Doctors and Politics
When I was a young pediatrician I took for granted that doctors could and should “stay above the fray” when it came to most things you read about in the newspaper – things like politics , economics, the environment. As medicine and healthcare have grown increasingly complex doctors no longer have a free pass to … Continue reading
Medical Advice: Republicans Should Take It
The upcoming election will have long lasting effects on U.S. healthcare, and by extension, on our economy. What should matter the most to us is not what Republicans or Democrats think about the Affordable Care Act, but what doctors and nurses and other healthcare experts have to say. As I discussed in an article for the Huffington … Continue reading
Re: The scope of the standard of care in medicine has changed
commentary on the role of medical malpractice suits in improving healthcare.
A doctor’s view of the contraception controversy
Your doctor’s exam room is getting overcrowded. Modern US health care means that, like it or not, you and your physician are sharing that once private space with an insurance executive constantly hissing in your doctor’s ears to move it along. You are also sharing it with pharmaceutical marketers, lobbyists from the food industry….. special … Continue reading
Modern Pediatrics Needs Healthcare to Evolve
Why can’t the United States have a smarter health care system? That was the frustrating question that kept poking through my train of thought as I read a study from the most recent issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The study, out of UCLA, examined the association between … Continue reading
Raising Awareness of Corporate Influence on Healthcare
Nestled in the emerging Affordable Care Act is a groundbreaking provision that will require pharmaceutical companies and other medical industries to report all direct payments or gifts over $10 that are made to physicians. It’s called the Sunshine Provision, and will take effect in January of 2012. Physicians have always had a complex relationship with … Continue reading
Medicaid Cuts: A Misguided Journey Back to the Future
See the original article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-kozel-md/medicaid-cuts-_b_898065.html I spent my formative years as a pediatrician in the US Navy, and so it happened that I was a seasoned pediatrician of nearly ten years before I had my first experience with Medicaid. I left the Navy for civilian practice in 1990. Moving from the military system of … Continue reading
Why Medicaid Cuts Hurt Us All
I usually write about healthcare reform from a pediatrician’s viewpoint, but what grabbed my attention recently was a story my husband, Randy, told me about an adult in his practice – a patient on Medicaid. Randy is a neurologist in a private practice, and Medicaid patients come from every corner of Rhode Island to see … Continue reading
Rethinking Healthcare Spending
Recent attempts to fundamentally alter Medicare, and the public outcry that followed, provide a working template for how to view broader health care reform. Everyone agrees that our healthcare system – and Medicare in particular – is financially unsustainable. Any step we take to address this requires a choice to either cut services or be … Continue reading
Healthcare Reform: Doctors Shaping the Narrative
With the roll out of the Affordable Care Act and perhaps more significantly the approach of the 2012 elections, public discussions of healthcare reform has been drowning in an alphabet soup of ACOs (not to be confused with the above ACA), CMS, SCHIP, and RUVs, just to name a few. The challenge is twofold. Most … Continue reading
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