KevinMD.com

Physician responsibility and leadership is critical for ACO implementation

Kevin

Health Policy

May 3, 2011

by Jeffrey L. Cohen

The current fixation on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) is causing an enormous amount of two things: 1) talking, and 2) inactivity.

Yes, the concept of delivering care in a manner that reduces or at least controls costs is important and interesting. Yet, the marketplace is replete with people and businesses that have adopted …

Patient satisfaction should not influence how doctors are paid

Kevin Pho, MD

KevinMD

May 2, 2011

Medicare is thinking of using patient satisfaction scores in part to determine bonuses to hospitals.

According to Kaiser Health News,

… patient gripes soon will affect how much hospitals get paid by Medicare.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is finalizing details for the new reimbursement method, required by last year’s health care law. Consumer advocates say tying patient …

Read more…

Patient satisfaction should not influence how doctors are paid

ACP: National immigration policy and health care

American College of Physicians

Physician

May 2, 2011

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

by John Tooker, MD, MBA, MACP

There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States — about 3.7% of the U.S. population — according to a 2011 report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

Although there are many reasons why immigrants elect to come …

The trend from drugs of value to medications of convenience

Doctor Grumpy, MD

Medications

May 2, 2011

Pharmaceuticals are amazing stuff. You can bitch and moan about their costs, side effects, or the number of them you’re taking, but what they’ve done to extend life and improve its quality is truly remarkable.

And for all the bad raps they get, I salute the pharmaceutical industry, and those who work anonymously in labs around the world, to bring us these miracles.

But …

How a model of multidisciplinary team based care may save primary care

Eric Lu

Physician

May 2, 2011

I didn’t expect to bump into “Max” on the streets.

“I was kicked out of the house by my wife,” he sighed. Max shifted around on his feet, eyes puffy and cheeks pink.

“Did you start using again?” I asked.

Max looked down and didn’t say anything. In the three years I had known Max, an alcoholic and former drug user, he had been clean. But recently he had started struggling. He lost his …

A simpler coding system proposal with a focus on primary care

Paul Fischer, MD

Physician

May 2, 2011

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Barbara Levy, Chairwoman of the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC), commented on the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) decision to have minimal primary care participation on the RUC, saying the committee is an “expert panel” and not meant to be representative.

Since the committee is made up of 27 specialists, one …

Should nurses be fired for fatal medication errors?

Kevin Pho, MD

KevinMD

May 2, 2011

Kimberly Hiatt was a pediatric critical care nurse who accidentally gave an infant a fatal overdose of calcium chloride last year.

By accounts, it was a calculation error. A human mistake.

After the incident, the hospital fired her.

This past April, she took her own life.

Although it cannot be concluded that the tragedy was directly responsible for her suicide, the incident clearly …

Cancer is a crime, and how a tumor board is the courtroom

Kevin

Patient

May 2, 2011

by Katherine O’Brien

Cancer patients usually say they want a cure. Well, of course, that goes without saying. But it’s also kind of annoying.

We’ve all, as children and adults, had those “What if” conversations. What if you could have anything you wanted in the whole world? Depending on the respondents’ ages, people might say anything from “a …

Why do people decide to become doctors anyway?

Michelle Au, MD, MPH

Physician

May 1, 2011

An excerpt from This Won’t Hurt A Bit (and other white lies): My Education in Medicine and Motherhood. Copyright © 2011 by Michelle Au. Published by Grand Central Publishing.

Let’s look at this first purely from the perspective of personal investment and expectation. To practice medicine, …

How the ACO model can be successful

Kevin

Health Policy

May 1, 2011

by Justin Chang, MD

I think we can all agree — physician, payer, provider, patient, etc. — that the ultimate goal of regulations and reform should be to improve the delivery of healthcare, lowering costs and ultimately, making patients healthier and more satisfied.

