I Was Wrong
BY KIM BELLARD
The New York Times had an interesting set of op-eds last week under the theme “I Was Wrong.” For example, Paul Krugman says he was wrong about inflation, David Brooks laments being wrong about capitalism, and Bret Stevens now fears he was wrong about Trump voters. Nobody fessed up about being wrong about healthcare, so I’ll volunteer.
I’ve been writing regularly about healthcare for over a decade now, with some strong opinions and often with some pretty speculative ideas. I’ve had a lot to be wrong about, and I hope I will be wrong about many of them (e.g., microplastics). ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 26, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Public Health Martin Shkreli New York Times Pandemic Source Type: blogs
Turning PBM " Arbitrage " On Its Head: Bypassing Insurance to Save
The word of the day is " arbitrage " . Officially, Merriam-Webster defines the English language word " arbitrage " this way: " The nearly simultaneous purchase and sale of securities or foreign exchange in different markets in order to profit from price discrepancies " . However, arbitrage does not exclusively apply to securities sold on Wall Street. The term has also been adopted by the Pharmacy Benefit Manager ( " PBM " ) industry. But PBM ' s are not Wall Street investment banks. And that ' s something we all need to realize.The PBM Accountability Project 2021 report " Understanding the Evolving Business Model...
Source: Scott's Web Log - July 25, 2022 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2022 arbitrage coupon-generating websites apps coupons Medicare PBM Source Type: blogs
Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 25 July, 2022.
Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.General Comment-----Quite a lot going on this week and we have had a pretty busy comment flow on the blog. Interesting how comment streams evolve!The telehealth debate continues and the Government is yet to notice what a ‘steaming pile of poo’the #myHR is!-----https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/australia-launches-digital-cancer-hub-childre...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - July 25, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Be Careful What You Wish For
BY KIM BELLARD
I read the Stat News investigative piece “Health care’s high rollers,” by Bob Herman and colleagues, with interest but not much surprise. I mean, is anyone surprised anymore that healthcare CEOs often make a lot of money, and didn’t let a crisis like the pandemic dampen that? As Kaiser Family Foundation’s CEO Drew Altman told them, “Health care has become big business. We have a lot of people making a lot of money in health care, and we still have an affordability crisis in health care.”
I periodically see Twitter threads lamenting how little of that healthcare spending actually goes ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 19, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy 2022 Medscape Physician Compensation Report Kaiser Family Foundation Licensed Physicians Source Type: blogs
Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 18 July, 2022.
Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.General Comment-----Aged Care had a good run this week with lots of discussion on just how useful it could be and where the priorities lay. Some fools were wittering on about how helpful the #myHR can be in this setting!Telehealth went and came back!The James Webb Telescope humbled us all with images for an age!-----https://itwire.com/science-news/he...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - July 18, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Biopsychological pain management is not enough
I recently read a preprint of an editorial for Pain, the IASP journal. It was written by Prof Michael Nicholas, and the title reads “The biopsychosocial model of pain 40 years on: time for a reappraisal?” The paper outlines when and how pain became conceptualised within a biopsychosocial framework by the pioneers of interprofessional pain management: John Loeser (1982) and Gordon Waddell (1984). Nicholas points out the arguments against a biopsychosocial model with some people considering that despite it being a “holistic” framework, it often gets applied in a biomedical and psychological way. In ot...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 17, 2022 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Back pain Chronic pain Coping strategies Interdisciplinary teams Low back pain Motivation Occupational therapy Physiotherapy Psychology Science in practice Therapeutic approaches biopsychosocial pain management Research Source Type: blogs
The Macro View – Health, Economics, and Politics and the Big Picture. What I Am Watching Here And Abroad.
