December 7th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Crisis, Culture, Emergency Medicine, Health Insurance, Health Lifestyles, Healthcare reform, Internal Medicine, Personal Responsibility, Welfare
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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 5th, 2009 by Stanley Feld, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Budget Neutrality, Costs of Healthcare, Finance, Healthcare reform, Hidden Costs, House Bill, Senate Bill
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President Obama said he will not sign a healthcare reform bill that was not budget neutral. You can view this statement at 3.50 minutes into this video clip.
The only way that can happen is if the healthcare expenses in both bills are hidden, unrealistic expense estimates are or expenses deflected to other areas in the budget. The Senate and House bill do both. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*
December 4th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Opinion
Tags: EMR, Family Medicine, Physicians, Primary Care, PWC, Quality, Technology
4 Comments »
As I sit here in a medical innovation conference – I find myself becoming more and more angered by one of the speakers. A man with an MBA and fancy title from PriceWaterhouseCoopers is lecturing us about how doctors are essentially money-grubbing, change-resistant, quality-care avoiding “pains in the you-know-what,” obstructing progress in healthcare reform and blocking technology adoption.
His lack of understanding of the complexity of medical care was breathtaking. And yet, he expresses a sentiment that I’ve witnessed all too many times. Here are a few choice quotations: Read more »
December 4th, 2009 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Caution, Dr. Google, ePatient, Expertise, Internet, Knowlege, NPR, Online, Social Media, Warning
3 Comments »
A recent article by NPR confirmed what many patients and doctors already know. The internet is leveling the playing field and allows individuals to access information easier and more quickly. Research by Pew Internet and American Life Project found:
- 61 percent of adults say they look online for health information – known as e-patients
- 20 percent of e-patients go to Internet and social-networking sites where they can talk to medical experts and other patients
- 39 percent of e-patients already use a social-networking site like Facebook
Yet as individuals embrace new technology, the New England Journal of Medicine found earlier this year that only 17 percent of doctors use electronic medical records. To say doctors are conservative and slow in adapting to new ways of communicating and accessing information would be an understatement. An article in TIME magazine proclaimed “Email Your Doctor” which graced newsstands in 1998! Email communications with doctors is still the exception rather than the rule. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
December 3rd, 2009 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Anonymous, Blogger, Blogging, Medical, Social Media
8 Comments »
I see it from time to time. The doctor with a voice who’s uncomfortable with transparency. They post and comment under the cozy blanket of putative anonymity. But it’s bad policy. Here’s why doctors need to be outed in social media:
Anonymity is a fantasy. It’s remarkably difficult to achieve. With small thoughts you can hide – in fact, no one cares who you are. If you offer anything worth hearing people will ultimately find out who you are. And the plaintiff attorneys will always sniff you out.
You need a reality check. Anonymity gives us phony security and opens the door for us to say the things we wouldn’t normally say. There’s no editorial influence more powerful than knowing that my patients and my boss are listening. While an incendiary rant may serve to vent frustrations and drive traffic, it just fuels the perception of doctors as cynical, frustrated folks. And we don’t need help with that. Read more »
