Medical Mistakes…and My Minute With Andy Rooney
Andy Rooney died of complications from “minor surgery.” What do you think he’d have to say about that?
Obamacare Hater, Lover Harmonize on “Clinical Nuance”
The phrase “clinical nuance” conjures images of a surgeon who spends his spare time restoring antique Swiss watches, but it’s a term some Obamacare haters and lovers alike are uniting around as a desired change to the traditional Medicare benefit. The less-sexy description is “value-based insurance design.”
Obamacare Hater, Lover Harmonize on “Clinical Nuance”
The phrase “clinical nuance” conjures images of a surgeon who spends his spare time restoring antique Swiss watches, but it’s a term some Obamacare haters and lovers alike are uniting around as a desired change to the traditional Medicare benefit. The less-sexy description is “value-based insurance design.”
The Money, the MD and a $12 Million Patient Safety Scandal
Dr. Charles Denham rattles off names like the Clinton Global Health Initiative, the Discovery Channel, the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School when discussing those he’s worked with. Now, the Justice Department has named him as taking a nearly $12 m…
It’s Paternity Test Time for Newt, Mitt & Obamacare
It’s paternity test time for Obamacare. Beneath the bogeyman label that the GOP leadership has attached to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the truth is that health reform has almost as many Republican as Democratic fathers. If you care about the country as much as political hand-to-hand combat, that […]
The Man Who Brought Computers Into Medicine
When Homer Warner first started using computers in a hospital, the computers were analog and the house call was state-of-the-art. Warner, who died recently at age 90, did more than anyone else to translate research into innovations that continue to hav…
Medicare’s ACO Regs Recall MAD’s Squamish Rulebook
After sitting through a 90-minute webinar by a Washington law firm on Medicare’s new draft regulations for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), I realized why they sounded familiar. In their complexity and utter failure to accomplish their purpose – give doctors and hospitals a clear financial incentive to reorganize care delivery […]
Burying a Life in My Mother’s Obit
When my mother died back in 1993, the best way to alert the community was to get the local newspaper to run a news item people would see when they scanned the morning headlines. Unfortunately, our hometown paper was The Washington Post. The Post obitua…
The Money, the MD and a $12 Million Patient Safety Scandal
Dr. Charles Denham rattles off names like the Clinton Global Health Initiative, the Discovery Channel, the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School when discussing those he’s worked with. Now, the Justice Department has named him as taking a nearly $12 m…
In a Footnote, GOP Gives Up Total Obamacare Repeal
Buried in a footnote to the recently unveiled GOP alternative to Obamacare is the admission that Republicans are not going to try to repeal the parts of the law related to Medicare reform. Oddly, neither press nor pundits seem to have bothered to ask w…