Why Medicaid patients use the emergency department for primary care

KevinMD
January 3, 2014

A study from Science found that those on Medicaid in Oregon made 40% more visits to the emergency department.

The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment included about 90,000 low-income people and assigned 30,000 of them to Medicaid by lottery. It’s essentially a naturally-occurring randomized controlled trial.

The result seems to have caught the public policy experts by off guard:

“I suspect that the finding will be surprising to many in the policy …

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Holding children back a grade and ADHD: A problem or solution?

Conditions
January 3, 2014

I’ve been skeptical of the trend of “holding back” children with late birthdays. These are kids, usually born in the summer, who are just a few months short of the next grade cut-off. Some parents wonder whether it would be wise to hold them back a few months, so they end up one of the oldest (rather than youngest) kids in their class. This might seem to confer an advantage …

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Our spiritual state can influence how physical ailments feel

Physician
January 1, 2014

The pediatrician Margaret Mohrmann tells the story of caring for a young girl in the ICU who developed a devastating case of meningitis. One day when she came to check on her patient, the girl’s mother asked Mohrmann why her daughter had become sick. As Mohrmann began to explain what meningitis is and how it is transmitted, it quickly became clear to her she was missing the meaning of …

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When does false hope become malpractice?

Physician
January 1, 2014

10:11am Tuesday, June 5, 2006:  This was the moment Marge was told the mammogram showed a mass, which was probably breast cancer.  “But, don’t worry, the tumor is very small and with surgery and radiation, you will be fine.”

1:55pm Wednesday, March 25, 2009: This was the moment Marge was told that the breast cancer had spread to her ribs. “But, don’t worry, the tumors are small, and with hormones, you …

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How many patients can a doctor safely see a day?

Physician
December 31, 2013

Today’s question is a simple one. How many patients can a physician see in one day and still be thorough? Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for efficiency. But we need to recognize when efforts at efficiency become “medical sloppiness” or, frankly, malpractice.

With health care policy and insurance reimbursement what they are today, it’s not uncommon to encounter physicians seeing forty, fifty, and even sixty or more patients a day …

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Why are doctors the worst patients?

Physician
December 31, 2013

We’ve all been there. You’re in medical school, sitting in a lecture hall — maybe the course is pathology — and for the first time since starting your studies, you’re actually learning about real diseases, not just benzene rings and the Krebs cycle. You’re furiously note-taking, and you reach back to work out a kink in your neck. There it is! A palpable, enlarged lymph node. You have lymphoma. You …

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The job of the modern doctor is to convince

Physician
December 29, 2013

The job of a doctor isn’t to diagnose, prescribe, or examine.  It isn’t to be well read, efficient, or punctual.  The job of the modern doctor is to convince.

We now have radiological studies whose theoretical discernment limit is subcellular.  We can not only map clear and obvious genetic errors of metabolism, but also minor variations of the normal.  In a few years, the majority of codes in the procedure manual will probably be laboratory …

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5 universal problems hospitals need to solve

Physician
December 27, 2013

As health reform sets in, hospitals are gearing up for many challenges. While some of these are new to the health industry, several are against the backdrop of old problems that have plagued us for decades. Speaking as a doctor who has worked in a number of different hospitals up and down the east coast, I would like to identify 5 of these that I believe are fairly universal.

1. Medication …

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These are the people who work in a hospital

Physician
December 26, 2013

Who works at a hospital? (Again, just indulge me for now.)

