Healthcare is one of the biggest issues is the upcoming midterms. Reading websites and listening to speeches gives the impression that all are in favor of high-quality, affordable, accessible healthcare. But would that be the outcome of policies they would vote for? Is a candidate in favor of “Do No Harm (to ObamaCare),” as Michael […]
Medicaid expansion is on the November ballot in a number of states that have sizable rural populations, including Nebraska, Idaho, and Utah, as reported in AMA Morning Rounds for Sept 26. One rationale is that the uninsured rate for low-income adults in rural and small towns in expansion states is lower than in non-expansion states […]
A bipartisan group of senators led by Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is proposing a bill that would impose price controls on independent (“out of network”) physicians, under the guise of preventing outrageous “surprise bills” and medical bankruptcies, states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). It would relieve the insurance industry of its responsibility to […]
More than 200 physicians attended a Direct Primary Care Summit sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the energy in the room was palpable, writes Albert Fisher, M.D., in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Fisher, a family physician in Oshkosh, Wis., is president of the […]
Promoted as simply a way to help the elderly pay their medical bills, Medicare has led to the federal government controlling the practice of medicine, writes Marilyn Singleton, M.D., J.D., in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Federal interference has only served to increase medical costs, herd patients into managed […]
More Democrats are lining up behind “Medicare for All” as the midterm elections approach, but the idea under different names has been proposed repeatedly since 1942, as shown in the timeline outlined in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons by Jeremy Snavely. “The last 75 years have seen exponential growth […]
Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Georgia, and now South Carolina have passed laws intending to limit licensing boards, hospitals and insurers from requiring the MOC program that is promoted by ABMS and its affiliated specialty societies. Seven more states have taken the partial step of prohibiting MOC requirements as a condition of licensure, and seventeen states have […]
Recent polls show that “healthcare is the No. 1 issue for voters,” writes Robert Pearl in Forbes. Their concerns are quite valid, states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS): Costs are too high, most Americans can’t afford them, and they are not getting what they are paying for. However, the fact that 57% […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a Proposed Rule to “blend” payments for higher-level office visits, while decreasing the documentation requirements, as part of its Patients over Paperwork initiative. CMS claims this will save clinicians 51 hours per year—likely a gross underestimate—while critics protest that doctors will get paid the same […]
The Trump Administration is liberalizing the rules to allow more people to have short-term, limited duration health insurance, but the rule is on a “crash course with a brick wall in California,” according to Kaiser Health News. In addition, a lawsuit is being filed in Maryland federal court by the cities of Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati and Columbus, […]