I Love Explaining Medical Things
BY HANS DUVEFELT
A lot of people don’t know much about how the body works. One of my jobs as a physician is to explain how things work in order to empower my patient to choose how to deal with it when the body isn’t working right.
On my blog I have written about this many times, for example in the 2010 post GUY TALK:
Guy Talk
One of the first challenges I faced as a foreign doctor from an urban background practicing in a small town in this country was finding the right way to explain medical issues to my male patients. They were farmers and fishermen without much experience with illness, medications or medi...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 2, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Guy Talk Hans Duvefelt Rural medicine Source Type: blogs
Let ’ s Do Public Health Better
BY KIM BELLARD
Eric Reinhart, who describes himself as “a political anthropologist, psychoanalyst, and physician,” has had a busy month. He started with an essay in NEJM about “reconstructive justice,” then an op-ed in The New York Times on how our health care system is demoralizing the physicians who work in it, and then the two that caught my attention: companion pieces in The Nation and Stat News about reforming our public health “system” from a physician-driven one to a true community health one.
He’s preaching to my choir. I wrote almost five years ago: “We need to stop viewing public healt...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 28, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Dr. Reinhart gun violence Kim Bellard Opioid Addiction public health Source Type: blogs
Myocarditis update from Sweden
BY ANISH KOKA
The COVID19/vaccine myocarditis debate continues in large part because our public health institutions are grossly mischaracterizing the risks and benefits of vaccines to young people.
A snapshot of what the establishment says as it relates to the particular area of concern: college vaccine mandates:
Dr. Arthur Reingold, an epidemiology professor at UC-Berkeley, notes that UC also requires immunizations for measles and chickenpox, and people still are dying from COVID at rates that exceed those for influenza. As of Feb. 1, there were more than 400 COVID deaths a day across the U.S.
“The arg...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 27, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Anish Koka covid19 myocarditis Sweden Source Type: blogs
A COVID-19 vaccine exemption letter
BY ANISH KOKA
I recently saw a young man who came to see me because his place of future employment, a large health system was requiring him to complete the 1º series of his COVID-19 vaccination. He was concerned because he had chest pain after his first mRNA vaccine and was uncomfortable with the risks of a second mRNA dose. He attempted to get a Johnson and Johnson vaccine and was told by pharmacists he was not allowed to mix and match this particular vaccine as he had already received an mRNA dose. With no other option, he came to ask me whether I thought a vaccine exemption was reasonable in his case. He already had...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 24, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Anish Koka COVID-19 vaccine exemption vaccines Source Type: blogs
THCB Gang Episode 117, Thursday February 23, 1pm PT 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday February 23 at 1PM PT 4PM ET are futurist Jeff Goldsmith, and delivery & platform expert Vince Kuraitis (@VinceKuraitis);
You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels. (Source: The Health Care Blog)
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 23, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Abdul Ghafar Tags: THCB Gang Jeff Goldsmith Matthew Holt Vince Kuraitis Source Type: blogs
Last in Line: Hospitals Brace for a Chilly 2023
BY JEFF GOLDSMITH
As they emerge from the COVID pandemic, US hospitals have a terrible case of Long COVID. They experienced the worst financial performance in 2022 in this analyst’s 47 year memory. As the nation recovers from the worst inflation in forty years, hospitals will find themselves locked in conflict with health insurers over contract renewals that would reset their rates to the actual delivered cost of care. “Last in line” in the US battle with inflation, hospitals will be exposed to public criticism when they attempt to recover from pandemic-induced financial losses.
Hospital payment rates f...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 23, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy The Business of Health Care Clinician Shortage COVID-19 Inflation Jeff Goldsmith Long Covid National Health Service Source Type: blogs
There Is Something About Trains, Indeed
BY KIM BELLARD
Like many of you, when I heard about the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine (OH) on February 3, my heart went out to the people in that community. The train was carrying some hazardous materials, and no one was quite sure what was vented, especially when officials did a “controlled burn.” Still, though, I didn’t think much about it; although I live in Ohio, I’m about as far away as one can be within the state.
Yesterday my local water company shut off access to water from the Ohio River. “We are taking this preventative step to ensure the health, safety, and confidence ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 21, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Non-Health infrastructure demands Kim Bellard Palestine Trains Source Type: blogs
Matthew ’s health care tidbits: Medicare Advantage is now a provider fracking contest
Each time I send out the THCB Reader, our newsletter that summarizes the best of THCB (Sign up here!) I include a brief tidbits section. Then I had the brainwave to add them to the blog. They’re short and usually not too sweet! –Matthew Holt
Yes it’s time to talk Medicare Advantage (MA). It’s been a huge couple of weeks for the world of MA. On the commercial side, CVS bought the biggest pure play MA provider, Oak Street Health for $10bn. This pissed me off as if they paid $2 a share more I’d have made a profit on the stock I foolishly bought “on a dip” in 2021.
