From the monthly archives:

June 2008

Patient with Sinus Node Dysfunction

June 30, 2008

Medicare cuts, Monday update

June 30, 2008

Cutting physician payments will escalate health care costs: “If you cut payment for services as a cost control (the 10% cut), you will get more volume by the survivors doing the expensive highly profitable procedures, AND you will get declining access from the already high volume, low profit centers (primary care). In other words, you [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Placebo Television #13

June 30, 2008

Doug Farrago responds to criticism from a recent Reader’s Digest article.

Read the full article →

Obesity

June 30, 2008

Try a sympathetic approach: “Is obesity a problem? Sure it is. But we need to get off of our self-righteous pulpits. Obese people should not be made into a group of outcasts. The ‘them’ mentality and the finger-wagging are no more than insecure people trying to feel better by putting down [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Air ambulance crashes and EMTALA

June 30, 2008

Related? “With specialists fleeing for the relative safety of large multi-specialty hospitals and ERs closing they are used more and more. EMTALA strikes again.”

Read the full article →

Cardiac CT scans

June 30, 2008

Screw the evidence, according to cardiac CT peddler cardiologist Harvey Hecht: “It’s incumbent on the community to dispense with the need for evidence-based medicine . . . Thousands of people are dying unnecessarily.”
See what Dr. Wes thinks about it.

Read the full article →

Replacing physicians?

June 30, 2008

Dr. Val: “Computers will replace physicians when robots replace spouses.”

Read the full article →

"I’m a struggling doctor today"

June 30, 2008

Expect a wave of practices to close: “Simply put, Sroka loves what he does. But this is the last year he may be able to afford to do it.
Half of his 4,000-client practice relies on Medicare to pay their bills, and Tuesday, a 10.6 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates will take effect unless Congress [...]

Read the full article →

CRNA or MD?

June 30, 2008

The answer is clear. Or is it?

Read the full article →

Reader take: Going green in the physician’s office

June 29, 2008

The following is a reader take by an anonymous physician.
Pharmaceutical companies could use a little greening. Consider the 5 inch by 5 inch tri-fold wrapper for a 1.5 gram sachet of the latest antibiotic cream, or how about the individually wrapped pills of the latest antihistamine to go over the counter. Does a [...]

Read the full article →

More Medicare cuts

June 28, 2008

A Hail Mary over the holiday week? “It’s clear that Reid believes the pressure from the powerful doctors’ and senior citizens’ lobby over the July 4 recess will be strong enough to convince at least one more Republican to cross over and support the legislation.”

3 comments Read the full article →

Macular Degeneration

June 28, 2008

Read the full article →

The entitled

June 28, 2008

What’s wrong with American healthcare in a nutshell: “How does it reflect upon American culture today when obviously affluent families try to persuade doctors to defraud Medicare? How are we going to cut costs in an era of so-called consumer-driven healthcare which implies that patients and their families are the ones directing care? It is [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Big Bad John

June 28, 2008

“Big” John Cornyn (R-Tex.) sides with Medicare Advantage plans over physicians.
A move that looks very small from this corner.

3 comments Read the full article →

Is Pfizer exploiting battered women?

June 28, 2008

To sell pills for fibromyalgia? “What I saw were disturbing images reminiscent of battered woman syndrome. The whole thing smacked of desperation on Pfizer’s part to sell more drugs and represents DTC advertising sinking to a new low in exploiting women’s fears!”

2 comments Read the full article →

Iowa floods and palliative care

June 28, 2008

See how it’s disrupting hospice services: “As a hospice think about if you lost half your staff, some of your patients had to be evacuated, and you had no safe water. You can never plan for every possible problem that might come up, but it would be very helpful to talk through different disaster plans [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries