Friday, the Senate — in a rare stroke of bipartisanship — voted by unanimous consent to reverse the 21 percent SGR cut and provide positive updates of 2.2 percent through November 2010. The legislation is fully paid for by offsets in other spending programs.
Unfortunately, though, the cut remains in effect and claims are being processed at reduced rates, because the House of Representatives has recessed for the weekend and won’t be back until Tuesday. At that time, I expect that the House will pass the Senate’s six-month reprieve and Medicare will make doctors “whole” for the period of time that the cut was in effect.
Not that any of this is a cause for celebration. In the meantime, claims still are being paid at reduced rates, creating havoc for physicians and patients. Kicking the can down the road for another six months doesn’t get us any closer to a permanent solution. It doesn’t lower the overall cost, now estimated at over $200 billion, to dig out of the SGR hole. It doesn’t provide the stability and reliability that physicians and patients need to view Medicare as a trusted partner. It does mean that we will be back again, this summer and fall, fighting to forestall another double-digit cut. Read more »
All About Ionx®
Some have called it a ‘miracle,’ but the benefits of Goodnighties® is really the result of nature meeting science in a process called ionization. Ionization under the patented brand name ‘Ionx’ is the process that saturates the fabric with negative ions –- more than 20 times found in nature.
Wearing Goodnighties with Ionx close to the body has been proven to increase blood flow thus reducing inflammation, improving muscle function, speeding recovery and reducing muscle aches and pains.
For years ionized fabric has been used by the medical community, professional athletes, Olympic teams, the military and astronauts because of these amazing benefits. Even race horses have enjoyed the restorative properties of negative ions in fabric used for blankets and leg wraps.
Goodnighties is the first and only sleepwear with Ionx. While wearing Goodnighties you will experience the benefits of balanced ions while you sleep so you’ll wake up rested, restored and rejuvenated.Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
A German physician wrote me about this, so while CNN may have an international reach, it’s not always with an adoring audience.
The physician was reacting to the weekend “Paging Dr. Gupta” program, which Dr. Gupta referred to once as “SG, MD.” The first thing that struck me was his introduction, in which he said:
“I’m your doctor. I’m also your coach.”
Later in the program he said:
“Think of this as your appointment. No waiting. No insurance necessary.”
I find this very troubling. He’s not my doctor. He’s not my coach. When I watch a “news” program, it’s NOT my medical appointment. It’s supposed to be news, not medical advice.
But that’s not what the German physician wrote to me about, so I kept watching (the segment in question appears about 5 minutes and 30 seconds deep, and after the 30-second commercial you have to watch to get there):
Gupta reacted to a viewer’s message on Twitter in which the tweep asked: “Does anyone know a ‘miracle’ treatment for ovarian cancer?” Read more »
Four-year-old Devan Tatlow’s struggle with leukemia has caused quite a stir on the Internet, prompting celebs like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian to encourage people to donate their bone marrow. Dr. Jon LaPook talks with Devan’s family about their search for a match.
Imagine throwing a lifesaving treatment in the garbage. That’s exactly what happens in the United States over ten thousand times a day because we do not routinely offer to collect precious umbilical cord blood at the time of birth. Thousands of Americans — many of them children — needlessly die annually because they cannot find either a bone marrow or umbilical cord blood match to help treat conditions like lymphoma and leukemia. Yet umbilical blood is discarded as medical waste in the vast majority of the more than four million births occurring each year. Read more »
Felasfa Wodajo, an orthopedic oncologist in Virginia, recently took his iPad into the operating theater to see how it performs in such an environment.
Being one of the editors at iMedicalApps, Dr. Wodajo just published his initial findings and they bode a rather bright clincial future for the iPad, and tablets in general.
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Felasfa Wodajo, an orthopedic oncologist in Virginia, recently took his iPad into the operating theater to see how it performs in such an environment.
