January 20th, 2010 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy
Tags: CMS, Consultation Codes, CPT, Finance, Fraud, Medicare, Overuse, Primary Care
1 Comment »
A study published in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine looked at so-called errors made in consultation code billing by specialists seeing patients at the request of a primary care practice in suburban Chicago. The methodology? Comparing the primary care office referral form with the specialist’s bill.
The author concludes that specialists are greatly overusing consultation codes in situations where a new patient visit would be more appropriate, to the tune of over half a billion dollars a year in Medicare payments, and suggests that it is time to reconsider the use of these codes. (Medicare, of course, has already come to the same conclusion, and beginning January 1 of this year, is no longer paying for consultation codes.)
There may be misuse of consultation codes going on, but this study does not necessarily prove that. The methodology does not include medical record review, the standard by which coding choices are verified or refuted, and relies entirely on the referring physician’s determination of what the specialist should be billing. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog that Ate Manhattan*
January 20th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
Tags: Bikini Wax, Brazilian Wax, Burn, Dermatology, Hair Removal, Injury
2 Comments »
I don’t know a thing about bikini line waxing. But I do know there is a right way to wax your bikini line and a wrong way wax your bikini line. I present to you a story about how not to wax your bikini line. I do not know the original author, but I’m sure they want to keep it that way.
My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours:
‘Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet.’ Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
January 20th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Cynicism, Drug Seekers, Emergency Medicine, ER, Homelessness, IV Drug Use, Meth, Narcotics
1 Comment »
The ER is a highly effective bottom-filter for society. When you work in the ER you are in daily contact with the worst that mankind has to offer: addicts, sociopaths, criminals, and the many many varieties of personality disorders with which a loving God has imbued humanity. I say this not as condemnation: they are my people. I know them and accept them for who they are. I am here every day to serve them in their various needs, from the heroin addict who is dropped off blue and apneic to the homeless guy who just wants his unwashed feet looked at.
One of the refreshing features of many members of the lumpenproletariat is their candor regarding their habits. Sure, it’s by no means universal, but it’s entirely common for me to ask someone quite directly: “Do you use meth?” and have the patient respond in the affirmative and without the least trace of self-consciousness expand on the degree and nature of their drug use. The hardest question for me to learn to ask without blushing was “do you ever have sex for money or drugs?” (And yes, I do ask that of both men and women, when it seems potentially relevant.) But people on occasion forthrightly admit that they turn the odd trick to support their habit. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
January 19th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Comparative Risk Claim, FDA, Philip Morris, Smokeless Tobacco, smoking, smoking cessation
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The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 6 that Philip Morris and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., both parts of the Altria Group Inc., wrote to the FDA suggesting that tobacco products be ranked on their harmfulness to health. This would most likely result in smokeless tobacco products being ranked as markedly less harmful than cigarettes. Philip Morris apparently claimed the plan would have “a significant public-health benefit.” (assuming smokers took the rankings at face value and switched from more to less harmful products).
Now at face value, this sounds reasonably sensible. But when we consider that Philip Morris USA makes the vast majority of its profits from cigarette sales, and the plan would apparently reduce those sales as smokers switched to smokeless products, it is reasonable to wonder what they are playing at. Read more »
This post, Why Would Philip Morris Support Smokeless Tobacco Products? To Maintain Dependency On Nicotine?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
January 19th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: addiction, Advice, Heidi Montag, Joan Rivers, Plastic Surgery, Psychiatry, Psychology
1 Comment »
A few years ago I wrote about the “Suitability” of a patient for plastic surgery. I was reminded of this topic by two cases in the recent lay media:
The first involves Heidi Montag, 23, who in November had multiple surgical procedures and is being compared to Joan Rivers.
According to People, Montag even kept her family in the dark about her intended transformation to become her “best me.” Telling only her husband Spencer Pratt, Montag had a nose job revision, chin reduction, mini brow lift, Botox in her forehead and frown area, fat injections in her cheeks, nasolabial folds and lips, neck liposuction, ear pinning, liposuction on her waist, hips, inner and outer thighs, buttock augmentation and breast augmentation revision. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
