Better Health: Smart Health Commentary Better Health (TM): smart health commentary

Latest Posts

Sizing Up Two Patients And Two Healthcare Systems: Part 2

BACKGROUND

For those who are landing on this page for the first time, be sure to read the background FIRST to these case presentations. The intent here is to compare and contrast two patients, one insured and the other uninsured, from the United States and England as care is delivered today. The U.S. cases are described in detail in this blog and the corresponding cases, British-style, are described on Sarah Clarke, MD’s blog from England.

CASE #1: The U.S. Case of Mr. Thurgood Powell

The ER radio sounds: (*bleeeeee, deeeeeeeeeppppp*) “Rampart, we have a 57 year old white male en route with a 45 minute history of substernal chest pain and diaphoresis. Initial single-lead EKG discloses ST segment elevation. One ASA given, nitro given, BP 96/47, pulse 110, respirations 22, pt diaphoretic…”

ER doctor: “Code cor activated. Cath lab ready. Proceed as soon as possible.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Sizing It Up: Two Patients, Two Healthcare Systems

Being at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, I had a unique opportunity to meet with an interventional cardiologist from “across the pond” in England: Sarah Clarke, MD.

Sarah is a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge UK. Her undergraduate years were spent at the University of Cambridge, UK and postgraduate training was undertaken in the region. She attained an MD from the Univeristy of Cambridge. She was awarded a Fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and returned to take up her Consultant post in the UK in 2002. In 2006 Dr Clarke was appointed the Clinical Director of Cardiac Services at Papworth. Papworth Hospital is a 240ish-bed hospital that performs about 2,000 interventional cardiology procedures per year.

We thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two heart patients — one with insurance and one without insurance — from our two health care systems, to illustrate how these patients obtain health coverage, might be managed, and how things look from the patient’s perspective. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

The Cost Of Healthcare With Health Insurance and Without

$2600.
$544.

Look carefully at those two numbers. The first is the sum of three bills I received for my husband’s day-after-Christmas visit to the emergency room for unusual dizziness. A CT and EKG ruled out a stroke or heart attack. Diagnosis? Vertigo.

(Note: both figures will likely be much higher once all the bills come in, but I needed a blog post so I’m going with what I’ve got now).

Now look at the second figure. That’s what I have to pay after the discounts my insurance company has negotiated with the hospital and radiologists. Note: there are no payments from the insurance company in there because we had not yet met our deductible. These are just the discounts. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine and Health Care*

Washington Healthcare Gridlock

Tom Toles’ editorial cartoon in todays Washington Post says it all.

Washington has become a place where nothing can move, advance or happen. Having been paralyzed by a huge snowstorm over the weekend, the federal government has been closed since Monday, our roads are clogged with unplowed snow, our Metrorail system won’t run above-ground trains, the schools are closed (until June, it seems)–and to top it off, another 10-20 inches of snowfall is expected in the next 24 hours. (Yes, our trains really don’t run when we get more than a few inches of snow. You Chicagoans can stop laughing now.)

Of course, the snow and ice will eventually melt, and Washington will get back to normal. Not so the partisan gridlock that apparently will prevent anything from getting done even when the government reopens for business. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*

How To Improve Access For The Poor: Allow Physicians To Deduct Uncompensated Care From Their Income Taxes?

As we wrestle with political factions and mull over assorted ideas for reforming health-care in America, one simple solution bears discussion.  Of course, we notoriously hate simple solutions.  The modern American solution to simple solutions is to develop layers of complexity and inefficiency.  I can only assume that in government, as in hospital administrations, this has to do with creating jobs.  To the extent that it keeps nefarious, clever individuals off the street and occupies them in what passes for gainful employment, I applaud the effort.  But it seldom solves problems, and typically creates them.

Nevertheless, I digress.   My painfully simple solution is this.  Allow every health-care provider to deduct, from their federal income tax, the care they provide for free to uninsured patients.  It can be the Medicare value of the care; possibly even the Medicaid value.  But in the end, a financially savvy doctor, dentist, therapist or any other health professional will end up paying no income tax. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

Read more »

How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

Read more »

See all interviews »

Latest Cartoon

See all cartoons »

Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

Read more »

The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

Read more »

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

Read more »

See all book reviews »

Commented - Most Popular Articles