Category: Policy

Medical schools need to produce more clinician-activists to help drive social change

For hundreds of years, health care providers have been on the front lines of social change. Think Margaret Sanger, a nurse who championed women’s rights and started the organization that later became Planned Parenthood, or Max Recamier, one of the phys…

Medical schools need to produce more clinician-activists to help drive social change

For hundreds of years, health care providers have been on the front lines of social change. Think Margaret Sanger, a nurse who championed women’s rights and started the organization that later became Planned Parenthood, or Max Recamier, one of the phys…

Don’t underestimate the appeal of a Trump “health plan”

As the Democratic candidates for president continue to beat up each other on how best to achieve universal coverage (Medicare for all, a public option, closing the ACA’s coverage gaps), health care journalists keep wondering when President Trump will r…

Black market pharmaceuticals target immigrants

The bootleg medications were smuggled across the border and sold to mostly Latino immigrants in public spaces throughout Los Angeles — at swap meets, parks, beauty salons and makeshift stands outside mom-and-pop grocery stores. The drugs were cheap, an…

An important health care safety net is at risk

EMTALA is born The machine beeps alarmingly as it breathes for your child. The various numbers on the monitor are foreign to you, but you know something isn’t right because the nurse briskly walks away from the stretcher to grab the doctor, who then or…

Your bone fracture, my cash flow: the consequences of private equity in health care

A recent article in Modern Healthcare describes how private equity firms are starting to snatch up specialist physician groups that promise rich revenues, such as orthopedists, dermatologists, and ophthalmologists. Naturally, this is about adding value…

Let’s end surprise billing without a Trojan Horse

With August recess at a close, Congress has yet to find a solution to end balance (or “surprise”) billing, where patients are charged the remainder of their medical bill for out-of-network (OON) expenses not reimbursed by their health plan….

Should the government regulate hearing aids as consumer electronic products?

As a pharmacy technician, I watched countless individuals speak with a pharmacist about how different drug therapies work, and what they should know before taking any pharmaceuticals. But I also have a hearing loss, and as a patient myself, I am struck…

Clearing up the confusion surrounding Medicare for all

The Democratic debates this summer demonstrated massive confusion around Medicare for all. Does it mean Medicare for all who want it? Medicare Advantage? A “public option” on an Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange? Democrats need to get thei…

The infiltration of venture capital and private equity in the surprise medical bills debate

As proposals to ban surprise medical bills move through Congress and state legislatures with rare bipartisan support, physician groups have emerged as the loudest opponents. Often led by doctors with the veneer of noble concern for patients, physician-…