Category: Doctors
The health care battle didn’t end for doctors with the 2009 law’s passage. The AMA’s lobbying tab, for example, jumped to nearly $22 million, up 9 percent from the previous year.
New hires include specialists in cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, otolaryngology, thoracic surgery, radiation oncology, and emergency medicine.
A key congressional oversight committee announced today that it was opening an investigation into the basis of a decision by the Pentagon’s health plan to deny a type of medical treatment to troops with brain injuries.
Who was that? Knowing who you will likely encounter during an emergency room visit may help you get the best care. Health Behavior News Service’s Amy Sutton takes you on Who’s-Who tour of the ER.
ACOs have been compared to the elusive unicorn: everyone seems to know what it looks like, but nobody’s actually seen one. Exactly how ACOs would work in practice remains to be seen, though that hasn’t stopped the health care industry from embarking on a frenzied quest to create them as quickly as possible.
In a 2008 study of testing errors, researchers found that nearly three out of four patients involved in a testing error had their treatment delayed, or suffered additional pain, or had a worse health outcome as a result of the error.
The investigative news group ProPublica has created a webpage where you can compare the quality of local dialysis clinics. The online tool allows you to compare individual clinics side-by-side. The comparisons are based on information submitted by facilities and collected by contractors of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, the federal agency that oversees [...]
Why have one, two, even three reports about hospitals avoidably (if inadvertently) killing tens of thousands of Americans each year drawn little attention in the press and has been largely ignored by patient advocacy groups, asks columnist Michael Millenson.
Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center has hired four new primary care physicians: Internists Dr. Christopher Berlin, Dr. Joy Bucher and Dr. Yukmila Soriano and Dr. Lars Kaine in Family Medicine.
Patients who visited more than two different sites racked up nearly twice the bill ($12,050 on average) compared with patients who went to the same sites ($7,465).
With all the hand-wringing about big cuts in what Medicare pays doctors, it’s no surprise that some have threatened to drop seniors from their patient rosters if Congress doesn’t solve the problem.
But a new survey finds doctors aren’t actually following through on those threats — at least not yet.
Seattle Times reporter Sean Collins Walsh writes that Washington’s new computer system for processing Medicaid payments is failing to pay so many valid claims that several doctors and clinics have stopped taking new Medicaid patients until they get paid for the ones they’ve already treated. Others say they soon may need to do the same, or even stop treating Medicaid patients altogether.
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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