“So what do you think about the election?” “So What do you think about Obamacare?” “What do you think about this healthcare situation?” I get these questions throughout my day. My patients are mostly suburban and white, so their view is overall on the conservative side. Yet I have found that few see the results [...]
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The top vote-getting answer on my poll about what people feel about the election: Different lunatics, same asylum. We are getting jaded by our system. Being the “flaming moderate” that I am, I find it hard to hear the substance of the rhetoric on either side, just the shrillness and rancor of the voices. From [...]
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I’ve been tired lately. I’ve been gaining weight and feeling unmotivated as well. I thought that maybe it was because I wasn’t sleeping enough and was eating too many donuts. Then my life changed. I saw a commercial that talked about “Low T” being associated with ALL OF MY SYMPTOMS!!! It seems obvious that my [...]
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I used to defend pharmaceutical companies. ”What companies out there have contributed more good? Should care manufacturers make more when all they do is make transportation that breaks after a few years?” It made sense to me that you should put a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so that companies are [...]
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“It will never happen.” “They know better than to do it.” “They realize the disaster it would be if they let it pass.” That’s what I hear. I hear that the upcoming SGR adjustment, the one that will cut Medicare reimbursement by 23%, won’t go through. In case you missed it, the SGR is a [...]
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The “empowered patient” movement (which I think is a good thing) strives to take the doctor out of the center of care and put the patient at its focus. The role of doctor is not to be the star of the show, the quarterback, the superhero, but the advocate and helper for the patient to [...]
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Dear American Academy of Pediatrics: I think there is a mistake. Kids started coming into the office recently with forms for sports physicals, and the form is different. See Below: Someone added stuff to the form! Not only do we have to continue the inexplicable obsession with the hernia check (for maximum humiliation of boys, [...]
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Chicken – noun – A game in which the first person to lose nerve and withdraw from a dangerous situation is the loser. This definition is wrong. As of June 18, 2010, the definition is as follows: Chicken – noun – A game in which members of congress put Americans in a dangerous situation, with the healthcare system being the loser. In my lament about losing [...]
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I love being a doctor. I like my patients (most of them), and have had a pretty good career. One of the things I say to my older patients is that I want to keep them well enough so I can see them at my retirement party. I just turned 48, so that would be [...]
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It’s just plain stupid. Why does the government not allow patients with Medicare part D to use pharmaceutical discount cards? What is the ethical rule broken by making the government pay less? What is the legal reason that the elderly should be prevented from saving money? I know there are probably reasons having to do [...]
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