In South Portland, Maine — Roxanne Pettigrow chooses not to buy health insurance. She visits her doctor in South Portland every few weeks, though, paying $50 up front, once per month for regular checkups, office visits and preventive health screenings. It’s care that those who lack health coverage often skip.
April 14, 2014
April 11, 2014
Doctors Ought To Get Paid However They Choose To See Their Patients
Hans Duvefelt explains the strange world he lives in: He can freeze some warts in less than a minute and send a bill to a patient’s commercial insurance for way more money than if he spent fifteen minutes changing someone’s blood pressure medication.
Why’s this the case? For one, he’s a victim of red tape i.e. governmental market manipulation.
April 10, 2014
Will The Uninsured Become Healthier Once They Receive Healthcare Coverage?
Conventional wisdom might tell you, The Affordable Care Act will save thousands of lives, as millions of uninsured persons* receive the coverage they lacked, and hence the care they need.
But although commentators make the assumption that the ACA will improve the health of the uninsured, the link between health insurance and health isn’t so clear.
April 10, 2014
Red Tape By Any Other Name — How Medicare Drives High Healthcare Costs
Yes, Medicare pays the medical bills for millions of people 65 and older. And its benefit is tremendous. But recent studies show it plays another huge role in American healthcare: It helps set prices for everyone in the economy.
April 9, 2014
Direct Care Is The Most Political, Least Political Healthcare
Originally posted on KevinMD.com
This post deserves a caveat — healthcare shouldn’t be a political issue. When someone comes into my office because they have chest pain, I don’t ask them “What’s your political leaning?” before administering care. And now after reading about the recent delay of ICD-10 in Congress, I realized that my choice in practicing Direct Care was the most political and least political thing I could have done.
April 9, 2014
Big News — The Real Winner In Healthcare’s Red Tape Might Be The Drug Companies
Looks like the Medicare program is the source of a small fortune for many U.S. doctors. So says a trove of government records that reveal unprecedented details about physician billing practices nationwide.
According to the new data, the government insurance program for older people paid nearly 4,000 physicians in excess of $1 million each in 2012. And those figures do not include what the doctors billed private insurance firms.
April 9, 2014
Elephant In The Room — The Projected Primary Care Shortage
Projecting future physician workforce needs is a challenging calculation. You have to consider multiple variables to avoid missing the mark. In the mid-1990s, the American Medical Association confidently predicted that the penetration of managed care would lead to a large “physician surplus” and convinced Congress to cap the number of graduate medical education (GME) positions subsidized by the Medicare program. By the look of things today, that might not have been such a wise move.
April 4, 2014
Huff Post Asks The Tough Question: Is Concierge Medicine Really Worth It?
MARCH 26, 2014 – Growing up, Erin Havel’s family saw one family physician. That doctor gave her mom medical care when she was pregnant, delivered her when she was born, gave school shots, wrote prescriptions for any virus that came up, and helped her grandparents with geriatric care. This was well-rounded family care at its a finest.
However, things changed when her doctor retired. Patients were transferred to a new doctor, with his eyes on the dollar sign.
April 3, 2014
How Much Does The Healthcare Exchange Rip Off Young Adults? They Ran The Numbers. The Results Are Grim.
Obamacare still needs more young people to sign up. This will offset the high cost of the older, and probably less healthy people who are joining Obamacare plans. Oh, but then the White House has to coerce a sufficient number of thirty-somethings to join, too. Problem is, the health plans don’t make economic sense for many of these young adults.
April 3, 2014
Ever Wondered What’s Been Causing All These Healthcare Security Breaches? It Could Be HIPAA’s Fault.
There’s been more than 30 million individuals affected by health data security breaches since 2009. These breaches are swiftly becoming a costly expense to healthcare organizations worldwide.