KevinMD posts of the week, August 7, 2011

Here are the top posts from this past week, based on the number of times they were viewed.

1. Why the debt ceiling deal is a horrific outcome for physicians. If you’re a physician or hospital that relies on Medicare payments, grim times are ahead.

2. Why this pediatrician hates bouncy houses. I hate the bouncy houses. I mean, I really hate them; I get a sick, nervous stomach when the boys are inside them.

3. Cosmetic gyn continues to grow during the recession. Though the recession has blunted overall demand for cosmetic surgeries, one subcategory appears to be entering a growth phase, at least judging from the fifth annual Congress on Aesthetic Vaginal Surgery, held late last year in a luxury resort outside Tucson.

4. Pay for performance doesn’t work in difficult patient populations. Pay for performance. It’s a lovely sounding concept. If you’re a good doctor, defined by having healthy patients who meet predetermined quality indicators, then you get paid more.

5. Showing me how much medicine I’ve never even known existed. Riding ambulances, reading books, and sitting in lecture has long had me convinced that the sky was only what I could see directly above.