May 13, 2014
Jeffrey Singer, M.D., or Dr. Singer, is a general surgeon in Arizona. He’s also an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.
He claims that healthcare costs are too damn high—and they’re only getting worse. He’s got every reason to make that claim. Turns out that last week, researchers at Harvard and Dartmouth released a report estimating that healthcare costs will continue to grow faster than the economy for at least the next two decades.
May 12, 2014
High-deductible health plans appeared after legislation was passed in 2003 that required persons opening a health savings account to enroll in a high-deductible plan. They gained prominence recently as employers watched their own healthcare spending skyrocket.
And in 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that healthcare spending had grown at a record low pace from 2009 to 2011.
However, in this new HSA environment, practices need to think more like a business.
May 7, 2014
In the fee-for-service world, like the real world, there is an annual cycle. And, of course, there are seasons.
You know “flu season,” “poison ivy season,” and maybe even “Lyme disease season”.
But there is also a season that has little to do with medicine and everything to do with a broken payment system.
May 2, 2014
Let’s talk about healthcare misconceptions. Here’s some corrections to common misconceptions about who pays for healthcare. Read more
May 2, 2014
May 1, 2014
Mary Wulfers raised a serious question after reading about ObamaCare Exchange enrollees who can’t find doctors.
She asks, Who wants to see a doctor who is being forced to treat them?
Her husband is a primary care physician and, together, they opened a cash-only practice this year. It took two years of planning, but the couple decided to cut the red tape, and offer affordable, actual care to hundreds of patients.
And, get this, Mary’s husband is 61 years old. He could have easily retired, but the joy and reward of running a cash-only practice has kept him in the practice pool.
April 30, 2014
Direct Care docs, current and aspiring, do you have a few minutes?
Then check out this TED Talk by Simon Sinek. He shares his insight on how great leaders — from Jobs to MLK, Jr. — inspire action in their supporters.
April 30, 2014
Originally appeared on KevinMD.com
Yes, it really is time to revoke the health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats who ARE NOT in the profession of actual healing.
Daniel F. Craviotto Jr. writes on WSJ.com, “In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I’ve learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship.”
Craviotto, Jr. is a doctor who embodies the fight of Direct Care. How we interact and treat our patients truly is the practice of medicine. There’s a problem with the rising cost of health care (for starters, Oregon spent over $1,000 per subscriber on just a website to sign up for coverage that might not even provide a doctor).
April 28, 2014
Oregon went “all in” on health reform, firmly embracing the Affordable Care Act. They launched a very successful Medicaid expansion — a $2 billion federal experiment to prove the state could save money by managing patients’ care better, and, of course, the state’s own online marketplace to sell Obamacare insurance.
But that last point has been a huge problem.
The Cover Oregon board decided on Friday to ditch its troubled website and join up with the federal HealthCare.gov exchange instead.
April 25, 2014
Health care costs are dramatically higher in the U.S. than in the rest of the world. Yet our health care outcomes – from life expectancy to infant mortality – are average at best. Few dispute these facts.
The real debate starts when we ask why. While there isn’t one single answer, the rapidly rising cost of drugs and medical devices is a significant factor.
