Posted by: AtlasMD

July 23, 2014

When Health Insurance and Breakfast Collide.

Sorry, your decaf was denied.

Pamela Wible, MD recently mentioned a couple analogies we happen to have articulated a few times ourselves. She breaks down what it would be like using health insurance to cover breakfast, and the result is less than ideal…

“If you hired a third party to pay your restaurant bill, you’d pay twice as much, wait 2 weeks for a table, and have 7 minutes to eat.”

We’re glad she’s using real world analogies to get the point across; you can’t deny that using health insurance as a catastrophic net makes more sense than a convenience plan for daily maintenance.

READ DR. WIBLE’S ARTICLE >

Posted by: AtlasMD

June 19, 2014

Los Angeles Times Reports, Obamacare Subsidies On Track To Cost Billions This Year

(via Los Angeles Times)

So, about all those subsidies for health insurance that fueled approximately 8 million sign-ups for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. They are on track to cost us billions of dollars this year, a new federal report indicates.

Nearly nine in 10 Americans who bought healthcare coverage on the federal government’s healthcare marketplaces received government assistance to offset their premiums.

Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

June 16, 2014

When Will Technology Actually Transform Healthcare?

“Health care is overwhelmed by “fast, cheap, and out of control” technologies,” writes Joe Flower.

Every new device will revolutionize healthcare, right? We hear this all the time. And, to be fair, we’re tech nerds here in the Atlas MD office.

However, we have a major caveat to our passion for healthcare tech.

In our case, we are excited about iterating on our EMR that eliminates the waste in your direct care practice.

And by eliminating the waste in your practice, we’re helping you to re-imagine how you get paid in your practice.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

June 5, 2014

Women’s Health Works Better When Doctors Are Motivated To Inquire

Women are often considered drivers for healthcare in their families.

Unfortunately, Kaiser Family Foundation performed a study and found that many women face cost and logistical barriers to obtaining healthcare for themselves.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

June 4, 2014

Free Market Principles Make The Difference Between Life And Death

In Sonoma County, a man is battling more than a dozen tumors in his body.

Oh, and now he is fighting a different battle, says CBS News, with his insurance carrier, Anthem Blue Cross.

Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

June 2, 2014

Doctors Are Talking: EHRs Destroy the Patient Encounter

KLAS, a national firm that measures EHR vendor performance, conducts an annual poll of healthcare providers, not only about the quality of their EHRs but also about make-or-break issues such as training, implementation, and support.

The gripes cover three main areas: One, EHRs have made the patient encounter far more annoying and complex than it ever was before.

Two, many physicians feel that EHRs take doctors who were trained to be independent thinkers and constrain their ability to make independent decisions, causing them to feel like data entry clerks, with a computer telling them how to practice medicine.

Last but not least, a large number of physicians feel that EHRs erode the doctor-patient relationship by creating a barrier between the two.

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Posted by: Josh Umbehr, M.D.

June 1, 2014

Insurance-Based Primary Care Won’t Prevent Obesity

Recently, someone asked me on Twitter, “Has the change in classification of obesity as a disease affected how you treat patients presenting w/ the disease?”

The classification change in question is regarding the American Medical Association’s declaration that obesity is a disease rather than a comorbidity factor.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

May 26, 2014

Fist Bump, Doc? Handshake Ban Suggested in Health Care.

If a doctor, dentist or nurse reaches out to shake your hand, should you: (a) reciprocate and extend your hand, (b) shake at least once or twice but don’t pump or hold hands for more than five seconds, (c) make eye contact and smile while shaking or (d) recoil in horror, shove your hands deep into any available pocket and report the perpetrator to the nearest infection control specialist?

If you answered ‘d,’ then high five me. You understand the sorry state of hand hygiene in American health care and the toll it takes in spreading disease.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

May 26, 2014

Damn, Gawker. Way To Point Out The Prescription Drug In The Room.

You might think that the U.S. government’s small step towards a national healthcare system would somehow help bring the cost of prescription drugs down to reasonable levels.

“You could not be more wrong! You idiot!” writes Hamilton Nolan of Gawker.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

May 26, 2014

Over-Prescribing, Under-Prescribing, And The Fee-For-Service Catch 22

The federal government has granted itself potent new authority to expel physicians from Medicare if they are found to prescribe drugs in abusive ways, following through on a proposal issued earlier this year.

Excellent news! Now fee-for-service doctors can exist like Heller-esque protgaonists, trapped by the possibility of losing funding for over-prescribing, or losing funding by under-prescribing.

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