Blog and News

This is the second posting of this story, however we feel it is so important to Americans that we cannot possibly over publicize it.  It seems the Secretary of Health and Human Services is implementing a mechanism that will give the federal government access to Americans' private medical records.  Not only is this an egregious violation of the doctor-patient privacy issue, but the government has a very poor record of maintaining the security of such privileged information.   

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The U.S. House of Representatives draft legislation to fund HHS for the coming year contains numerous provisions to deny funding for the implementation of ObamaCare. Included in the bill is the proposed elimination of $8.6 billion of funding contained in ObamaCare and a provision that would block funding the bill for the implementation of ObamaCare for as long as the law is being challenged in the courts. 

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Earlier this week, House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke at the Hoover Institute at Stanford and gave a speech on health care reform.  A portion of his remarks focused on what has been termed "the third health care entitlement" which is the portion of the tax code that provides a tax deduction for employers to provide health insurance (the total cost of the deduction is $300 billion per year). 

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BBC Health News writes that: "The lives of thousands of non-cardiac NHS emergency surgery patients are being risked by poor care and delays in treatment, leading surgeons say." The reason is the lack of available technology (like scans) and poor post-op critical care. 

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Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice.  

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The Washington Times has posted a commentary on its blog that offers three reasons why the Obama Administration may have decided to forego requesting the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to review its decision that struck down the individual mandate. This decision means the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case sooner than would have otherwise happened had the administration requested the review. The reasons offered include: 

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According to Newsmax, the Obama Administration decided not to ask the full U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to review the three-judge panel decision that found the individual mandate unconstitutional.  This decision will: "likely speed up consideration of the matter by the high court in its 2011-12 term that begins next week. A ruling could come by late June, in the middle of the presidential campaign." 

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Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice. 

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The AMA declares that its core mission is to “help doctors help patients.” But ObamaCare undermines that pursuit by making life harder for physicians and driving down the quality of care available to patients. 

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Ronald Reagan once said that "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: 'If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.'"   

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Based on the signals emanating from Washington, the Obama Administration may be shuttering the CLASS Act long-term care insurance program contained in ObamaCare. According to reports, the chief actuary for the program, Bob Yee, sent an email to colleagues saying that: "“HHS has decided to close down the CLASS Office effective tomorrow."  

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Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice. 

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D4PC's Dr. Hal Scherz has written a new article for Georgia Health News detailing the specific reasons why most of the medical profession has lost faith in the American Medical Association (AMA) to represent their profession. 

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The Wall Street Journal reports that the Greek debt crisis has lead to very negative consequences for patients, including those who need life savings drugs.  Since the beginning of 2010, the Greek government has only paid for approximately one-third of the drugs that have been dispenses in state-owned hospitals. 

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When the Obama Administration released their proposed regulations for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), the response was muted particularly by organizations that already exists and served as the model when Congress dreamed up the ACO provisions of ObamaCare. Existing ACOs, such as Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Geisinger Health System and Intermountain Healthcare were hailed as the paradigm of what healthcare would like under the ACO pilot program in ObamaCare. 

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Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice. 

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New data published by Medicare last month concludes that the Veterans Administration focus on post-discharge planning has been ineffective in reducing hospital readmissions as compared to non-VA hospitals.  The Washington Post reports that: "The Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated health care system in the country, has long employed many of the approaches Medicare is pushing on all hospitals to reduce unnecessary readmissions. But new data show VA hospital patients are just as likely to end up back in a hospital bed as are patients at private hospitals."  

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Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice. 

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As Docs4PatientCare reported earlier this week, a new survey of physicians demonstrates wide dissatisfaction with the American Medical Association (AMA) and the overwhelming belief that the AMA no longer represents their views. 

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A newspaper in the United Kingdom is reporting that Britain's national healthcare system is rationing cancer screenings by instructing general practitioners to "slash the number they refer to hospital for tests including ultrasounds, MRIs and CT scans commonly used to spot tumours. Last night experts warned the cost-saving measures increased the risk of patients being diagnosed too late and dying unnecessarily." 

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Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice.  

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D4PC Board Member Beth Haynes spoke out on TownHall.com on the myriad ways the government rations access to health care:

"Just over a year ago, the Christian Science Monitor reported on an antitrust case by the Department of Justice against Idaho orthopedists who, in refusing to accept government price controls, were found guilty of 'price fixing.' The DOJ hubristically declared, 'Government prices are market prices.' In this Orwellian move, the government declared voluntary prices to be price-fixing, and government-determined prices to be market prices. Anyone with common sense can see that changing terminology does not change reality. 

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From Kaiser Health News...

"...two of the nation’s top health care economists are expressing doubts that accountable care organizations -- one of Obama administration’s most-hyped mechanisms to save money -- will be able to overcome the medical system’s lust for the new new thing...

"In a paper delivered last week at a Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Harvard’s Katherine Baicker and Amitabh Chandra warned that ACOs may not want to rein in the use of expensive technologies that haven’t been proved superior to old-fashioned approaches, since the new stuff is often a major lure for patients." 

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While Washington elites made numerous promises about the benefits of ObamaCare, particularly in regards to the uninsured, the uninsured remain rightfully skeptical about the benefits of the law.  According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, "half (47%) of the uninsured do not expect to be affected at all by the health reform law.... [and 14%] expect to be hurt by the law, mainly because they worry they will be required to buy coverage they cannot afford." 

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Pajamas Media has published Dr. Paul Hsieh's article entitled: "How ObamaCare Plays Games With Your Life."  The article details the numerous ways that favored groups are receiving special treatment in the form of waivers and that special interest consultants and lobbyists are receiving a financial windfall providing expertise to doctors and hospitals struggling to understand how the law will impact the practice of medicine. 

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Writing for Physician News, Docs4PatientCare's Dr. Hal Scherz suggests doctors will continue to be a target unless they wake up and understand how policies coming from Washington, D.C. will affect doctors, their practice and their ability to properly care for their patients. 

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