December 14th, 2009 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Most doctors have a closet in their office filled with various pharmaceutical samples. The pharmaceutical industry has had “drug reps” or account reps or pharmaceutical sales staff making the rounds on doctors offices in every city and town across the United States for decades. The industry spent $33.5 billion promoting drugs and sending reps to doctors offices with samples in 2004. That is a lot of samples!
Most of us thought we were doing the right thing for our patients when we accepted drug samples. I was able to give patients a month (or more) free to make sure it worked and that they tolerated it. Other patients had no insurance and I supplied them with all of their medication for free from my sample closet. I had a good relationship with the rep and they kept my office stocked with the medication my patients needed. It seemed like a win-win for everyone. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
November 6th, 2009 by GruntDoc in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Kevin, MD linked to this, and I really must comment.
Here’s the abstract, and I hope you’ll read it all:
For years I’ve heard friends describe experiences of being caught in a web of excessive and unnecessary medical testing. Their doctors ordered test Z to investigate a seemingly incidental finding on test Y, which had come about because of a borderline abnormality on test X.
I often wondered why test X was done in the first place. As a primary care physician, I would have treated them for the likely diagnosis and done diagnostic tests — especially a series of diagnostic tests — only if they didn’t respond as expected…. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
October 12th, 2009 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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From “War on Specialists” in the Wall Street Journal:
Take a provision in the Baucus bill that would punish any physician whose “resource use” is considered too high. Beginning in 2015, Medicare would rank doctors against their peers based on how much they cost the program—and then automatically cut all payments by 5% to anyone who falls into the 90th percentile or above. In practice, this rule will only apply to specialists. , Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
October 6th, 2009 by DrRich in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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In his previous post, DrRich used a combination of history, logic, and sleight of hand to convince even his most conservative readers that healthcare is indeed a right.
To summarize that erudite posting: The BOSS rule says it’s a right, so it’s a right – as long as we’re talking about a civil (or legal) right, and not about a natural (or inalienable) right.
A civil right is granted, more or less arbitrarily, by a government or a society, to some group of individuals, usually to redress a past grievance, or to attempt to achieve equality in outcomes, or for some other form of social justice. Civil rights almost invariably require a second group of individuals to sacrifice something of their own in order to satisfy the civil rights granted to the first group. So the granting of civil rights (as opposed to natural rights) will often be seen by at least some as being inherently oppressive, but if used appropriately civil rights can be very good for the furtherance of a stable and civil society. (As DrRich has pointed out, even our Founders – the great purveyors of natural rights – explicitly understood the importance of well-designed civil rights.) Civil rights, at least ideally, advance the virtue of justice, just as their creators claim. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Covert Rationing Blog*
September 28th, 2009 by Berci in Better Health Network, News
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Obviously not, but it can provide us with some new solutions. That’s why I wanted to share askCH, an interesting project.
AskCH is a one-of-a-kind healthcare tool. Send a healthcare cost or definition question in the proper format, and receive the answer with a link to find detailed information!
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*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