But this amazed many of us on ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 20, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Matthew Holt The Business of Health Care ChenMed CMS CVS Humana Medicare Advantage Oak Street Health UnitedHealth Group Source Type: blogs
All Three Legs of the Obamacare Stool Are Working Well – Part 2
BY GEORGE HALVORSON
2022 Medicare Advantage data gathering process change made last year just made upcoding for plans irrelevant and impossible, but the critics do not accept that it happened.
CMS just ended that upcoding debate for 2022 by completely killing the coding system for the plans, effective immediately. The plans can’t code risk levels up because the coding system was eliminated entirely for 2022.
RAPS is dead.
The payment approach for Medicare Advantage now has no upcoding components and the government just used their new and more accurate numbers to create the 2023 payment level for the pla...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 17, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Affordable Care Act Medicaid Medicare Medicare Advantage Obamacare Source Type: blogs
THCB Gang Episode 116, Thursday February 16
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday February 16 were futurist Ian Morrison (@seccurve); fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey); delivery & platform expert Vince Kuraitis (@VinceKuraitis); and Olympic rower for 2 countries and all around dynamo Jennifer Goldsack, (@GoldsackJen). We really dug into distributed care and who was going to control the emerging virtual first conundrum.
You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels. (Source: The Health Care Blog)
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 16, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Abdul Ghafar Tags: THCB Gang Casey Quinlan Ian Morrison Jennifer Goldsack Matthew Holt Vince Kuraitis Source Type: blogs
Let ’s Finish The Job
BY MIKE MAGEE
In President Biden’s State of the Union Address, the most oft repeated phrase was “Let’s Finish The Job!” This came as part of an appeal for partnership as well as an assertion that in his first two years as President much had been accomplished.
Several days later, as if on cue, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), joint chairs of the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, announced that two bipartisan pieces of legislation focused on reducing the price of drugs to consumers had passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Both bil...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 16, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act Biden Mike Magee state of the union Source Type: blogs
All Three Legs of the Obamacare Stool Are Working Well
BY GEORGE HALVORSON
When the Affordable Care Act was passed, the politics were so intense and the debates were so filled with rhetoric in all directions that most people actually didn’t understand that there were three major component parts to the strategy and program that function very directly as a package, and should be looked at now in the context of several years of implementation to see how each part of that law is currently doing.
Medicaid was our first priority.
The first component part — and the one that had the highest need for passage when the law was passed because we were doing such a horrible job...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 15, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Affordable Care Act George Halvorson Medicaid Medicare Medicare Advantage Source Type: blogs
Give Him a Hand – No, Really
BY KIM BELLARD
When I read The Washington Post article about how a Tennessee high school student’s engineering class built him a prosthetic hand, my immediate reaction, of course, was to be touched, but my bigger reaction was, wait – high school students can now create prosthetics?
If you haven’t been paying attention, the world of prosthetics has been changing in amazing ways, and it’s not done.
The student, Sergio Peralta, was born with his right hand not fully formed, and for much of his life it was a problem. As he wrote in his own account in Newsweek: “When I got bullied at my old scho...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 14, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Tech Kim Bellard LIMBER Prosthetic hands Robot Arms Source Type: blogs
Dear Patient, If You Have to Treat a Cold, Know This:
BY HANS DUVEFELT
Americans hate being sick. There are too many cold medicines out there to remember by name. But there are really only a handful of different drug classes to consider.
In order to choose any one of them, be clear about what you want to accomplish. It’s actually very simple.
1) Make my cold go away faster: Zink, echinacea, visualization/manifesting, sauna, prayer (may be mostly placebo effect ).
2) Stop my nose from running (including post nasal drip): You’ll want the crud to leave your body as soon as possible, so turning off the drain pipe that your nose has become can increase the risk of ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 9, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Cold Hans Duvefelt Medical Education Source Type: blogs
THCB Gang Episode 115, Thursday February 9
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday February 9 at 1PM PT 4PM ET were futurist Ian Morrison (@seccurve); medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee); patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@mlmillenson); and delivery & platform expert Vince Kuraitis (@VinceKuraitis). There was the usual chat and a lot of conversation about the future of Medicare, Medicare Advantage and the CVS acquisition of Oak Street.
You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify c...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 9, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Abdul Ghafar Tags: THCB Gang Ian Morrison Matthew Holt Michael Millenson Mike Magee Vince Kuraitis Source Type: blogs
