February 17th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Administrative Burden, Concierge Medicine, Healthcare reform, Internal Medicine, medicaid, Medicare, Primary Care, Retainer Medicine
6 Comments »
I am going to state something that is completely obvious to most primary care physicians: I do not accept Medicare and Medicaid patients because it is good business, I accept them despite the fact that it is bad business.
In truth, I could make that statement about insurance as a whole; my life would be easier and my income would be less precarious if I did not accept any insurance. If I did, I would charge a standard amount per visit based on time spent and require payment at the time of that visit. This is totally obvious to me, and I suspect to most primary care physicians. A huge part of our overhead comes from the fact that we are dealing with insurance. A huge part of our headache and hassle comes from the fact that we are dealing with insurance. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
February 17th, 2010 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Alerts, Bisphosphonates, Claims, Claims-Based, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pharmaceuticals, warnings, Waste Of Time
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I got a letter from an insurer the other day, warning me that my patient, who had just refilled a prescription for a bisphosphonate I had prescribed almost a year ago for severe osteoporosis (yes, I do still prescribe dugs, despite how I feel about Big Pharma marketing), also had a claims diagnosis in their system for a bleeding peptic ulcer, and was I really sure she should be taking this medication, which could worsen her ulcer?
So do what any conscientious physician would do – I call her. (Of course, no one is ever home when I call these days, so it’s another few days of phone tag before I get her.) No, she has not been diagnosed with anything of the kind. Feels great, in fact. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog that Ate Manhattan*
February 17th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Benefits Professionals, Costs, Employer, Finance, Health Insurance, Large Employers
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“I’m from Massachusetts,” I told the audience. “So depending on how you feel about reform, I will say either ’sorry,’ or ‘you’re welcome.”
The audience, made up of large employers and benefits professionals seemed to like this. But it was clear that they were pleased that the health care reform legislation is Congress is pretty well dead now.
Now, if it’s true that health care costs are rising (they are) and this heavily impacts employers (it does) why would the death of a bill meant to address this problem make those people happy?
I’ve written before that part of the problem with the reform bills in Congress is the huge divide between what benefits professionals know about the real world of health care and the things that get “policy wonks” excited. And so a big reason why these bills never really had widespread support among professional benefits people was because they never made a whole lot of sense to them. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
February 17th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Anxiety, Aortic Dissection, Chest Pain, CT Scan, D-Dimer, Emergency Medicine, Nursing, Psychiatry, Radiology, Testing
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Seems like I’ve been on a real run of chest pain patients lately. Which is fine — it’s part of the gig. I did have a very interesting pair the other night. They were seen in sequence, right next to one another, in room 7 and room 8. They were both totally healthy women in their mid-fifties. And they were both over-the-edge, crazy, crawling-out-of-the-gurney anxious.
Anxiety is an awful red herring in the work-up of chest pain. People who are having an anxiety attack often if not always manifest some chest pain (pressure, tightness, whatever) as a prominent symptom of their anxiety. On the other hand, someone having a heart attack who is experiencing chest pain will also be anxious — and for good reason! Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
February 16th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Anesthesiology, Brigham And Womens, Hospitals, Paid Speaking Engagements, Pharma, Pharmaceuticals, Physicians, Speakers Bureau, Speaking Gigs
1 Comment »
Doctors have been coming under increasing scrutiny for their relationships with pharmaceutical companies.
Many hospitals and medical schools have outright banned any involvement of their physician staff with drug companies. This isn’t a contentious issue most of the time.
But a recent case at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital raised some eyebrows. Apparently, an asthma specialist was so dependent on drug company money, that he chose to quit the hospital instead. According to the Boston Globe, “Out of thousands of US doctors hired by drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline to talk about its products, [this physician] was the highest paid during a three-month period last year, the company recently disclosed: He made $99,375 for giving 40 talks to other physicians last April, May, and June, almost one every other day.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
