December 12th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor
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So I went to eat my free daily lunch offering the other day in the doctors lounge when I noticed that a giant plate of enchiladas was just about empty. At 10:35 am. It’ not every day you get a free hot meal at Happy’s hospital, I would like to thank the Medicare National Bank for paying for my meals.
Generally,Happy’s doctors lounge offers a fine consistent assortment of cold salads, sandwich meats and several soup offerings. I found myself wondering exactly how much money I save every year by eating lunch in the doctors lounge. I remember Mrs Happy’s daily lunch bills when she worked in the hospital. It can add up pretty quick for nurses without the secret handshake to get in to the doctors lounge. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
December 7th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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I got an email today laying out the reality of our current health care debate. Is it a crisis of culture or a health care crisis. I am a firm believer in taking responsibility for one’s actions. I believe those who chose not to practice healthy lifestyles should pay more for the consequences of their actions than those who do. I believe the solution to our health care finance quandary lies not in controlling the cost of treating disease, but rather in upholding the personal responsibility all Americans have to themselves and their country.
What does the distribution of health care dollars look like among the American population? While we know that 50% of our population spends only 3% of health care dollars, we also know that 50% of our health care dollars are spent by 5% of our population, a population of chronic disease sufferers who’s diseases are, by and large, a direct result of the personal decisions they chose to make on a daily basis. For the most part, genetics alone is no longer an excuse. We knew very well that lifestyle directly affects the expression of disease by genes. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
December 2nd, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
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It’s official. Happy has now earned his CMS physician pay for performance PQRI Bonus for 2008, a direct deposit into Happy’s bank account. PQRI stands for Physician Quality Reporting Initiative. How much was my PQRI Medicare pay for performance bonus for calendar year 2008? A $2,500 check written out directly to Happy by the Medicare National Bank. CMS gives a wonderful overview of the history of PQRI . PQRI is the Medicare pay for performance program for physicians that was initiated by Congressional mandate in the latter half of 2007. Doctors have an opportunity to earn back 2% of their gross Medicare collections (which the government calls a bonus but which I call legalized theft) by submitting a grotesque amount of quality performance paper work to the Medicare National Bank. It’s one giant PQRI guideline game.
PQRI reporting is currently voluntary, but legislation in future years will certainly mandate reductions in payment for not submitting data, all but making this program a punitive standard. Many physicians failed to meet the requirements to get paid under CMS pay for performance program guidelines in the latter half of 2007, the first year for PQRI measures. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
November 30th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
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I remember very clearly as a medical student hearing my attending hammer home the importance of the history and physical examination. Everyday I heard the same thing
The history and physical examination is the most important part of patient care
After seven long years of hospitalist medicine, I gotta say my attendings were right. If you listen to what the patient is telling you, the answer is often staring you in the face. Unfortunately, in this volume driven world of fee for service we live in, time is not on the physician’s side. Most elderly patients are incapable of separating important medical information from irrelevant medical information, which can make history taking a very painful part of being a doctor. So they just talk and talk and talk. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
November 25th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Health Policy, Opinion
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How widespread is Medicare fraud? The government is now reporting Medicare fraud rates almost three times higher than previously accounted for, at 47 billion dollars this year. How could Medicare Fraud triple in a year? The answer is simple.
In an effort to be more honest with data collecting, Obama ordered the new accounting into effect. All part of the hope and change we always hear about.
It’s not clear whether Medicare fraud is actually worsening. Much of the increase in the last year is attributed to a change in the Health and Human Services Department’s methodology that imposes stricter documentation requirements and includes more improper payments — part of a data-collection effort being ordered government-wide by President Barack Obama next week to promote “honest budgeting” and accurate statistics.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
