The selection of Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as the running mate for presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney could have serious consequences for the Medicare program.
Ryan, Budget Committee chair for the House of Representatives since Republicans gained control of the chamber 2 years ago, is best known for budget proposal, which includes a plan to overhaul Medicare and transform it ...
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30 day hospital re-admission rates.
It's a statistic that keeps hospital administrators up at night. Whether you agree or disagree with the use of this statistic as a quality and reimbursement metric, if it creates change, reduces hospital re-admissions and improves patient care, then in theory I support it.
I'm reminded of Mrs G. She is emblematic of today's chronic disease patient. She was admitted to our hospital for a congestive heart ...
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Most doctors will tell you that Medicare payments to doctors haven’t increased in a decade, and that doctors are turning away Medicare patients in droves. But they would be mistaken on both counts.
An authoritative compilation of current data from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission shows what is really happening with Medicare physician spending:
Medicare spending per beneficiary on physicians’ fee schedule services steadily increased from 2001 to 2011. In ...
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This series is brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. HIV Guidelines Expand Treatment Eligibility. Every person infected with HIV should be offered combination therapy, regardless of the state of his or her immune system.
2. Diet Pills: Approved, Yes. Prescribed? Maybe. Two drugs -- Qsymia (phentermine/topiramate) and Belviq (lorcaserin) -- will soon be added to the armamentarium available for fighting obesity, but how, ...
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A guest column by the American Medical Association, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
As the new president of the AMA, I’m excited to help lead the nation’s largest physician organization during this important time for our health care system. The year is off to a positive start – only two weeks after I was inaugurated at the AMA’s Annual Meeting, the Supreme Court ...
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A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
In early June I participated in ACP Services 2012 Leadership Day on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. I sincerely believe that we have an obligation to share our experiences with elected representatives. Internists through ACP have been doing this for years and have raised awareness of the high ...
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If the government was a physician, it wouldn't be an ordinary doctor like you or I.
It would be a sexy actor like the ones we see on those medical melodramas that have become so popular over the last few years. His hair coiffed, his jacket pressed and free of stains, and his manor confident he would rush into the trauma bay. As the beeping monitor flat lines, he would sweep the nurses ...
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Nothing in life is free.
In the midst of all the turmoil and excitement surrounding the newly passed Affordable Care Act, I believe we should not lose sight of the bigger picture: providing better healthcare at a lower cost for more people. The idea of the Patient Centered Medical Home, although in its trial stages thus far, is what we should be focusing on as physicians and health care providers.
Much has been ...
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I was recently struck by two conversations that I had with acquaintances about recent experiences that they had had with their primary care physicians. The first occurred at my local pool. A fellow swimmer asked me if I took new Medicare patients. She bemoaned that she was abandoned -- her beloved physician of over 20 years had sent out a letter announcing that she would no longer accept Medicare patients. My ...
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The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act.
I'll leave the detailed legal analysis to other commentators that you'll no doubt find elsewhere.
Although some may not feel this way, this is an outcome everybody should be happy with.
Most important, patients should be happy. As I wrote in the New York Times Room for Debate recently, the ACA has ...
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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
Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today
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