July 14, 2022 Edition-----The biggest news this week was the assassination of the ex-PM of Japan – Shinzo Abe – who was a good friend to OZ incidentally.In the US we have had a wind-up to a busy summit season – NATO etc – and the ongoing war in Ukraine which is becoming a deepening, protracted and horrible situation which it seems hard to resolve sadly.In the UK Boris is out but not gone and the battle for the succession is off and rolling.In OZ we have Albo back and we need to work out what to mitigate these various natural disasters and actually get on with it!!!! The response has been pathetic so far I reckon!--...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - July 14, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Combating Abortion Misinformation in the Post-Roe Environment
Misinformation could become a major barrier to individuals trying to navigate their way to safe, legal, and quality reproductive care. What might states, health insurers, and technology companies do to address this issue? (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - July 6, 2022 Category: Health Management Authors: Julia Rollison Source Type: blogs
Cash is Queen Says RCM Experts
Revenue provides stability and flexibility to healthcare organizations. Both are extremely valuable as patient volumes remain below pre-pandemic levels. The healthcare staffing crisis is also putting severe margin pressure on organizations. To address this challenge, organizations are turning to technology and partnering with specialized vendors to improve their revenue cycle processes.
Healthcare IT Today recently sat down with two experts in revenue cycle management (RCM) to discuss how adopting technology and properly motivating people can make a big difference:
Jess Stover, Senior Vice President of Revenue Cycle Manag...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - June 30, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Colin Hung Tags: Healthcare IT HIM Hospital - Health System Revenue Cycle Management Derek Shaw gamification Healthcare Revenue Healthcare Scene Featured Inovalon Invicta Health Solutions Jess Stover Michael Quinn RCM SimiTree Workflow Automati Source Type: blogs
Getting Sick and Going Broke – CVS, Credit Cards, and Crippling Medical Debt
BY MIKE MAGEE
The Medical-Industrial Complex is swarming with grifters. This is to be expected when you build a purposefully complex system designed to advance profitability for small and large players alike. The $4T operation payrolling 1 in 5 American workers is, in large part, a hidden economy, one built by professional tricksters, designed by Fortune 100 firms with mountains of lobbyists, but reinforced as well by friendly doctors and hospitals engaged in petty and small scale swindling who justify their predatory actions as entrepreneurial, innovative, and purposeful means of necessary financial survival.
Wh...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 27, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy CVS Medical Industrial Complex PBMs Source Type: blogs
Doctors are not the bad guys
An excerpt from Cutthroat: A Surgeon’s Fight against Big Government, Corrupt Businessmen, and a Broken Healthcare System. The media, the business world, insurance companies, and even the government have done an amazing job of portraying doctors as the culprits for the exorbitant costs of health care. They’ve been able to make the public believe thatRead more …Doctors are not the bad guys originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 20, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/steven-j-cyr" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Steven J. Cyr, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Orthopedics Source Type: blogs
10 steps to create your direct specialty care clinic
Three years ago, I was a physician in the“traditional” medical system seeing 25 to 28 patients every day. I spent hours writing notes to provide proper documentation for the correct billing code. Often, my time was spent calling insurance companies to justify the appropriateness of my medical care. More and more hours were spentRead more …10 steps to create your direct specialty care clinic originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 17, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/diana-girnita" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Diana M. Girnita, MD, PhD < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Rheumatology Source Type: blogs
Help me solve this puzzle
The IASP definition of pain is:
An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.
Six key notes and etymology:
Pain is always a personal experience that is influenced to varying degrees by biological, psychological, and social factors.Pain and nociception are different phenomena. Pain cannot be inferred solely from activity in sensory neurons.Through their life experiences, individuals learn the concept of pain.A person’s report of an experience as pain should be respected.Although pain usually serves an adaptive role, it may ...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - June 12, 2022 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Clinical reasoning Pain conditions Research healthcare Source Type: blogs
GAO Report Neglects to Mention the Cruelty of Limiting Short ‐Term Plans
Michael F. CannonThe Government Accountability Office has published report examining " short-term, limited duration " health insurance (STLDI). (That ' s what federal law calls such health plans. A better moniker would be "renewable term health insurance. " )Congress exempts STLDI plans from all federal health insurance regulations. As a result, premiums are often 90 percent lower than ObamaCare premiums and ObamaCare ' s preexisting-conditions provisions aren ' tconstantly making coverage worse for the sick in STLDI plans.In 2016, the Obama administration arbitrarily limited the duration of STLDI plans to 3 months. In 201...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 2, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Michael F. Cannon Source Type: blogs
