June 1st, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
1 Comment »
Instead of blogging (again) about Congress’s failure to stop the 21% Medicare SGR cut, which went into effect today, I could just re-run my April 16 post. I wrote then:
“It is the failure of both political parties, over many years, to honestly deal with the SGR, including the cost of getting rid of it, which has resulted in the current ongoing SGR farce. And yet members of Congress wonder why the public holds them in such low regard.”
Blogging in DB’s Medicare Rants, Dr. Bob Centor captures the outrage felt by most physicians:
“I am mad. Every physician I know is mad. Patients should join us in expressing anger. Physicians cannot trust Congress if they cannot repair this absurdity.”
(Bob references ACP’s statement, released on Friday; click here to read it in its entirety.)
That Congress allowed politics again to get in the way of doing what is best for patients makes my blood boil. Voters can and should hold them accountable. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
May 19th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
No Comments »
What if some physicians actually like the way primary care is currently practiced? It’s hard to believe, considering the majority of studies suggest marked dissatisfaction among primary care doctors, and an increasing prevalence of physician burnout.
The ACP’s Bob Doherty recently summarized an epic Health Affairs article devoted to fixing primary care. The bottom line was that paying primary care doctors better isn’t enough. The whole field needs to be re-invented. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
May 12th, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
No Comments »
“Bold changes are needed in how the United States delivers and pays for primary care if the key goals of national health reform are to be achieved,” according to the health policy journal Health Affairs, which has released a thematic issue devoted entirely to the crisis in primary care.
(The complete articles are available only to subscribers, but Health Affairs’ blog has a good summary.)
I have spent much of the day reading the journal — 47 articles, and a combined 300 pages of text. Here are my “take-home” messages from the articles. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
May 3rd, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
1 Comment »
I just got back from a wonderful week in Toronto, Canada. No, I wasn’t up there to take tips on how to impose socialized medicine on an unsuspecting public, notwithstanding what some of you may incorrectly-surmise about my political leanings.
Rather, I was there to attend ACP’s annual scientific meeting, during which I had the opportunity to serve as faculty for three separate scientific sessions that discussed the impact of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACPA) of 2010 on internists and their patients. Several hundred ACP members attended these sessions.
And guess what? Rather than encountering doctors who were angry at the new law and ACP’s support for it, I instead found an engaged and curious group of internists who are looking at health reform in a reasoned, measured and open-minded way. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
April 26th, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
No Comments »
This blog was written from Toronto, Ontario, where ACP’s elected Board of Governors met to provide direction on the policies to be advocated by the organization.
One issue raised by many of the governors is the enormous economic pressure on smaller internal medicine practices, and what the ACP might be able to do about it. Today, most physicians work in private practices of ten or fewer. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
