Legislators have found a new way to insert themselves into the physician-patient relationship. In October and November 2019, news stories regarding a parental dispute over the treatment of a transgender child prompted legislators in Texas, Kentucky, an…
Ever since the publication of the infamous 2016 BMJ opinion piece claiming medical error should be considered the third leading cause of death in the U.S., the debate on the true incidence of deaths caused by medical error has been raging. Many, includ…
The Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” has improved patient’s access to health care since its passing in 2010. The increase in coverage, however, does not address the restriction of prior authorization (PA), where a physician is required by a patien…
I just watched the movie 1917 at the theatre. Shot in a unique way giving an immersive experience, showing the frontline reality of war through an unforgettable human story, it has to be one of the greatest war movies ever made. I’d encourage everyone …
One of my graduate school professors proclaimed that what is wrong with our society is that most people have not reached formal operations or have not been in psychotherapy. Formal operations is the stage of development, described by French researcher …
The business of medicine is unlike any other type of standard “business” in that health insurance and hospitals confound what would appear to be a simple exchange of services for a set price. You know that the confusion is bad when neither doctors nor…
It takes an average of 10 years between symptom onset for mental health conditions to be accurately diagnosed and therefore treated. In addition to general misunderstandings about mental health, the nationwide shortage of mental health providers is one…
In a shocking development that could transform the medical profession, the International Journal of Health Services published the findings of a study titled, “Primary care, specialty care, and life chances.” Using multiple regression analysis, the rese…
We constantly argue about how to fix the U.S. health care system. But what we must understand is that the most important issue isn’t how to fix health care. The issue is how to get our Congress, the President, and the health care industry to allow anyt…
I write this hoping to appeal to common sense. When are we going to stop putting the cart before the horse? 99 percent of the rhetoric surrounding health care costs centers on a “fair” way to pay for it, “fair” reimbursement levels, and who should pay …
