Michael Weiss is a cardiologist and can be reached on Twitter @HeartAndSoulDoc.

The true cost of being uninsured in America

Policy
February 8, 2019

In a New York Post article dated January 23, 2019, the author states how Americans without health care insurance hit 13.7 percent. This 2.8 percent increase means an additional seven-million Americans lack health coverage as noted by the Gallup survey period.

This is not far behind the 18 percent recorded just before the Obamacare mandate in 2014.

Everyone is blamed in this article except the culprits. Do you think for one moment …

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The true cost of being uninsured in America

What’s the one thing doctors can learn from corporations?

Physician
February 6, 2019

In the last few years as documentation demands from insurers have skyrocketed, the buck has been passed straight into the lap of physician’s offices where insurers have saved billions of dollars even as they’ve slashed physician reimbursements by even more.

Is it any wonder our offices are chaotic, patients complain about long waits, insurance issues, referrals, pre-authorizations, and copays? Do we have to do it all? Why? Simply because we were …

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What’s the one thing doctors can learn from corporations?

The old days of medicine are gone

Physician
January 17, 2019

In the last decade, specifically in the last five to six years, we have seen the gradual disempowerment of America’s physicians as well as their unfortunate patients.

Starting with health management organizations, managed care, all the way to the insurance exchange, doctoring has been forcefully wrestled away from physicians only to be placed into the hands of large insurers, administrators and the United States government.

The common denominator was never about improving …

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The old days of medicine are gone

Physicians have had it. What do we do now?

Physician
February 20, 2018

I keep reading about how physician’s rightful bitching and moaning is peaking at an all-time high. It’s time they do so before the bow breaks, and let me tell you — we’re almost there. The worst problem that persists is “the enemy within ourselves.” This voice of doubt keeps us from the next logical step: stop what we’re doing, revolt and disable a broken runaway system lest we all soon …

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Physicians have had it. What do we do now?

Why health care replaced physician care

Policy
January 12, 2018

Ever wonder what health care really means and why it’s even used? When you’re sick, do you need health care or a doctor? Maybe as physicians, we need to ask the same about the words “health care provider.”

On April 11, 1993, The New York Times editor William Safire commented on the attempt at the time to label physicians as providers:

As a physician, I am somewhat distressed …

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Why health care replaced physician care

Don’t let guidelines guide your curiosity

Physician
October 5, 2017

Albert Einstein once said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

No matter how advanced our artificial intelligence is and continues to evolve, it lacks the reproducibility of the powerful human instinct, sense of curiosity and constant questioning; especially when resulting in that “wow” moment of important scientific discoveries. Were it not for these powerful traits, medical science could not have evolved to …

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Don’t let guidelines guide your curiosity

Use your voice to change health care

Policy
September 15, 2017

I’m pleasantly surprised to see how a growing number of physicians are finally starting to percolate openly with their extreme dissatisfaction about a just how broken our medical system is. I admire and am proud of these brave vanguards who are a minority but have seemed to pick up steam. I still don’t hear their fearless voices carried in major media outlets (shame on these outlets!), but they are more …

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Use your voice to change health care

The moral assassination of physicians must stop

Physician
July 26, 2017

As a physician, all the mounting negative news I read about doctors can’t help but hit me straight in the gut. This is especially true when reading about a tragic murder of a sweet and highly dedicated 32-year-old physician, Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam and the serious injuries to five other physicians on June 30th at NYC’s Bronx Lebanon Hospital. Can you blame me for advocating for my esteemed colleagues? Everybody’s …

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The moral assassination of physicians must stop