Posted by: AtlasMD

June 22, 2014

Atlas MD Podcast 17 — Meet Dr. Michael Palomino

Atlas MD Podcast 17 — Meet Dr. Michael Palomino

STREAM EP. 17 OF THE ATLAS MD PODCAST ON iTUNES

And we’re back. We brought in a special guest for this week’s episode–our own Dr. Michael Palomino!

It’s go, go, go in the world of Direct Care. First off, we’re excited that Dr. Samir Qamar of MedLion was able to start DPC United. The association will organize and promote our cash-only model of healthcare. Remember, Direct Care is competitive but it’s not winner-takes-all. Physicians are in this together. Education and awareness are critical to our movement because insurance has our nation in a subservient position: People are under the impression that coverage is absolutely necessary for ALL healthcare, when we know that’s not the case.

And more exciting news. Atlas.md EMR has been fully funded for 2+ years of ongoing development. Direct Care docs, take note: we’ll be continually iterating on our revolutionary software tool. In fact, we recently rolled out a new update. Check out the list of feature updates here. And please, keep emailing us all of your feedback so we can continue honing Direct Care’s premiere software.

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 14, 2014

The ICD-10 Emperor Has No Clothes

They howled ICD-10 was delayed. And they howled loud and fierce.

Apparently, the life of U.S. healthcare hangs in the throes of 68,000 diagnosis codes.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world has switched to ICD-10. But here’s a secret. The World Health Organization’s version of ICD-10 has about 16,000 codes, equivalent to ICD-9-CM.

Let’s reiterate: The rest of the world is not using ICD-10-Clinical Modification set, which has 68,000 codes.

The Canadian version of ICD-10 has about 16,000 codes, but the physicians do not use those codes for billing and reimbursement. They use a more limited code set of about 600 three-digit codes.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

May 8, 2014

Research Suggests That Preventing Illness Won’t Curb Rising Healthcare Costs. So How About We Just Cut The Red Tape?

Spending on health care has consistently grown faster than the rest of the U.S. economy. What’s behind this trend is less certain, though. Economists point to two causes: the prevalence of diseases and conditions afflicting the U.S. population, or the rising costs of treating diseases.

New research from American University Associate Professor Martha Starr and Virginia Tech Research Professor Ana Aizcorbe shows it is the latter, with higher prices for treatment accounting for 70 percent of growth in health care spending.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

February 11, 2014

White House Delays ACA’s Red Tape (With More Red Tape)

We love the smell of Red Tape in the morning. In Washington, The New York Times is reporting that the Obama administration announced on Monday that it would “postpone enforcement of a federal requirement for medium-size employers to provide health insurance to employees and allow larger employers more flexibility in how they provide coverage.” Wow, that’s such mouthful we couldn’t bring ourselves to paraphrase it. Let’s break it into smaller parts.

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