Fixing Obamacare and adding a public option is the health care policy territory first staked out by Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden. Writing about Biden’s plan recently on my blog, I said: If the Democrats capture the White House, kee…
Category: KevinMD
We need to bring back the feel-good factor to medicine
Consider a medical trainee, in the second year of her medical training, who has made it a point to always show up early to work no matter the situation. She often times stays beyond the end of her shift to help out either her co-residents or juniors. S…
We need physicians who advocate for patients’ best interests
As presidential hopefuls debate health care reform, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish statements rooted in fact from fiction. According to PolitiFact, only 27% of politicians’ media statements regarding health care — whether from Dem…
What if people were only allowed to use food assistance dollars to buy healthy food?
One of my elderly relatives was in line at the grocery store one day and saw the person ahead of him, charging what looked like a cart full of junk food to her food assistance card. My relative was incensed: Why, should his hard-earned tax dollars be u…
Stop FGM: female genital massacre
The Somalian government should be ashamed of condoning the widespread occurrence of female genital mutilation. According to UNICEF, 98 percent of women from the ages 15 to 49 have undergone FGM in Somalia from 2005 to 2014. As defined by the World Heal…
A roadmap for physician career transition planning
Many physicians will decide they want or need to make a transition from the practice of clinical medicine to “something else” at some point during their career. Whatever the motivation for their job transition, most doctors appreciate a rat…
The burden of prior authorizations and denials in health care
Prior authorization — a utilization management (UM) process used by health insurance companies to determine coverage for a prescribed procedure, service, or medication — is now becoming a mandatory requirement by the vast majority of large insurance co…
The burden of prior authorizations and denials in health care
Prior authorization — a utilization management (UM) process used by health insurance companies to determine coverage for a prescribed procedure, service, or medication — is now becoming a mandatory requirement by the vast majority of large insurance co…
Do evolving blood pressure guidelines apply to the geriatric population?
One of the advantages of practicing clinical medicine, and seeing patients daily for many years, is you develop your own long-term study regarding certain medical health issues. In the area of hypertension, I have been taught by the best since my inter…
What I learned from starting medical school in January
I graduated from an international medical school this past spring. I’m currently in the midst of a preliminary year as an internal medicine resident at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers, N.Y. Next year, I’ll start my dream resi…
