anything in a while. No big worries. I moved recently (same town, same neighborhood), but the remodel of the new house has been a mis-adventure and I’ve been living out of boxes and breathing dust for over a month. Things are kind of finally settling down....
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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’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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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. Have you ever wondered why doctors tell you...
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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. In my last post, I showed how the...
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For the next several weeks, I’ll try to explain to non-physician readers why the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) billing rules create the horrid lack of primary care patients experience when they simply want to find a personal physician. My conclusions are based on recent research on the topic....
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We continue to examine the results of our recently published study on the ways family physicians deliver better care at a lower cost than a multi-ologist approach. The next concept is complexity. Family physicians are more comfortable with complexity than any other physicians, especially in their ability to negotiate the diagnostic...
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