Medical System
Health-care Consolidation Threatens People in Small Communities
By Brian Alexander, The Atlantic. This is the story of a small-town, publicly-owned hospital that, after thriving for decades, is struggling and now in all likelihood about to be appended to a large regional health-care… Read More
Why Independent Doctors Need the Support of Patients
America’s Doctors Are Facing an Epidemic. By Association of Independent Doctors. Every day hospitals are buying up medical practices, turning independent doctors into hospital employees. That trend is not healthy for patients or for doctors. It hurts… Read More
Why Health Care Won’t Be a Free Market
By Unigadon, Commonweal Magazine. We don’t know much about health-care prices or what we are actually paying for, nor do we know much about the quality of what we are trying to choose. A great… Read More
New Health Rankings: Of 11 Nations, U.S. Is Dead Last
From The Commonwealth Fund. According to a recent publication from the Commonwealth Fund, based on a broadly inclusive set of performance metrics, the U.S. health care system performance ranks last among 11 high-income countries. Among the… Read More
Health Care’s Crushing Lack Of Competition Causing Increased Prices and Poor Results
By Martin Gaynor, Farzad Mostashari and Paul Ginsburg for Forbes. No matter how it resolves, the fiercely partisan debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act will not solve America’s true health care crisis. Indeed,… Read More
Hospitals Steal Doctor Referrals to Increase Income, Reduce Competition
Excerpts from Medscape. Where are the referrals going? The growing trend of hospitals hiring their own doctors is causing referrals to independents to dry up. Hospital-employed physicians are often asked to refer patients to in-house… Read More
Supply Won’t Meet Growing Demand for Primary Care
By Kaitlyn Krasselt and Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY. Federally funded programs will add at least 2,300 new primary care practitioners by the end of 2015, but the funding for at least one of those programs is… Read More
Doctors Refusing Obamacare Patients
By Sarah Hurtubise – The Daily Caller. Obamacare plans have shrunk payments to physicians so much that some doctors say they won’t be able to afford to accept Obamacare coverage, NPR reports. Many of the… Read More
Doctors Stressed by Too Many Patients Offer ‘Concierge’ Care
By Marni Jameson, Orlando Sentinel. Five years ago, Dr. Ivan Castro of Winter Park Florida was miserable with the way medicine was going. “I was constantly running behind to see the next patient and had… Read More