March 19, 2014
You know this guy, right? Rapper-turned-actor Will Smith is also the only person who’s tried to kill himself with a jellyfish.
You’ve heard the stories about ICD-10 billing codes covering everything under the sun — suicide via jellyfish included. Well, in case you’re wondering where the idea came to kill yourself with a tentacular sea creature, look no further, we found the inspiration — Hollywood.
March 18, 2014
Dr. Tracy Ragland, 46, an independent primary care physician, is anxious about the future of her small practice. The law is bringing new regulations and payment rates that she says squeeze self-employed doctors out of even practicing medicine. She cherishes the autonomy of private practice and speaks darkly of the rush of independent physicians into hospital networks, which she sees as growing monopolies.
“The possibility of not being able to survive in a private practice, especially primary care, is very real,” she said.
March 17, 2014
Do you believe in the power of Atlas MD-style direct care to address our ailing healthcare system? Affordable subscriptions, unlimited visits, 24/7 doctor access, wholesale prescriptions — some as low as pennies per pill — and discounted labs, and the reality of switching to a wrap-around insurance plan… Then take the CMT survey here.
March 17, 2014
Mmmm, they’re even St. Patty’s Day-themed. See, this is what happens when you cut the red tape — happy patients, happy doctors, and donuts.
March 14, 2014
We all know insurance companies like to insert themselves into just about every aspect of health care. Many insurance plans make you go to an approved doctor at an approved hospital for approved procedures and take approved drugs. Fee-for-service docs don’t have much say here. They’ve handed all this control to insurance companies and the insurance companies use it, they say, to control their own costs. But is that all they use it for?
March 13, 2014
Some people have a knee-jerk reaction when asked about direct primary care: “Only the rich can afford direct primary care” and the end result will be “fewer doctors seeing fewer patients”. These statements are true but ironically only in context with the current dysfunctional system that impairs quality by reducing actual patient care time. It’s this patient mill mentality that drives doctors away from a career in primary care, and further exacerbates the problem. Its leads to efficiency delusions like Meaningful Use Stage 2, and ICD-10 billing codes and fast-talking EMR vendors which all to the red tape that makes healthcare so needlessly expensive.
The current insurance-driven primary care system is underfunded and overburdened and gives poorer quality care than a direct care system would. The top 9 conniptions about direct care are as follows:
March 13, 2014
Ron Gutman is on a mission to bring back the village doctor. But he’s going about it in a different way than we are. He runs a three-year-old startup called HealthTap. They offer an online service that replicates a house call. With his app, you can instantly connect with physicians via the net and ask them personal medical questions.
March 12, 2014
If you’re a patient dealing with insurance, Stephen C. Schimpff has something to tell you. You aren’t really your physician’s customer. That’s because the insurer will decide whether and how much to pay the physician after they’ve seen you. You’re largely a bystander in the relationship, he says. The doctor’s customer is actually the insurer.
March 12, 2014
March 11, 2014
Mounting evidence shows that chaos in medical billing isn’t only affecting our nation’s health. It’s marring the financial reputation of many Americans. That’s because the bills themselves can take months to sort out, and medical debts can be reported rapidly to credit agencies, often without notification. Even small unpaid bills can severely damage credit ratings.