September 29th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Policy, Opinion
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Ever wonder why your physician only spends 5-10 rushed minutes with you during your office visit? You may think it’s because there are simply too many patients vying for her time, but that’s not the real reason. The root cause is that health insurance companies are stealing time from your visit by requiring excessive documentation from your doctor. She can’t give you the time you need, because doing so would put her out of business.
In a special report on the administrative burden of healthcare, MedPage Today revealed that PCPs spend about one third of their income on documentation required by health insurers. Because they run a business with thin margins, they must increase the volume of patients they treat in order to cover the salaries of the staff required to manage this “paper weight.”
About 49% of all physicians have said that they are considering retiring or quitting medicine in the next two years (the rate is lower for specialists), largely because of increasing documentation requirements and decreasing reimbursement. Read more »
September 29th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News
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As state university systems are making budget cuts and furloughing professors while have to expand course sections to meet burgeoning enrollment, one solution may be to tap the expertise of retired professors in the area.
The Research Triangle area of North Carolina, home to over a dozen colleges and universities, is also home to at least 600 retired professors.
This morning, Eric Ferreri of the Raleigh News & Observer, one of the best higher-ed reporters in the biz, reports on the offers from very accomplished profs who want to give back to their community and the relative lack of response from the big universities:
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September 29th, 2009 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Please allow me to coin a new term:
Medical Homelessness – Not having access to a consistent familiar medical setting. Not having a care location where one is known or where the medical information is accurate.
credit
I think medical homelessness is one of the main problems in our system.
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*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
September 29th, 2009 by Medgadget in Announcements, Better Health Network, News
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Next Monday, the Nobel Foundation will announce the winner(s) of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the following two days, two more Nobels will be revealed: in Physics and in Chemistry. Because of the success of last year’s inaugural Guess-A-Nobel Contest, we decided we’ll repeat this event annually until there is no more science worthy of the prize. This year we’re giving out three 8GB Apple iPod Touch devices to those who correctly guess in each of the three science categories. Because we profile a good deal of apps for the iPhone/Touch platform, we thought this might be a useful tool beside all the fun it can provide on the off time. Furthermore, if someone does manage to guess all three correctly, he or she will be getting the souped-up 64 GB version of the iPod device with all the trimmings.
Here are the rules of the game: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
September 29th, 2009 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy
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Joe Biden unveiled a White House study on the rise of health insurance premiums. He pressed for consumer protections the President wants to see in any reform legislation. Among these are a pledge to pass a law that “ends exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays.” Presumably this is meant to address worries many feel over the growth of high-deductible health plans.
The St. Petersburg Times looked into it to find out what this pledge means, in practical terms. David Axelrod at the White House pointed them to the proposed House legislation, which would create limits on out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles and co-pays of $5,000 a year for an individual, and $10,000 a year for a family.
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*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
