Health policy and public health

4,357 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 99

Revamp health regulations to reduce cost and improve patient safety

May 17, 2017May 17, 20174

Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist Oliver Schein has found a simple way to save a half a billion dollars a year from our country's health care bill, with no negative effect on patient health. The only thing standing in the way is…

Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist Oliver Schein has found a simple way to save a half a billion dollars a year from our country’s health care bill, with no negative effect on patient health. The only thing standing in the way is a stubborn government requirement.

Seventeen years ago, Dr. Schein and colleagues published a study finding that cataract surgery patients who underwent routine preoperative testing — such as …

Health policy

Dear President Trump: What you should do about your health care plan

Niran S. Al-Agba, MD

May 15, 2017May 15, 201738

I hope you read this letter. I doubt you will. I know you’re busy rebuilding Washington, reshaping the international order and doing a lot of other weighty stuff. Full disclosure, I voted for you. Not because you promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or because you tweeted at me about it, but because our health care system is hopelessly broken and requires an overhaul that does not simply convert …

Physician voices

It is time for physicians to fight back. Now.

Matthew Hahn, MD

May 14, 2017May 14, 201758

The American health care system is broken, but it is not really “health care” that is the problem.| The science of medicine, the tests, and the treatments available are better than ever. It is health care bureaucracy that is the…

The American health care system is broken, but it is not really “health care” that is the problem.|

The science of medicine, the tests, and the treatments available are better than ever. It is health care bureaucracy that is the problem. But doctors, nurses, and patients bear the brunt of the dysfunction. Medical professionals are unable to practice, and patients are denied the care they need, even though it is readily …

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Health policy

A physician’s response to Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue

Jonathan Kohler, MD

May 13, 2017May 13, 201730

Jimmy Kimmel recently delivered a 13-minute monologue that transfixed the nation. He told the story of how his newborn son, Billy, was diagnosed with a potentially fatal cardiac anomaly, tetralogy of Fallot, and had undergone emergency surgery. He painted the picture of a sick child and a terrified family, who have the benefit of excellent care that ends well. He complimented the nurses and physicians who had …

Health policy

This is the hypocrisy of American health care

Rebekah Bernard, MD

May 11, 2017May 11, 20175

Physicians and patients are fighting a growing hypocrisy in American medicine. Examples abound, such as criticism that doctors are overprescribing antibiotics and contributing to resistance, while insurance companies simultaneously incentivize their members to use telemedicine programs or urgent cares instead…

My own insurance company, Cigna, recently sent me a letter notifying me that I will have a reduced co-pay if I …

Health policy

After 100 days: 5 things we learned about health reform

Robert Pearl, MD

May 7, 2017May 7, 201713

For much of the first 100 days of the new Congress and administration, the news has featured health care and the frequently rancorous debate on its future. Will the Affordable Care Act (ACA) be repealed, replaced, revised or remain essentially intact? Will funding be cut or will subsides and cost-sharing reduction payments stay the same in order to encourage insurers to stay on the health care exchanges?

At this point, we’re …

Physician voices

MACRA penalized this doctor for going the extra mile for his patients

Matthew Hahn, MD

May 7, 2017May 7, 201745

We’ve taken care of Jane and her son, Sam, for a long time (the names are fictitious, but the rest of the story is true, and the real patient approved this story, in case you were wondering). At first, the…

Sam also had a very significant learning disability. At one point I asked …

Health policy

Obamacare isn’t a disaster. Failing to improve upon it would be.

Cedric Dark, MD, MPH

May 3, 2017May 3, 20172

Congress has returned to DC in the wake of the defeat of Paul Ryan’s American Health Care Act. And while shouting "repeal and replace" might win elections, this debacle proves that the American people will not tolerate their families, friends,…

Congress has returned to DC in the wake of the defeat of Paul Ryan’s American Health Care Act. And while shouting “repeal and replace” might win elections, this debacle proves that the American people will not tolerate their families, friends, and neighbors losing healthcare coverage just so rich people can get tax cuts.

Yet, Congress will certainly revisit health reform again. With the Republican caucus fractured, Paul Ryan should seek out …

Health policy

Students are the future of health policy: Let’s start treating them like it

Junaid Nabi, MD

May 1, 2017May 1, 2017

The media is quick to point out the important role of American Medical Association (AMA) and other professional bodies in shaping the future of health policy in the United States. While these organizations have a certain responsibility, it is becoming increasing clear that medical and public health students will shape the future of post-Obama health care landscape. Recognizing their role is pertinent.

While physician members from AMA are the practitioners of …

Physician voices

Physicians ceded control of health care. It’s time to take it back.

