Month: May 2017

Universal Coverage Means Less Care and More Money

May 17, 2017• 15

By JANE ORIENT, MD

The reported success of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or ObamaCare) is based on enrollment numbers. Millions more have “coverage.” Similarly, the predicted disasters from repeal have to do with loss of coverage. Tens of thousands of deaths will allegedly follow. Activists urge shipping repeal victims’ ashes to Congress—possibly illegal and certainly disrespectful of the loved one’s remains, which will end up in a trash dump.

Where are the statistics about the number of heart operations done on babies born with birth defects, the latest poster children? How about the number of babies saved by this surgery, and the number allowed to die without an attempt at surgery—before and after ACA? I haven’t seen them. Note that an insurance plan doesn’t do the operation. A doctor does. The insurer can, however, try to block it.

Lessons From the 100 Nation Ransomware Attack

May 14, 2017• 8

By ROSS KOPPEL and HAROLD THIMBLEBY

The world is reeling from the massive ransomware attack on at least a hundred nations’ computer systems. The unprecedented malware spasm infected hundreds of thousands of computers, and would have infected millions more but for a 22-year old computer science student who found a vulnerability in the malware that he used to curtail the infection. He found it looked for a non-existent URL, so he a set up that URL and found he could stop it spreading. Of course, now the hackers know that, it is an easy matter to update the malware to use other URLs and other techniques. Clearly, this iconic malware attack is not going to be the last.

The Mysterious Case of the HHS Secretary, the Reporter and the Pre-Existing Condition

May 12, 2017• 6

By JIM PURCELL

Did you realize that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) recently passed by the Congressional Republican majority will allow insurers to deny coverage for mental illness? Did you realize that the AHCA permits insurers to charge women more than men because they get pregnant? That the AHCA will allow insurers to terminate a family’s coverage if they incur claims that exceed their annual premium for three straight years? That at the urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a group of Republican lawmakers in the Senate has proposed language that would make medical marijuana a pre-existing condition? And that the same group of lawmakers is mulling a requirement that would grant immigration officials sweeping new powers to review records of patients suspected of committing crimes or posing as a loosely-defined “threat to community health.”

New Checks and Balances For Big Pharma

May 12, 2017• 3

By ROBERT PEARL, MD

“Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered,” the saying goes. And so may it prove to be true for the pharmaceutical industry.

Three articles, all published recently, illustrate the greed and egregious pricing by certain drug companies that are gaining public recognition and scrutiny.

Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC serves as a case in point. Over the last 15 years, its chairman and CEO Jeffrey Aronin generated a billion-dollar valuation for the company. As reported in a Wall Street Journal article, “Drug Price Revolt Prods a Pioneer to Cash Out,” he achieved this milestone not by inventing new drugs but, rather, by buying the rights to old ones, then raising the prices excessively with disregard for patients’ ability to pay.

As an example, Marathon invested $370,000 to obtain the license for the data on “deflazacort,” a steroid available for about $1,200 a year in the United Kingdom. This medication is prescribed to treat muscular dystrophy, a condition that predominantly affects young boys. The company then secured FDA approval, renamed the drug “Emflaza,” and sold it to patients in the U.S. for $89,000 a year. Through the approach it used, Marathon invested only minimal dollars, avoided having to complete late-stage clinical trials, and was never required to compare its efficacy against other, relatively inexpensive generic alternatives.

Design for Health Award Submission EXTENDED! Submit by Friday, May 19th at 11:59PM EST.

May 12, 2017• 1

By JILL MERRIGAN

We know improving health through design doesn’t happen overnight, so we decided to extend the submission date for the HxRefactored Design For Health Awards to Friday, May 19th at 11:59PM EST. Now you have one extra week to show us your best service design, digital product, website, process improvement, health communication, data visualization, physical environment, or mind-blowing new thing. Whichever way you’re improving the experience of health, we want to see it.

Would the World End if We Eliminated the Deductible?

May 10, 2017• 5

BY CARL FRANZEN

While Congress ponders a true fix for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), consider this about health coverage.

