Hospitals and health plans are government-protected and favored businesses, and as Americans increasingly suffer from high costs and other problems, the effects of government intervention are under scrutiny, writes Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D, in the summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Government intervention in medicine has led to higher costs, shortages, […]
In repealing the automatic Medicare physician fee cuts called the SGR (Sustained Growth Rate), Congress replaced it with something worse, in the opinion of ophthalmologist Kristin Held. M.D., in the summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) set up the Merit-based Incentive […]
The U.S. is said to be suffering from a crisis in deaths from opioid overdoses, prompting legislative and other efforts to clamp down on physician prescribing of these drugs. However, this effort is likely misdirected, and targeting legal prescriptions is thus unlikely to reduce overdose deaths, according to a careful review of official government data by […]
Tucson, Ariz. Women’s response to the experience of abortion involves many complex factors, writes Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D., Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, and coworkers in the winter issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. While a number of risk factors for post-abortion […]
Tucson, Ariz. About half of American physicians are experiencing burnout, writes Michael J. A. Robb, M.D., of Phoenix, Arizona, the immediate past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), in the winter issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Symptoms include overwhelming exhaustion, cynicism and detachment from the job, and […]
About 27 percent of Americans die of heart disease, and the first sign may be sudden death. A revolutionary study in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons shows that about 90 percent of patients who experienced a cardiac event had a specific pattern present in a urine specimen contributed to a sample bank […]
Contrary to decades of medical teaching that the brain and nervous system, once injured, cannot heal, the nervous system has significant capacity for repair and regeneration, write Timothy Marshall, Ph.D., and Carol Henricks, M.D., in the summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. About 2 million Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury […]
The American news media is telling the public that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America, based on a misleading article in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), states AAPS. But the article has such serious flaws that it should never have been published, according to an article by Gerard […]
To great applause from the American Medical Association (AMA), Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), almost unanimously. It was hailed as the repeal of the notorious Clinton-Gingrich sustained growth rate (SGR) formula, which threatened large pay cuts for Medicare physicians every year. It was actually a “repeal and replace” […]
The medical record has become a tool for oversight and research, without requiring consent, overriding patients’ rights to privacy, writes Susan Israel, M.D., in the winter issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Data compiled from electronic medical records and insurance claims will be used to create treatment “guidelines” that will define value-based […]