Tag: "doctors"

We-Have-To-Pass-It-To-Find-Out-What’s-In-It Fact of the Day

A chain of events would create a two-month period during which a family has medical coverage but no insurer must pay its claims.

Nonpayment of premiums for subsidized policies would trigger the oddity: Federal law provides a three-month grace period before cancellation – but insurers are responsible only for the first month.

Doctors say the liability might keep many physicians from participating in next year’s program. A single prostate cancer patient’s course of treatment can cost $93,000, they say.

More from Jim Sanders.

May 23, 2013 | 10 comments | by

Solution for Elder Care: Robots

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed Cody, a robotic nurse the university says is “gentle enough to bathe elderly patients.” There is also HERB, which is short for Home Exploring Robot Butler. Made by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, it is designed to fetch household objects like cups and can even clean a kitchen. Hector, a robot that is being developed by the University of Reading in England, can remind patients to take their medicine, keep track of their eyeglasses and assist in the event of a fall.

The technology is nearly there. But some researchers worry that we are not asking a fundamental question: Should we entrust the care of people in their 70s and older to artificial assistants rather than doing it ourselves? (NYT)

May 22, 2013 | 11 comments | by

Health IT to Raise Costs, and Other Links

73% of doctors: Health IT will raise quality; 71%: it will also raise costs.

Fidelity: A 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $220,000 on average to cover medical expenses.

The highest paid public employee in your state is… [HT: Jason Shafrin]

May 20, 2013 | 12 comments | by

What Drug Companies Know About You and Your Doctor

The information allows drug makers to know which drugs a doctor is prescribing and how that compares to a colleague across town. They know whether patients are filling their prescriptions — and refilling them on time. They know details of patients’ medical conditions and lab tests, and sometimes even their age, income and ethnic backgrounds. (NYT)

May 17, 2013 | 11 comments | by

The Entitlement Society

Later this month, the American Psychiatric Association will unveil the fifth edition of its handbook of diagnoses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fourteen years in the making, the D.S.M.-5 has been the subject of seemingly endless discussion.

But many critics overlook a surprising fact about the new D.S.M.: how little attention practicing psychiatrists will give to it.

This is because psychiatrists tend to treat according to symptoms.

So why the fuss over D.S.M.-5? Because of the unwarranted clout that its diagnoses carry with the rest of society: They are the passports to insurance coverage, the keys to special educational and behavioral services in school and the tickets to disability benefits.

Entire NYT editorial here.

May 16, 2013 | 12 comments | by

Are Doctors Too Optimistic?

Doctors were up front about their patients’ estimated survival 37 percent of the time; refused to give any estimate 23 percent of the time; and told patients something else 40 percent of the time. Around 70 percent of the discrepant estimates were overly optimistic.

This optimism is far from harmless. It drives doctors to endorse treatments that most likely won’t save patients’ lives, but may cause them unnecessary suffering and inch their families toward medical bankruptcy.

Source: The New York Times.

May 09, 2013 | 12 comments | by

Why Doctors Hate Electronic Medical Records

Unsent letter to the Tech Department:

So today I’m doing anesthesia for colonoscopies and upper GI scopes. Nowadays we have three board-certified anesthesiologists doing anesthesia for GI procedures every single day at my institution. I’ll probably do 8 cases today. I will sign into a computer or electronically sign something 32 times. I have to type my username and password into 3 different systems 24 times. I’m doing essentially the same thing with each case, but each case has to have the same information entered separately. I have to do these things, but my department also pays four full-time masters-level trained nurses to enter patient information and medical histories into the computer system, sometimes transcribed from a different computer system. Ironically, I will also generate about 50 pages of paper, since the computer record has to be printed out. Twice.

No wonder almost everyone I know hates electronic medical records! I don’t know anything about computers, and I don’t know what systems other hospitals have. I may be dreaming of a world that doesn’t exist or that world is here and I haven’t heard about it.

HT: Jason Shafrin.

May 07, 2013 | 11 comments | by

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

The federal government will spend at least $890,000 this year on service fees for bank accounts that hold no money.

If these are the same products that people buy and use at home, why are states outlawing teeth-whitening services unless done by a licensed dentists?

Why doctors are sued: Errors in diagnosis.

May 02, 2013 | 13 comments | by

MLR Results in Increased Profits, and Other Links

Insurers could actually profit from the medical loss ratio rules.

Reihan Salam on Goodman. (Spot on.)

Megan McArdle on Bush v. Gore. (Fascinating.)

Doctors are nicer to thinner patients.

May 01, 2013 | 10 comments | by

One More Reason Why We Are Going to Have Physician Shortage

Here’s something by Jeff Goldsmith that I missed a few weeks ago:

We will be replacing a generation of workaholic, 70-hour-a-week baby boom physicians with Gen Y physicians with a revealed preference for 35-hour work weeks. During this same period, we’ll be adding 1.5-1.7 million net new Medicare beneficiaries a year and enfranchising perhaps 25 million newly insured folks through health reform. “Train wreck” is the right descriptor of the emerging primary care supply situation.

What about doubling physicians’ patient panels to more than 5,000?

I’ve visited real-world group practices organized this way. They reminded me of nothing so much as “I Love Lucy’s” famous chocolate factory assembly line. It was exhausting simply watching the physicians sprint through their days. You wanted to install oxygen carrels for them to catch their breath. Gen Y docs aren’t going to practice 28-slot days, with intensive “break times” to answer their emails and make phone calls. Neither are Gen Y nurse practitioners.

Apr 26, 2013 | 11 comments | by
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