Tag: "doctors"

Unhappy Doctors

According to the survey, only 54% of physicians would choose medicine as a career if they had to make the decision again as opposed to 69% in the previous year. What are the underlying causes of such a precipitous drop in satisfaction? Several of the causes cited can be blamed on federal policies…

Adding to concerns related to reimbursement, physicians continue to pay incredibly expensive malpractice premiums and nearly a quarter of physicians admitted to practicing defensive medicine…

Most doctors enter medicine with the thoughts of healing patients on a daily basis, but paperwork can often come between the doctor and the patient. According to the Medscape survey, 33% of physicians spend 10 or more hours per week on administrative activities. The burden will only keep piling on come 2013 when the Physician Sunshine Act is implemented, adding 237,000 paperwork hours by forcing physicians to reveal the minutiae of their relationships with medical supply manufacturers and distributors.

More on dissatisfied physicians at American Action Forum.

May 24, 2012 | 8 comments | by

Greed

Greedy doctors.

This guy is getting a chemotherapy regimen for colon cancer that we stopped using about 15 years ago. His medical oncologist was practicing the best medicine of the late 1980s, but we were in 2006. The other drugs he was being prescribed were totally unnecessary. But the doctor could get a substantial markup and make a substantial amount of money by selling them.

Greedy patients.

Another patient of mine had early colon cancer. Three doctors had told her she should not get chemotherapy. She decided she wanted it, and she went doctor-shopping until she found a doctor who would give it to her.

Greedy everybody.

I blame patients, I blame doctors, I blame hospitals, I blame drug companies, I blame insurance companies.

Interview about Otis Webb Brawley’s “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick In America” (St. Martin’s Press).

May 24, 2012 | 6 comments | by

EHR SNAFU

In our analysis of a 2011 nationally representative survey of office-based physicians, we found that 91 percent of physicians were eligible for Medicare or Medicaid meaningful-use incentives. About half of all physicians intended to apply. However, only 11 percent both intended to apply for the incentives and had electronic health record systems with the capabilities to support even two-thirds of the stage 1 core objectives required for meaningful use.

Full Health Affairs study on federal incentive programs.

May 11, 2012 | 5 comments | by

Anti-Republican vs. Anti-Obama Ad War, and Other Links

Anti-Republican ad: Paul Ryan pushes elderly lady off a cliff.

Doctors answer with their own ad: Obama pushes elderly lady off a cliff.

Study: bigger hospitals drive costs up.

Michelle Obama caught eating a cheeseburger – again. Food police upset.

There are now 300,000 OTC medicines and ingredients available for sale in the US.

May 11, 2012 | 4 comments | by

More on What Physicians Think and Do

Most doctors don’t talk to their patients about costs.

Reduced testing won’t contain costs.

Most doctors see patients fewer than 40 hours per week.

Most doctors see fewer than 75 patients per week.

Source for all charts: Medscape Physician Compensation Report: 2012 Results.

 

May 09, 2012 | 11 comments | by

What Physicians Think about Health Reform

Source: Medscape Physician Compensation Report: 2012 Results.

 

May 09, 2012 | 5 comments | by

Asking the Wrong Questions

What’s a year of life worth? Here is Aaron Carroll on the subject:

When asked, most oncologists thought that a drug should cost less than $100,000 per year of life gained to be cost-effective. When confronted with a patient (even a hypothetical one), however, they endorsed giving drugs that cost up to $250,000 per additional year of life.

The authors conclude that we should do a better job of helping doctors understand how cost-effectiveness information should be used. I agree with that, but want to add to it. It’s necessary, but not sufficient.

I think society needs to have this discussion. Almost no one has $250,000, or even $100,000, saved up if they need it to extend their life for one year. So when we say we think that’s the reasonable number, we’re asking others to pay for it, either through government programs or private insurance. Is $100,000 a reasonable amount to pay for an additional year of life? Is it too low? Is $250,000 enough?

What’s wrong with this post? Answer below the fold.

May 04, 2012 | 11 comments | by

FDA Has a Good Idea; Doctors Object

The idea: In a move that could help the government trim its burgeoning health care costs, the Food and Drug Administration may soon permit Americans to obtain some drugs used to treat conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes without obtaining a prescription.

The Doctors’ Objection: “What the government via the FDA has decided to do is just bypass the expensive doctor and to satisfy some safety concerns of letting people just pick out their medications is make sure they have to get counsel by the pharmacists,” Dr. Mintz [an internist at George Washington University Hospital] said. “I believe there is value to using pharmacists, but not at the expense of primary care.”

The Pharmacists Counter: “We think it’s a great development for everybody — for pharmacists, for patients and the whole health care system,” said Brian Gallagher, a lobbyist for the American Pharmacists Association. “The way we look at it is there are a lot of people out there with chronic conditions that are undertreated and this would enable the pharmacists to redirect these undertreated people back into the health care system.”

More from Paige Winfield Cunningham in the Washington Times.

May 03, 2012 | 5 comments | by

Concierge Care for the Masses

Family physician Steven Butdorf of Eugene, Ore., was tired of rushing patients through appointments, tired of insurers denying procedures, and tired of paperwork…. [so he]  opened Exceptional Health Care, which lets patients pay a set monthly fee in return for specific health care services — leaving out insurance companies altogether.

Butdorf charges patients between $39 and $79 per month, depending on their age, plus $20 for each office visit. He says he devotes an average of 30 minutes to each appointment, and 60 minutes for an annual physical.

“What I’m doing allows the patient to come to the doctor and pay the doctor without a third party there to set rules and regulations for how we conduct medicine,” Butdorf said.

More on this new approach to improve health care quality in USA Today.

Apr 24, 2012 | 6 comments | by

Why One-Size-Fits-All-Medicine Doesn’t Work

“If we know what those best practices are, then I’m confident that doctors are going to want to engage in best practices. But I’m also confident patients are going to insist on it.… In some cases, people just don’t know what the best practices are.”

– President Barack Obama interview with Diane Sawyer, ABC News, June 2009.

But every patient does not, in fact, react in the same way to expert opinion. Nor does every doctor. More below the fold.

Apr 05, 2012 | 3 comments | by
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