July 7th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
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Call it sweet, delicious vindication. It was clinic day yesterday. No longer had I completed my rant in this blog about UnitedHealthcare’s program to require all cardiac elecrophysiologists to obtain a “notification number” before performing any pacemaker or defibrillator procedure, I discovered my letter from them dated June 3, 2010, on my desk stating that this requirement will begin September 1, 2010, for all Illinois electrophysiologists for “all electrophysiology procedures.”
Not longer than an hour later I was seeing a 67-year-old patient in the clinic who asked me: “I just got my Medicare (Part A) card and must decide about which insurer I should use for Part B, C, D, E, and F,” he said jokingly. “Since I have the medical problem and might need some care in the future, is there a company you would recommend?” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
July 5th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News
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Road and construction projects have stopped all over town, thanks to concerns about future healthcare benefits. From ChicagoBreakingNews.com:
Construction companies and labor unions are divided over healthcare packages. The unions seek a 15 percent annual benefits increase over three years, while contractors have countered with a 1 percent annual increase.
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
June 29th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, True Stories
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As doctors increasingly become physician-employees, there’s no longer a need to share resources with university specialists:
Three University of Virginia cardiologists have been told by the Augusta Health board they will lose their hospital privileges next week, impacting the 2,500 patients the doctors serve.
Augusta Health officials [Crow] told the doctors in a letter that they won’t be able to treat their patients in emergencies or otherwise at the hospital in Fishersville. Crow’s statement said the board is limiting cardiology department participation to doctors “under contract to Augusta Health.”
Augusta Health has four cardiologists on staff, and will soon have a fifth, he said. Limiting cardiology participation to the hospital’s own doctors will allow Augusta Health “to build a strong and financially viable community-based cardiology program,” Crow said.
Universities have a long history of exporting their clinical expertise in the hopes of capturing more complicated surgical cases from their imbedded specialists. With more and more health systems consolidating (note the 3-for-1 swap above), the days of collaboration and shared resources between health systems are ending and patients are finding access to doctors more challenging.
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
June 25th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Humor, News
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Remember “cooties” in grade school? You know, the germs or disease that girls gave boys or boys gave girls in grade school if they touched? Well, it seems they’re becoming an epidemic. Thank goodness someone checked for “cooties” on the Stanley Cup:
The NHL champion Blackhawks’ beloved trophy stopped by the Chicago Tribune newsroom, and so we took the opportunity to do something the Cup’s keeper said had never been done: We swabbed it for germs. We sent the samples to the Chicago lab EMSL Analytical, which found very little general bacteria and no signs of staph, salmonella or E. coli. “It’s surprisingly clean,” lab manager Nancy McDonald said. Just 400 counts of general bacteria were found, she said. By comparison, a desk in an office typically has more than 10,000.
No staph species detected? Hmmm. I think there was a sampling error…
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
June 18th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Humor
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They had been married for over 35 years, both successful ophthalmologists who had entered retirement after selling their practice. The kids had grown and their house was just too big for them now, so they decided to downsize to a condominium.
After many days of searching, they toured a lovely place and were excited to make a deposit, but the husband first wanted to inspect the building from the outside before committing. As he rounded the building with his wife beside him, he looked up, struggling to find the unit they were interested from the ground.
“Which one is it dear?” he asked.
“The one on the right, third floor.”
“I don’t see it,” he said.
His wife saw where he was looking.
“No sweetheart, not that one,” she said directing him to the right side of the building, “It’s the one over there, on the patient’s left side.”
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
