Here are the top posts from this past week, based on the number of times they were viewed.
1. How Jenny McCarthy became a medical thought leader. The mere mention of Jenny McCarthy gets an immediate eye roll from many physicians. The closer their practice is to autism or immunology, the more likely the eye roll turns into a lecture on why Ms. Playboy should focus on what she knows.
2. New HIPAA rules won’t enhance privacy, but they will burden physicians. Hospitals and physician practices are waiting with bated breath for the final changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is expected to release by the end of the year.
3. Targeting physician salaries is a poor strategy for health care costs. Targeting their salaries will bring dubious health savings at a high emotional price for a profession that’s going to be counted on to care for both a ballooning Medicare population and 30+ million newly insured patients in the coming years.
4. Requiring a prescription for OTC products is a waste of physician time. Most OTC products, excepting some medical equipment like crutches and diabetic supplies, now cannot be purchased with flexible spending account dollars without a physician prescription.
5. Born premature, my sons have already endured a lifetime of hardship. There is a strange sound emanating from the hallway. It’s more of a series of sounds, of thuds, punctuated by an odd, louder noise. The hallway is narrow, not much room for a five-year-old to create too much havoc.