Problem #1, Can’t Use It: Healthy people, or people who don’t make a lot of money, sign up for the cheapest health insurance policy available. It gives them catastrophic coverage, protecting their family and home in the event of a big-time medical condition. But it also makes them mad. They pay a monthly fee for health insurance they can’t use until a large deductible is satisfied. For example, a person might pay $300 a month but have a $7,000 deductible. Do the math. That’s well over $10,000 before that person gets to use what they are paying for every month.

Problem #2, January Comes Too soon: Health is not an annual event. Maybe you go all year and suddenly need a bunch of medical help in December. The deductible hasn’t been reached so you pay the bill “out of pocket.” Nasty, because in January you still need medical care for the same thing, yet the deductible goes back to square one. Not nice. This makes more people mad. Solution for Problem #1 and Problem #2: eliminate all annual deductibles and replace with co-pays.

Problem #3, We Need To Build a Wall: Even by eliminating deductibles there are people who are required to pay more than they can afford. Fixing or replacing the ACA needs to build a wall of protection that limits the total amount—a percentage of income—paid by individuals or families in a calendar year—a guarantee that includes the cost of prescription drugs.

Imagining a Doctor Shortage

May 10, 2017

By HANS DUEVEFELT, MD

Now, I’m just a country doctor, but I have to say I find it very hard to understand why folks in this country on one hand keep talking about a doctor shortage in primary care and on the other hand keep piling sillywork on those of us who are still here. The net effect is that the doctor shortage is going to be a whole lot worse than it has to be.

But it may just be a relative or imaginary shortage because of how this country defines the duties of doctors.

Public Health agendas have infiltrated health care to a degree that threatens to paralyze it. Physicians are increasingly told their primary concern should be their “population” and not their individual patients. We are charged with preventing disease rather than treat it.

But…

Public Health clinics regularly provide travelers with necessary immunizations. Pharmacists are now giving pneumonia and shingles shots on prescription and flu shots without. States are mandating immunizations for children, and penalizing physician practices with low immunization rates. There are whole departments within every level of Government trying to get people tho behave in healthier ways.

Why should we take the heat for something you don’t need a medical license to do?

How Is This Medical Bill Possible?

May 10, 2017• 3

By RICHARD WAGEMAN, MD

Two recent hospital admissions and the medical record dictation records events, visits, and documentation of physical examinations that did not occur.

Hospital stay 1 was for asthmatic bronchitis. Thru the ED I was admitted to a FP, who consulted a Pulmonary doc. The Pulmonary did H & P and all of the treatment and exams during stay, and did a great job.

The FP spent about 2 minutes total during the stay. He did no exam ever, yet billed Medicare for multiple visits, exams and did discharge note, including physical that was never done.

Is this the new way if generating income by false documentation and upcoding?

It’s Time to Truly Share the Chemo Decision With Cancer Patients

May 10, 2017

By MICHAEL MILLENSON

You (or a loved one) has cancer, but the latest round of chemotherapy has unfortunately had only a modest impact. While you’re acutely aware of the “wretchedness of life that becomes worn to the nub by [ chemotherapy’s] adverse effects” you’re also a fighter.

How do you decide whether to continue with chemo?

The answer to that question is both intimately personal and inextricably tied to health policy. Cancer is the leading cause of death among those aged 60 to 79, and it is the second leading cause of death for all Americans. With expenditures on cancer care expected to top $158 billion (in 2010 dollars) by 2020, the financial and emotional stakes are both high.

How do you decide whether to continue with chemo?

Electronic Medical Records 2017: Science Ignored, Opportunity Lost

May 8, 2017• 5

By KENNETH BARTHOLOMEW, MD

My big brother Bill, may he rest in peace, taught me a valuable lesson four decades ago. We were gearing up for an extended Alaskan wilderness trip and were having trouble with a piece of equipment. When we finally rigged up a solution, I said “that was harder than it should have been” and he quipped in his wry monotone delivery, “There are no hard jobs, only the wrong tools.”

That lesson has stuck in my mind all these years because, as simple as it seems, it carries a large truth. It rings of Archimedes when he was speaking about the simple tool known as the lever: “Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth.”

Enter the Electronic Medical or Health Record (EMR or EHR) as it exists in most forms today. As information tools for clinicians, most EMRs have been purchased by administrators who know nothing of patient care or workflow, and most of these EMRs have been reverse engineered from billing and collection systems, because the dollar drives all.