Caregiving in the United States has reached a crisis due to an aging population, a lack of investment in a professional caregiving infrastructure, and the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors pushed millions of Americans out of the workforce and into a caregiving role, particularly women. Those Americans already providing care for a loved one experienced a 36 percent increase …
A rocket launch. The tall vessel, akin to a solitary skyscraper, stands alone on the launchpad. The thunderous roar of thrusters travels across miles of empty concrete. The ground shakes. The audible roar in your ear and the palpable vibration underfoot steadily rises, in unison with the overhead countdown. Hundreds of on-lookers stand in excitement, witnessing the launch at a safe distance.
Seated in the capsule, confined by restraints, are the …
“What if I had access to real solutions? What if I had resources to provide to a person to help them overcome their problem? As a primary care provider with over 20 years of experience, I know viscerally that I will never “fix” anyone. I can teach, I can guide, …
I just opened my email inbox to see the following headline: “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will finally release a draft of their long-awaited federal cannabis legalization bill on Wednesday.”
I wholeheartedly support the federal legalization of cannabis. For one thing, it is much safer than almost all drugs and medications available with or without a prescription. And, …
“It’s rare for anyone to try and tally the precise cost of unnecessary care. But when they do, the estimates are staggering. The Washington Health Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to making care safe and affordable, analyzed insurance claims from 1.3 million patients who received one of 47 tests or services …
One of the leading reasons for provider frustration is prior authorizations. The insurance companies initially created prior authorization (prior auth) to keep down the cost of care when a service fee was the primary payment method for payers. However, it has become a hindrance for providers and staff as they spend hours waiting for authorization to provide medical care.
In the past, hospital organizations needed approval (prior authorization) from an insurance …
My maternal grandmother, Susana, was one of the most important women in my life. I was named after her. At least, that is what I thought for many years.
I had gone by my grandmother’s name until I transferred high schools in the suburbs of Chicago, and the registrar asked me to confirm my name. I told her, and she said, “No, your name is Susan. It’s on your birth certificate.”
I …
Thanks to the marvels of medicine, newly vaccinated Americans are returning to life as normal and partying like it’s 2019. Doctors, who are emerging from the pandemic as national heroes, would like to turn back the clock even further—to the halcyon days of 20th-century medicine.
But doctors, unlike their maskless and freewheeling patients, will be disappointed with what the future holds.
Trying to turn back the clock
Physicians have had a rough century, …
“Doctors undergo mandatory training sessions in medical school to prepare for unexpected medical emergencies. Health care workers are mandated reporters who have to undergo specific training for the purpose of identifying child and elder abuse or neglect. Bystander intervention should also be on that continuum of responsibility and training.
I urge bystander intervention …
In recent years, we have seen a magnificent increase in the accuracy of medical diagnoses. As the most compelling example, l propose the diagnosis provided by our country’s top clinicians with regard to what ails our health care system. Seasoned veterans of outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, intensive care units, hospital wards, and operating suites, they have focused their finely honed diagnostic acumen on themselves, their colleagues, and the system in …
An excerpt from The Bonds We Share: Images of Humanity, 40 Years Around the Globe.
A young girl decorated for the Jaisalmer camel festival.
The Jaisalmer Desert Festival is an annual event that takes place in February in the beautiful city of Jaisalmer, India. The festival is celebrated amidst the beautiful dunes of the …
“American medicine is facing an identity crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to socioeconomic health disparities and turned up the heat on the question of whether health care is a right or a privilege. The financial strain on hospitals resulting from the temporary postponement of scheduled surgeries exposed a vulnerability caused …
It’s one of the largest integrated health care systems in the United States. It takes care of over nine million patients in 170 hospitals within nearly every state. Its patients are on average, older, sicker, and more disadvantaged than the rest of the American population. If you had to guess which hospital system I’m describing, would you think HCA? Sutter? Kaiser? Nope, it’s the Veteran Health Administration, …
When plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Pearl published his Los Angeles Times op-ed, “How Doctor Culture Sinks U.S. Healthcare,” a polemic essay critical of primary care physicians like me, he set off a firestorm. While he made some valid points, Dr. Pearl also blamed many of the preventative health failures in the U.S. squarely on the shoulders of primary care physicians without acknowledging that our health …
Value-based care (VBC) continues to be a popular expression across the health care landscape, but the challenges and opportunities it offers are quite different across specialties. Behavioral health (BH) providers are an important case in point. The opioid epidemic combined with increased recognition and prevalence of mental illness secondary to the pandemic has brought behavioral health to the forefront, but for BH providers, the transition to VBC continues to present …
“Doc, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I’m here right now.” Though in his mid-60s, my patient had the wide-eyed bewilderment more familiar of a child. He was late for our first visit together — but he was there and against the odds.
He explained to me that he had been picked up by police for attempted shoplifting while intoxicated the night before, stopped while trying to stumble out of …
The American Medical Association (AMA) has become unmoored in history, seemingly unaware that both racism and the war on drugs are no longer tolerated by society. A confluence of recent activities and events having to do with their stance on medical cannabis puts them in a poor light and throws into question whether doctors — or patients — are at all served by this group.
As a practicing primary care physician …
An excerpt from Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win.
The American epidemic of unnecessary medical treatment is one of the reasons your health care costs keep going up. Experts estimate it’s wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year. That’s not some number that’s detached from you and me. We pay …
Adapted from Rich & Dying: An Insider Calls Bullsh*t on America’s Healthcare Economy.
I’ve stood in front of conferences before and made my case: our health care system is perfect.
“A perfect system? Ours?” I’ll hear people in the audience murmuring, “He’s a little bit crazy.” And I can understand why they do.
For decades, critics of the U.S. health care system have …
A vital sign of U.S. democracy — voter participation — is very low, and health professionals providing holistic care can be part of the solution. Holistic care should be expanded to include civic health.
U.S. voter participation ranks 28th among 35 nations with similar economies and government structures, and this low rate is only exacerbated by the recently proposed at least 250 laws in 43 …
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