Month: April 2015

The Journey Toward No Medicine At All

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You gotta hand it to our Health Department. They are laser focused on this one. They want 85% of payments made to doctors by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to be linked to clinical quality measures within the next two years.

Moreover, I suspect the Health Department is still giddy from Congress passing a new healthcare bill earlier this month. The legislation implements a number of controversial things for a nation built on the premise of freedom, but one of these is to push medical providers into unproven “alternative payment organizations” in order to move away from what has become known as fee-for-service.

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Taking Back Medicine

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I’m taking back Medicine.

If you didn’t know it left or that someone stole it, I’ll give you a pass. Medicine has been disguised for a long time now. And, when you leave the scene in camouflage, you often go unnoticed.

Medicine is supposed to be the science or practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease. I love medicine. There’s so much to learn. Lots of complexities and so many people to help. Medicine gives me an avenue to serve, because if we don’t have our health, what do we have? Illness. And, none of us want that.

I’ve trained to be a physician. I’ve learned lots of things that can help you with sickness. But, in order to do this, THEY have to let me practice. And, yes, THEY are the people who have taken Medicine.

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Response to ACC President on ABIM MOC and SGR Legislation

Dr. Kim Allan Williams, Sr., MD, FACC, is President of The American College of Cardiology (ACC). My comments below are in response to his “An Important Message From the ACC President on ABIM MOC and SGR Legislation,” which was posted April 10, 2015 at ACC in Touch Blog.

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The Real Story of Value over Volume in Medicine

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This is important to you. Trust me.

If you’re young at heart, it matters because it’s your tax dollars this April. If you’re wiser in years, it directly affects your health and the system you’ve been pumping money into for decades. This is the same medical system that you thought would take care of you later in life. Again, this is about your money and your health, so read on.

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The American Way of Pseudo Health Insurance

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You’re 56 years old. You’re one of the 30 million people (give or take a bunch) that you hear have received health insurance in this country as a result of the Affordable Care Act. You are a positive number in the New York Times headlines the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have been wanting you to read. And, this is how it’s working out for you.

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