How health care reform can improve public health

by Paula Hartman Cohen

Have we overlooked the public health aspect of health care reform?

In the health care reform debate, we’ve heard and read how health care reform will or will not work, what it will or will not cost, and how it will or will not impact each one of us as individuals.

We’ve also heard from those who have great faith in our current system, and sincerely believe we should …

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How health care reform can improve public health

Should doctors be paid to e-mail their patients?

by Michael Kirsch, MD

This is a less controversial issue than patients ‘friending’ their doctors on Facebook, which I oppose. Although most physicians’ offices are not e-mailing with patients, perhaps they should. There are several obvious advantages.

* Decompress phone lines, which are suffocating nearly every medical practice in America.

* Relieve patients of the cruel and unusual punishment of languishing on ‘hold’ listening to elevator music or dead air.

* Allow office staff …

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Should doctors be paid to e-mail their patients?