Clik here to view.
The Role of the Emergency Department in Reducing Readmissions
All of the focus that CMS is putting on hospital readmissions via the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, and the financial penalties that readmissions can generate, is causing hospital...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Social Darwinism and Medicaid Expansion
Social Darwinism and Medicaid Expansion Contrary to what you might think from the name given to a certain early twentieth century ideology, ‘Social Darwinism’ is not about Socialism, but about the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
HCCI All Payer Claims Database – Can We Trust Health Plan Data?
health care cost transparency Recently three national health plans, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and Humana, announced they would contribute claims data to the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), a not for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Health Plans Cheat Enrollees of $Billions in Benefits for Emergency Care
Plans Slash Benefits for Emergency Care In the not too recent past, most health plans used a well-established method to determine the benefits for enrollees for emergency care services provided by out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Private Treatment of Veterans: An Ethical Dilemma
Veterans Waiting for Care The recent brouhaha over waiting times for veterans to see a physician in the VHA system has generated calls for the VHA system to allow veterans to seek care from private...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Contracting the Hospital’s Emergency Department Mission
smoke and mirrors in emergency medicine Lately I have been hearing complaints from Emergency Medicine Groups across the nation about hospitals that are cutting back on their financial support of EM...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Do EM Physician Groups Get Replaced ?
The last post on this blog (Contracting the Hospital’s Emergency Department Mission) got a lot of hits, so I thought I would follow up with another post on the same subject, this time dealing with why...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Emergency Physicians Can Participate in Gain Sharing
the shared savings train is leaving the station Emergency physician groups across the country being asked to find ways to participate in gain sharing, in order to become more fully integrated with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pissing Off Your Doctor – What is Your Physician Satisfaction Score?
When there’s a failure to communicate … who’s failure is it? Recently, a reporter asked me if I had any suggestions for patients who wanted to avoid pissing off their doctor? Really? Are doctors in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Using, and Misusing, Consultants in the ED
Consultants in the ED I must admit than over the course of my emergency medicine career, I have misused the services of a lot of consultants in the ED. Initially, this misuse was primarily due to my...
View Article
