Much has already been written about the Oregon Medicaid study that came out in the New England Journal of Medicine. Unfortunately, the vast majority is reflex, rather than reflection. The study seems to serve as a Rorschach test of sorts, confirming people’s biases about whether Medicaid is “good” or “bad”. The proponents of Medicaid point to all the ways in which Medicaid seems to help those who were enrolled ...
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Recently, an article by Kate Baicker and colleagues came out in the New England Journal of Medicine. Almost immediately, the article received widespread attention in the media where headlines claimed that giving people Medicaid coverage doesn’t improve their health. This is not exactly what the article said, but most journalists aren’t scientists, so we should cut them a bit of ...
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1. Robotics No Help in Cystectomy. A randomized trial comparing robotic with open cystectomy ended early after an interim analysis showed the minimally invasive approach did not reduce complications.
2. Medicare Reveals Hospital Charge Information. The Obama administration made public on Wednesday previously unpublished hospital charges for the 100 most common inpatient treatments in 2011, saying a ...
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1. Uniform Quality Measures Sought for an SGR Repeal. Doctors need quality measures from a single source and more avenues to qualify for value-based payments under a post-Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) reimbursement system.
2. Triptans Go-To Migraine Drugs Even in Pregnancy. Monday's FDA announcement that pregnant women should not take valproate sodium and related drugs to prevent ...
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1. Study Eases Some Azithromycin Fears. Danish patients taking azithromycin were at no greater risk of cardiovascular death, relative to those using penicillin, when pretreatment mortality risk was taken into account.
2. Study: Medicaid Expansion Won't Help All Aspects of Health. Expanding Medicaid coverage improves mental health but doesn't tackle some basic measures of physical health, like ...
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We are frequently reminded by the General Accounting Office and CMS that a great proportion of Medicare health costs are incurred in the last three months of a patient’s life. Health care policy experts have tried to reduce these costs by encouraging end of life planning. Living wills, health care directives and the availability of hospice and palliative services will not put a dent in these costs because of human ...
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1. 5 Ways Obama's Budget Would Change Medicare. President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget includes a variety of what he says are "manageable" changes for Medicare's 54 million beneficiaries as well as for the hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare providers that serve them.
2. Boston Bombing: Finding Evidence in the ER. In the aftermath of Monday's ...
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“Physicians care more about their pocketbooks than taking care of patients. They are self-interested and overpaid. They want to control everything. They don’t know what life is like in the real world of patients.”
By now, I am sure that physician readers of this blog can feel their blood boiling, for good reason. Why would I, as the principal staff advocate for internal medicine physicians, put such pernicious, unfair, inaccurate quotes ...
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We all know about Medicare, the federal government health insurance program for Americans who are over the age of 65 and/or disabled. We know that as we have begun to live longer, the Medicare population has ballooned and the costs of the program are, by most estimates, “unsustainable.”
We also know that Medicare, despite being a government program, is beloved by America’s seniors. If it was an unpopular program, Congress would ...
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An elderly doctor passes away, and he find himself standing before the Pearly Gates. The Almighty greets him and says, “In recognition of your stellar life of service to your patients, family and community, I welcome you to paradise. And because I know that doctors have a great sense of curiosity about all things, you can now ask me any question—any—and I will answer it.” The doctor ponders for a ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
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