Last month we discussed a recent, large scale study of physician burnout, and wondered whether it would finally inspire some discourse abou...
BLOGSCAN - Why Not Just Pay Physicians By the Hour?
We have frequently discussed how perverse incentives are spread around health care. In the US, the physicians are paid according to a syst...
Will Another Study on Physician Burnout Finally Lead to Addressing its Causes?
The latest article on physician burnout has actually attracted some media attention. e.g., here and here . The Latest Article The article ...
Productive Employment
With desultory interest, I picked up a 1993 novel at the library, The Surgical Arena , by Peter Grant, M.D., “a former navy pilot who became...
"Replace the RUC!"
We have frequently posted, first here in 2007 , and more recently here and here , about the little-known group that controls how the US Med...
RUC It Up - How the US Government Fixes Physicians' Payments Becomes Less Anechoic
We have frequently posted, first here in 2007 , and most recently here and here , about the little-known group that controls how the US Med...
Forest Pharmaceuticals Pleads Guilty to Obstruction of Justice, No Individual Pays Any Penalty
The parade of legal settlements marches on. The latest story is about Forest Laboratories and its marketing of Celexa (citalopram ) and Lev...
RUC Off - the New England Journal Once Again Fails to Mention the Unmentionable
Last week, the influential New England Journal of Medicine published an article by Bruce Vladek entitled "Fixing Medicare's Physici...
The Role of the RUC in Medicare's Price-Fixing and Rationing Remains Anechoic
An important part of the noisy and contentious debate about health care reform in the US centers on the role of the government as a provider...
A Window on the Unworkable Settings in Which Physicians Practice
The Annals of Internal Medicine just published an important problem that helps explain why our health care crisis is so intractable. (Linzer...
The RUCkus Continues: Former Medicare Administrator Calls the "RUC Process" "Incredibly Flawed," and the AMA Chair Says He's "Inaccurate"
We have posted frequently about the role of the RBRVS Update Committee (RUC) in fixing the rates at which Medicare pays physicians. These pa...
A Letter from the RUC, and My Reply
The vast amounts spent in the US on health care have not translated into access for many patients, consistently excellent quality of care, a...