Peter Alperin, MD

Accepting Medicaid patients may be smart business

Policy

November 14, 2013

Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective by Lawrence Casalino, MD titled, “Professionalism and Caring for Medicaid Patients – The 5% Commitment.”

In the piece, Casalino argues that physicians should commit a portion of their practice to the Medicaid population as a matter of professional obligation. Yet this got me thinking: if physicians don’t respond to the professionalism argument and, instead, insist on being completely market-driven actors, then how can …

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We need tools to meaningfully interpret health data

Peter Alperin, MD

Tech

September 11, 2013

We generate it every minute of every day of every week of every month of every year. Data, in countless forms. Of recent and growing interest to a great many people is how this data can be use to improve health (not just sell people more stuff).

Wear a FitBit or Jawbone? Amazing source of activity information. Check in on Foursquare? Insight into dietary habits. Post on Twitter? Sentiment analysis around …

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Skills primary care doctors of the future will need

Peter Alperin, MD

Physician

April 3, 2012

By 2015, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, the U.S. health care system will be short approximately 30,000 primary care doctors. Yet, everything we read says that primary care physicians are the linchpins of the new (really rediscovered) coordinated care models being talked about by health care policy cognoscenti. What gives?

Since the mid-1990s the number of medical students pursuing a career in primary care has been on a steady, sinking decline, …

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