Doctors. If you’re a patient at a teaching hospital, this includes medical students (people in school to become doctors), interns and residents (people who have earned the title of “doctor”, but who are still learning their craft), and attendings (people who have completed their formal training as physicians). If you’re not at a teaching hospital, it’s less likely you’ll see medical …

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When children are abused by foster parents

Physician
December 26, 2013

I click open the x-ray viewer.  After 4 years in emergency pediatrics, I am not really surprised that a tibia fracture underlies the bruised ankle I unexpectedly encountered on physical exam.  Yet I audibly gasp as the chest x-ray loads.  The torso in question belongs to a chubby little cherub of a 3-month-old in room 11, brought in for red eyes.  I begin to count the fractured ribs — 1, …

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How to talk to a child with autism

Conditions
December 25, 2013

The holiday season means most of us will be socializing with colleagues and neighbors, friends and family.  Chances are good this circle of friendly acquaintances and loved ones will include a child with autism.

Why? An estimated 1 in 88 children are now diagnosed with the neurological disorder, with a four times prevalence for boys.  Among other challenges, those with autism often have difficulties with social communication (be it verbally or …

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Treat your child’s fever before the doctor’s appointment

Conditions
December 24, 2013

It’s the beginning of cold and flu season. That means a lot of kiddos, big and small, are coming to the office with fever.

As docs, we know that fevers can freak moms and dads out. Kids look pretty awful when their temperature climbs, and it is understandable that parents want to bring them to the office for an evaluation.

In the exam room, I often hear worried parents …

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Waking up from cardiac arrest

Physician
December 24, 2013

I nearly died a month ago on a treadmill halfway through a stress test.

The short story is this: I had just gone to bed and was about to go to sleep when I started to have some chest pain that I told myself was just my usual heartburn, only worse. As a gastroenterologist, I knew better. It was bad enough that I couldn’t go to sleep. After two sleepless hours …

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Stop asking radiologists to rule out disease

Physician
December 23, 2013

When you get frustrated with my interpreting a chest x-ray as “atelectasis at the right lung base, pneumonia can’t be excluded,” trust me, I don’t enjoy it. But when you ask me to rule out pneumonia you leave me no choice but to tell you that pneumonia can’t be ruled out.

To rule out a disease a test must have a sensitivity of 100%, meaning there should be no false negatives. …

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The cheapest form of health care is to let sick people die

Policy
December 21, 2013

If you learn nothing else today, I would ask you to learn that moral hazard is the cause of medical price hyperinflation.

Moral hazard is not just two words that don’t seem to go together. Moral hazard is when the person who bears the economic burden of a decision is not the decision maker. In the health care setting, moral hazard is when the third party payer (insurance/government) bears the …

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Proton pump inhibitors and B12 deficiency: What to do now

Meds
December 19, 2013

We can now add vitamin B12 deficiency to the growing list of risks of long term use of the proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).

The New York Times had an article outlining the evidence that prolonged use of both proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Prilosec, Protonix, Prevacid and others, as well as the less potent H2 blockers like Zantac and Pepcid, can lead to vitamin B12 deficiency.  This is in addition …

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The downward spiral of the stubborn patient

Physician
December 16, 2013

Over the years that I’ve worked in acute inpatient rehab centers, I have been truly vexed by a particular type of patient. Namely, the stubborn patient (usually an elderly gentleman with a military or armed forces background). I know that it’s not completely fair to generalize about personality types, but it seems that the very nature of their work has either developed in them a steely resolve, or they were …

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There is only one reason why I still accept Medicaid

Physician
December 15, 2013

To err is human. To really screw things up, you need government.

One half of my patient population and one fourth of my receipts are from Medicaid patients. My state has a mandatory balanced budget, which means in this age of perpetual recession Medicaid runs out of money every year.

Last year, my state capped the monthly brand name prescriptions to 1 for the summer. Apparently the information that asthma inhalers and …

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The problems with the BRCA test from 23andMe

Conditions
December 15, 2013

It’s been very interesting to read the range of responses to the recent FDA recent crackdown on the personal genetic service company 23andMe. Some have decried the FDA as too paternalisticwhile others have said the FDA is rightfully protecting the health of the public.

The evidence, I believe, shows the FDA is correct: 23andMe should not be doing genetic tests that have serious medical implications. Let’s look at an …

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