Coupled with driving toward the results defined by CMS, this requires some fairly significant changes …

Read more…

How the ACO model can be successful

Interviewing a primary care doctor to better understand her professional day

Pearl Korn

Physician

May 1, 2011

As a young primary care doctor in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), Dr. Elena Rogova learned her craft well, working in a hospital that catered to scientists, celebrities, artists, musicians and senior government officials.

As a top medical student, this hospital had sought her services, and she enjoyed her work there. Dr. Rogova had no intention of leaving …

A neurosurgeon considers stepping out of her comfort zone

gcs15, MD

Physician

April 30, 2011

There are few things I enjoy more than talking about the spine and the brain.

Therefore, it stands to reason that I enjoyed our state neurosurgical society meeting recently. I don’t like big national meetings, being an introvert at heart. Our state meeting, however, is small; this makes for a more intimate atmosphere and more outspoken dialogue. Colleagues from across the state can exchange ideas, new techniques, and opinions. We also …

MKSAP: 24-year-old woman is evaluated for irregular menses and infertility

mksap

Conditions and Diseases

April 30, 2011

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 24-year-old woman is evaluated for irregular menses and infertility. She reports having had normal puberty but having irregular menses until she started taking an oral contraceptive pill.

She has been unable to become pregnant since marrying 1 year ago despite regular intercourse and discontinuing the …

The paradoxical life of a palliative care nurse practitioner who’s an EMT

Niamh van Meines, ANP-BC, EMT

Patient

April 30, 2011

I am a nurse practitioner committed to expert level end of life care. I a consultant for hospice and palliative care organizations, a clinical educator and a volunteer in my town on the local emergency medical service. My life is paradoxical.

It’s not a happy partnership having a palliative mind and responding to 911 emergency calls to save lives.

It’s not …

The war on pubic hair must end

Emily Gibson, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 29, 2011

I must have missed the declaration of war on pubic hair.

It must have happened sometime in the last decade because the amount of time, energy, money and emotion both genders spend on abolishing every hair from their genitals is astronomical. The genital hair removal industry, including medical professionals who advertise their specialty services to those seeking the “clean and bare” look, …

Read more…

The war on pubic hair must end

How the IPAB takes policy and puts it in the hands of health care experts

Shadowfax, MD

Health Policy

April 29, 2011

Everyone knows that the excess growth in health care costs is driving the fiscal crisis in our country.

The problem is that while everybody wants to somehow cut the cost of Medicare/Medicaid, in theory, when it comes time to actually make cuts, the courage of our politicians fails in the face of unrelenting public opposition to cuts in Medicare.

Doctors find incentives elusive for meaningful use of electronic records

Scot Silverstein, MD

Health Technology

April 29, 2011

A reader, Dr. Scott Monteith, a psychiatrist, shared his thoughts on government-mandated ‘Meaningful Use’ of Electronic Medical Records (‘MU’) with me after reading a number of my EHR posts, and asked if he could share his thoughts via Health Care Renewal.

Dr. Monteith is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University where he was chief resident.

He is a board certified psychiatrist, clinical assistant professor in the departments …

Tips to prevent heart disease in women

Barbara Ficarra, RN, MPA

Conditions and Diseases

April 29, 2011

American Heart Month may be officially over, but don’t let the lack of media attention fool you into thinking heart disease isn’t a critical issue.

We still need to be mindful of the fact that heart disease is the number one killer of women.

There are simple lifestyle choices you can make to help prevent you from heart disease.

I hope after reading this post you don’t just move on, but I hope …

Read more…

Tips to prevent heart disease in women

Organizations that link their IT systems to share electronic health records

George Lundberg, MD

Health Technology

April 29, 2011

Glory be. There’s good news tonight in American healthcare.

It did not come from laws, regulations, or government edict, although there has been much government activity in the field; it did not come from the behemoths of information technology like Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Cisco, although much hard work in IT did precede it; it did not come from the for-profit healthcare industry giants like GE, Big Pharma, United Healthcare, or …

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts