April 12th, 2010 by Stanley Feld, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
No Comments »
By Stanley Feld MD, FACP, MACE
Sixty three percent of physicians are unhappy with the implications of President Obama’s healthcare reform plan. The government has reduced reimbursements arbitrarily over the last decade.
Physicians have had an underlying mistrust of government healthcare policy. Congress and especially Pete Stark mistrust physicians. Pete Stark feels all physicians game the healthcare system.
I believe there is some abuse of the healthcare system by a small percentage of physicians. I also believe congress has a lack of understanding of medical practice expenses, the value of physicians’ intellectual property and skill sets. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*
March 13th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor
2 Comments »
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I am very frustrated with a system that increases cost dramatically and yet reduces what I get paid. The rest of the money is going somewhere, and since it is not improving the overall quality of care, it is mostly waste. We are enamored with MRI scans, stents, and expensive cancer treatments, with little to show for them except increased expenses and a lot of third parties getting rich off of this waste: drug and device manufacturers, medical imaging companies and other para-healthcare industries. This story, which originally appeared at Musings of Distractible Mind, is prompted by my frustration with waste and how it spurs unneeded health care delivery.
Once upon a time there was a land on the ocean. The people lived off of the food from the ocean and were very happy. But as they grew bigger, they had a problem: They made a lot of waste! Yuk! Nobody likes waste. What could they do about all of this that stuff that nobody needed? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
February 1st, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy
No Comments »
Japan is completely different from the United States. But it’s exactly the same.
I’m talking about health care, of course.
Japan is a country of about 130 million people, and one of the richest countries on Earth. They enjoy a system of universal health care coverage, and some of the best doctors in the world. But there are problems.
The country is is straining under the twin burdens of an aging population and rising health care costs. At some point in the next two decades, retirees will outnumber active workers. Medical expenses per person have almost doubled since the 1990s and continue to rise. In a country with little immigration and low birth rates, it’s a bad combination. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
October 16th, 2009 by DrRich in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
No Comments »
DrRich’s conviction that covert rationing is the engine that drives many (if not most) of the bizarre behaviors we see in the American healthcare system leads him to take positions on certain contentious issues that do not endear him to either his progressive or his conservative friends.
One of these issues is malpractice liability reform.
DrRich wrote about this some time ago (here and here), and as a result managed to alienate more than a few of his readers, especially the ones who are doctors. So if he were smart, DrRich would leave it alone. (After all, a lot of readers have long since forgotten precisely why they do not like DrRich, and merely harbor toward him a vague sense of unease and distrust. This, DrRich finds, he can live with.)
But a couple of things prompt DrRich to take up this topic once again. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Covert Rationing Blog*
October 14th, 2009 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Humor
No Comments »
Imagine if lawyers had to bill like doctors:
Beginning July 1, 2010, under the Legal Billing Obfuscation Act of 2009, lawyers will receive their payments for services rendered after approval by a central US government Payment Distribution Authority (USPDA). To receive payment from the Authority plaintiff and defendant complaints must be coded and filed electronically using the International Classification of Legal Complaints, 10th edition (ICLD-10), copyright © 2009, American Bar Association and Legal Proceeding Terminology (LPT) codes, copyright © 2009 American Bar Association. The full publication of each of these codes will be available in print March 1st 2010 and in electronic form on DVD in July 2011.
To familiarize lawyers with the new coding scheme requested by the USPDA, a small sample for the complaint of “Spilling” is shown below: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
