CHANGE HEALTH TODAY

This was a post by Julie Rovner on 1/22/2016 in collaboration with Kaiser Health News. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/22/463976098/debate-sharpens-over-single-payer-health-care-but-what-is-it-exactly This short article should be required reading for every American because it clarifies the different types of healthcare paradigms we're currently using. "A single-payer system is not the same thing as socialized medicine. In a truly socialized medicine system, t

This was the question I was asked by the front desk staff of a hotel nestled amongst the goliaths of the Texas Medical Center. Last weekend, after working a full 8 hour shift at the community hospital doing psychiatric consults, I drove 4 hours to Houston to see my Mom who had suffered a massive stroke. I arrived around 9:30pm. The hospital in question was a testament to old excess, suffering from entropy and bad management. Anywhoo, while I was in the ICU with my sister an

This article, posted on NPR by Shefali Luthra on Jan 13, 2016 discusses "direct primary care." My main concern about this article is its tagline; the article does a really good job of showing alternative models to accessing care. Hooray! But unfortunately, it doesn't dispel the dangerous assumption that "money" equals "better care." There are good providers who take insurances just like there are good providers that don't. I'm hoping that the editor was simply hoping to s

This is a follow-up post to my review of The New York Times article today. In a nutshell, we can leave. But it's a painstaking process that most of the public doesn't know about. Let's break it into two parts: quitting and on-boarding. Quitting: for most states there is, at a minimum, a period of time required by the medical licensing board for us to give notice to our patients before we close our doors. That may take 30 days for those of us working in the outpatient (clinic)

This was a story written by Noam Scheiber and published by the New York Times today. The author describes a common situation: physicians who want to be thorough run up against administrators who want to make money. The physicians feel trapped because they don't have individual influence enough to make their desired change. In this case, the remaining doctors formed a union. Please read the article and then ask yourself the following questions: Why do doctors feel trapped in a

This story was written by Ben Allen for NPR yesterday. Substance abuse treatment is sometimes a difficult subject to discuss because it is strongly influenced by both biology and psychology. People often wonder why they don't "just stop." That question has implications across the board and treatment is often a mix of biological and psychological approaches that oftentimes are misunderstood by those holding the opposite philosophy. With that said, the best way to make the sit

This is a feel-good-meets-informational story by NPR's Lauren Silverman about the use of service animals. Patriot PAWS is a nonprofit in Rockwall, Texas that provides service dogs. This particular company has been training dogs to help military veterans with PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) and other mental health concerns. The article states, "the Department of Veterans Affairs won't help pay for service dogs for PTSD, citing a lack of scientific evidence. But it's launc

When you have a person in the interview say, "I feel like it's better just to die," then Houston, we have a problem. This was from an article by Abby Goodnough published by The New York Times yesterday. It's an interesting read and I encourage you to make it. Here are Just a couple things from my perspective. How is it easier to have a slew of metrics to calculate what you're making and what percentage of what could exempt you than to have a provider with a set fee schedule t

Here's yet another opportunity to see just how ridiculous our health system is. This was an article written by Jake Harper, published a couple days ago. Quick summary: a private company uses its money to make a new medication. They get it through a government process to sell to the public. They charge whatever amount they want, which is within their right. The main buyers (insurance companies, Medicaid managed care companies, and the government) then have to figure out how mu

This was an story written by Phil Prazan addressing the ruling by U.S. District Judge Janis Jack that Texas is doing a terrible job of helping foster kids. Not to be a complete jerk, but I'd go one step further and say that what we Texans do to our foster kids is criminal because we knowingly set them up for failure. We're not simply negligent; we've known for a really long time how to help foster kids be successful. Here's a short list (from a psychiatrist's perspective): St