Some of the worst features of ACA—the individual mandate penalty and Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB)—are being relegated to the trash heap of policy failures and states are working to open escape hatches to alternatives outside of DC’s reach. We celebrate these needed changes; however, additional reform is vitally needed to expand patients’ options for access […]
Now that the ACA individual mandate penalty is about to be relegated to the trash heap of policy failures, additional reform is vitally needed to expand patients’ options for access to high-quality, lower-cost medical care. Opportunity knocks for taking the next step: in the coming days and weeks Congress will be considering and passing year-end spending and extender […]
Medicine is at a “critical inflection point,” write Victor Dzau and J. Michael McGinnis of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and Mark McClellan of Duke University (JAMA 8/16/16). The NAM is launching a massive initiative on “Vital Directions for Health Care” at a Sep 26 meeting in Washington, D.C., (http://tinyurl.com/z4shr2b), bringing together more than 100 “trusted health and health care leaders” to “ensure nonpartisan, evidence-based analysis” in the context of the upcoming change in administration.
The latest fad, a “free” smartphone app called Pokémon GO, has reportedly exceeded even Twitter and pornography in popularity. One hospital has banned it for employees because they were glued to their screens instead of interacting with patients.
According to the dictionary or common usage, to discriminate means to make a distinction, say between right and wrong, or good quality and poor quality. Virtually every decision we make when faced with more than one option involves discrimination.
I’m writing to encourage you to add your name, alongside mine, to a crucial petition opposing the creation of new and unnecessary subspecialty certifications in Mohs surgery and dermatologic oncology. Patients’ access to life-saving medical care will decrease if this plan to benefit a few special interests is adopted. It must be stopped!
Selected Action Alerts on Interstate Medical Licensure Compact: 2/22/2016: UPDATE: Stop AZ Compact Bill – HB 2502 – http://eepurl.com/bRsyl5 2/16/2016: ACTION ALERT: Stop AZ Compact Bill – HB 2502 – http://eepurl.com/bQDyuL 11/3/2015: Help Stop MOC Trojan Horse, the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact – http://eepurl.com/bEvTXv 11/4/2015: Action Alert: WI Senate HHS to vote on Compact Thursday – […]
Volume 71, no. 9 September 2015 One author admits that he is “not shocked” by videos showing officials of Planned Parenthood speaking callously about the harvesting of fetal organs. “The fact that money is exchanged, and the question of whether this constitutes a ‘market,’ do not particularly matter to me,” writes Robert Oscar Lopez. “Well-educated […]
Volume 71, no. 7 Medicare, Title 18 of the Social Security Act, was signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on July 30, 1965. A fundamental transformation of American medicine began. So did the consequences that AAPS predicted from the outset: accelerating costs and government controls. “The Medicare system has been a major catalyst […]
This week’s health policy news roundup curated by Jane Orient, M.D. It was already apparent in 2014 that the Affordable Care Act forces people to buy catastrophic policies at first-dollar coverage prices. Less well known is that although the ACA requires health plans to spend 80% – 85% of premiums on medical care, corporate data […]