Anonymous

April 21, 2017Apr 21, 201717

In the not-to-distant past, American health care was the gold standard. It offered job satisfaction and autonomy, was financially rewarding and was considered by many to be the most honorable profession. But as we all know, over the last two decades, increasing health care costs and demands and increasing competition for insurance contracts have changed the face of medicine. Metrics ranging from quality and safety (which are needed and were …

Health policy

To fix health care, we need to examine our shared values

Thomas Birch, MD

April 21, 2017Apr 21, 2017

When the political process is not working, one option is to examine the shared values of most Americans. Values are learned, clarified and even negotiated. They are the algebraic axioms from which the formulas of public policy are derived. Examples…

Examples include:

Society should care for the sick, written into the EMTALA law that prohibits turning patients away from emergency rooms.

Free enterprise is the engine of material prosperity.

The government must correct the dangers …

Health policy

Is health care a right or a privilege? Why can’t the answer be both?

Brian C. Joondeph, MD

April 18, 2017Apr 18, 201716

Election Day 2016 should have been Christmas morning for Republicans. Long awaited control of the White House and both houses of Congress. A chance to deliver on an every two-year election cycle promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. In 2010 Republicans needed the House. They got it. In 2014, it was the Senate. Delivered. But we still need the White House they said. Asked and answered with President Donald Trump.

So, …

Health policy

How Trump counties should instruct health reform

Evan Beiter & Suhas Gondi & Vishal Khetpal, MD

April 17, 2017Apr 17, 2017

A few weeks ago, before the demise of the American Health Care Act, President Trump sat down for an interview with Tucker Carlson at Fox News. Citing an article from Bloomberg, Carlson informed the president that the counties which voted for him “would do far less well under the bill than counties that voted for Hillary,” were it to pass. Whether intentional or not, Trump agreed with his assessment, noting …

Health policy

Why did the GOP health plan fail? Maybe because of medical Darwinism.

Michael L. Millenson

April 13, 2017Apr 13, 20172

“We are now contemplating, Heaven save the mark, a bill that would tax the well for the benefit of the ill.” Although that quote reads like it could be part of the Republican repeal-and-replace assault against the Affordable Care Act…

“We are now contemplating, Heaven save the mark, a bill that would tax the well for the benefit of the ill.”

Although that quote reads like it could be part of the Republican repeal-and-replace assault against the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it’s actually from a 1949 editorial in The New York State Journal of Medicine denouncing health insurance itself.

Indeed, the …

Health policy

Politicians must consult front-line physicians for health reform

Niran S. Al-Agba, MD

April 11, 2017Apr 11, 201712

Recently, the AHCA was pulled from the House floor after not enough votes could be secured in favor of its passage. A Washington Post article reported President Trump’s thoughts on the matter: “We couldn’t get one Democrat vote, not one.…

Journalist Robert Costa asserted “there was little evidence that either Trump or House Republicans …

Health policy

Why politics and patients don’t mix

Mark Lopatin, MD

April 10, 2017Apr 10, 2017

So the American Health Care Act was rejected. And I want to scream! Not because it failed, but instead because of the way the whole thing was handled. While both parties will argue that they were trying to do what is best for the American public, I disagree. As a physician, what I see are two forces who are more intent on winning a battle than in helping the public. …

Read more…

Why politics and patients don’t mix

Health policy

Maybe mothers saved the Affordable Care Act

Claudia M. Gold, MD

April 8, 2017Apr 8, 2017

In striking contrast to the happenings in the U.S. Congress, Kate Middleton, future queen of England, spoke these words at London's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on the occasion of a launch of educational films dealing with maternal mental…

In striking contrast to the happenings in the U.S. Congress, Kate Middleton, future queen of England, spoke these words at London’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on the occasion of a launch of educational films dealing with maternal mental health:

Nothing can really prepare you for you the sheer overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother, It is full of complex emotions

…

Health policy

Health reform is dead. So what can we do now?

Matthew Hahn, MD

April 7, 2017Apr 7, 20174

Health care reform as it is typically discussed in America is dead for now. By “as it is typically discussed,” I mean broad “big picture” health care reform, which deals primarily with how we organize payments: government vs. free market, multi-payer vs. single payer, profit-based vs. not-for-profit. The Democrats tried. Obamacare’s shortcomings stem largely from the fact that neither President Obama nor the larger Democratic Party had the political power …

Physician voices

We want a federal budget where the trade-offs support life, not death

Edward C. Halperin, MD

April 5, 2017Apr 5, 2017

When I entered college, I took a course in introductory economics. Human wants are unlimited, I learned, but resources are limited. Therefore, we have to make choices about what we spend money on. That, I was told, was what economics…

My economics textbook illustrated the point by quoting from Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels who said: “We can do …

Medical education

We should teach medical residents health policy. Here’s why.

Sneha Tella, MD

April 4, 2017Apr 4, 20172

When the U.S. health care system began, physicians were largely autonomous in selection of medical treatments and their delivery. Patients were treated under a fee for service model. However, over time we began to notice an alarming incline in medical spending which ultimately lead to the development of health maintenance organizations (HMOs). At their inception, HMOs were intended to standardize medical treatment, reduce unnecessary use of resources, and encourage the …

Health policy and public health

Articles, page 99

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