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Physician Discusses The Confusing Aspects Of Medicare Part D

I have discussed Medicare Part B and Part F in recent blogs. A reader asked about Medicare Part D:

Dr. Feld

“Please discuss Medicare Part D, the drug benefit plan available to seniors. It is very complicated and completely confusing to me.

My physician gave me a prescription for Levequin 500 mg once a day for 10 days. The pharmacist told me it would cost me $330 dollars. Medicare Part D would pay an additional $110 dollars for a total of $440 dollars.

I asked the pharmacist if there was a generic equivalent. The answer was yes. It cost $10 dollars.

This is unconscionable. It is highway robbery.

Sincerely

a.g.”

Several issues are presented in this readers note. It is essential to understand these issues. The issues are an indictment against government “controlled” programs. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*

Social Network Keeps Seniors Connected

Care Innovations, a joint venture between GE and Intel, has released Connect, a service designed to address social isolation in seniors.

Connect software runs on a touch screen device and features social networking, as well as health management and reporting tools. The system has been undergoing a successful user trial at a nursing home in Michigan since last year.

More about Connect from the announcement: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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