The Patient Navigator program (mentioned earlier today) sounds like a good idea, but like many such an idea when government funding is involved, it appears that holding meetings and publishing research on those meetings will account for too much of the expenditure. This article mentions $25 Million, but that’s over 5 years: Despite the disagreement … Continue reading
The “Texas Insider” email newsletter gives us a “scoop” about funding for the Patient Navigator, Navigators are specially trained individuals who answer patients’ questions and allay their fears about diagnosis, treatment and insurance coverage. The program is modeled after successful initiatives such as the Harlem Navigator Program in New York City and the Washington Hospital … Continue reading
One more reason I do not want government-only healthcare. According to the “Medicare Learning News,” (a pdf document) no payments will be made to Medicare “providers” (doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and the intermediate insurance companies with which the government contracts to “manage” Medicare) for the last 9 days of the fiscal year, September 22 to September … Continue reading
From a fellow family physician, more reasons to avoid expanding centralized, government insurance: The Joke’s On Us as ALWAYS! Remember that 4.4% Fee Schedule Reduction we had to start the year from Medicare? Remember we were given that back through all the efforts of the AMA and AAFP? Forget about the fact that the fee … Continue reading
And run off all the business left in the State. More on that insurance scam plan from Massachusetts, this time from the USAToday coverage: The plan hinges in part on two key sections: the $295-per-employee business assessment and a so-called “individual mandate,” requiring every citizen who can afford it to obtain health insurance or face … Continue reading
I wish I could applaud the Massachusetts initiative to require everyone to have health insurance. I haven’t seen much to recommend the government as a responsible regulator of insurance or healthcare. Healthcare too easily becomes an entitlement that can be used in the way that circuses and bread were in old Rome: If you play … Continue reading
Over at FreeRepublic, they’re discussing this week’s New York Times guest editorial, “The Doctor Will See You for Seven Minutes,” by Peter Salgo, MD. I highly recommend that your read the op-ed at the NYT in full, and then the thread at FR. 3 years ago, I closed my office and went to work part … Continue reading
Today’s Science Magazine reports on the implications of patent law on embryonic stem cell research. (Sorry, subscription only, excerpts below.) Somehow, there has not been much notice that the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) was awarded the patent to human embryonic stem cells in 2001. “On 9 August 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush directed … Continue reading
>Well, by all means, don’t worry their pretty little heads about it. The patronizing pro-abortion faction of the Indiana Senate is blocking the addition of informed consent concerning the potential of pain felt by unborn children who are being killed. Because we don’t know. And because it might shock someone. And, besides, it’s so rare. … Continue reading
A group of very well respected scientists, philosophers and ethicists (all involved in bioethics and stem cell research) have joined together to discuss and draft what they call a “consensus” on stem cell research, both destructive embryonic stem cell research and non-destructive, ethical non-embryonic stem cell research. The document can be accessed at the Berman … Continue reading