The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid recently released its compiled data on what over 3,000 hospitals across the country charge for 100 of the most common discharge diagnostic codes under the diagnosis related group (DRG) system, and boy did the DRG really hit the fan. Liberals, economists, and band wagoners got all upset about the enormous pricing differentials between hospitals for the same services.
For example, Twin Cities Community Hospital in ...
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Google Glass will be like the Segway. It’s really cool but it will have only a few practical uses and won’t be a paradigm shifter. Segway never won widespread acceptance in a culture dominated by cars and Google Glass is unlikely to win over people who prefer to wear their smart phones on the waist instead of on their face.
Still, ...
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In June of 2006 Mary Ann Ambrogio went to see her gastroenterologist Dr. Frank Troncale in Connecticut for a follow up of her history of liver cirrhosis and associated hepatic encephalopathy.
Reportedly following this visit Mrs. Ambrogio was driving home when she passed out and hit a pedestrian John Jarmie causing “severe and permanent” injuries. The injured pedestrian sued Dr. Troncale claiming malpractice under Connecticut law in that the ...
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Mitt Romney’s “let them eat cake” comments on 60 Minutes serves to illustrate how badly both sides of a political debate can confuse an issue. In 2010 he criticized emergency room care as a potential loophole used by people to get “entirely free care” while avoiding having to pay for health insurance and in his book No Apology, the Governor outlined the idea behind Massachusetts ...
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It’s a uniquely modern problem. We have the most obese impoverished population in the history of the planet and its been called the “hunger-obesity paradox." Even the homeless are now more than likely to be overweight with over 32% being officially obese. Think about that.
Then think about every single picture you have ever seen from the Great Depression when 1 of every 4 Americans were out ...
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Dr. Anthony Youn, a plastic surgeon practicing in Detroit places most of the blame for long office waiting times at the feet of the patients themselves. He comes up with three general categories; patients who arrive late for their appointments, emergencies that require the physician to leave the office, and “oh by-the-way” scenarios:
"Here is a typical scenario: It’s the end of a 10-minute office visit, scheduled as a ...
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The Internet beta 0.5 version was nothing like it is today. Back in the ’80s and the early ’90s the most common way to access the outside world was to use a phone modem to dial the number of a remote computer. These primitive servers usually ran DOS based software called a Bulletin Board System (BBS) which allowed users to post messages to each other. For the most part, these ...
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It’s unclear how many non-legal persons actually understand how different civil trials are from criminal proceedings. Most people have heard that juries in criminal trials are told that they can only find a defendant guilty if their belief that the defendant is guilty is beyond a reasonable doubt. Federal courts define this term further as, “proof of such a convincing character that a reasonable person would not hesitate to act ...
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It seems as if teenage student athletes have been dying by the month in often spectacular and dramatic fashion. Last September Texas high school senior Reggie Garrett died suddenly just after throwing a touchdown pass . Last week a 16-year-old Michigan basketball player died dramatically just after becoming a hero by scoring the winning basket to preserve an undefeated season. Then just a week later another 16 ...
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What a blessing and a curse it must have been to practice medicine fifty years ago.
Most internists had only about twenty or so medications that they used regularly. It was a curse not to have effective medications to treat many common ailments but somewhat of a blessing not to have the modern medical nightmare of having patients on 15-20 chronic medications with all the logistical problems of keeping track of ...
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-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
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