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#Post#: 1289--------------------------------------------------
... They 😈 play all of these kinds of 👿
delaying games."
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 6, 2023, 5:48 pm
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[center]
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September 6, 2023 by by Cheryl Clark, ProPublica This story was
originally published by ProPublica.
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-270922135850.png<br
/>The Folly of Trying to Map Out the Appeals Process for
Insurance
Denials
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422121109.gif[/center]
[move] Dozens of experts said building a tool for navigating
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122619-6781750.png<br
/>[glow=red,2,300]insurance[/glow] appeals would be
impossible[/move]
[glow=red,2,300]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202719-1406786.gif<br
/>Health insurers [/glow]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422205132-6451602.gif<br
/>reject millions of claims for treatment every year in America.
Corporate insiders, recordings, and internal emails expose the
system and its harm.
Have you ever had a health care claim denied by your insurer?
Ever tried to appeal it? Did you wind up confused, frustrated,
exhausted, defeated?
I've been a healthcare reporter for more than 40 years. And when
I tried to figure out how to appeal insurance denials, I wound
up the same way. And I didn't even try to file an actual appeal.
ProPublica came to me earlier this year with what might have
seemed like a simple proposition. They wanted me to create an
interactive appeals guide that would help readers navigate their
insurers' maze. (A team of reporters at ProPublica and The
Capitol Forum has been investigating all the ways that insurers
deny payments for healthcare. If you've got a story to share,
let them know hereopens in a new tab or window.)
Over the next several weeks, I spoke with more than 50 insurance
experts, patients, lawyers, physicians, and consumer advocates.
Nearly everyone said the same thing: Great idea. But almost
impossible to do. The insurance industry and its regulators have
made it so complicated to file an appeal that only a tiny
percentage of patients ever do. For example, less than
two-tenths of 1% of patients in Obamacare plans bothered to
appealopens in a new tab or window claims denied in 2021.
The central problem: There are many kinds of insurance in the
U.S., and they have different processes for appealing a denial.
And no lawmakers or regulators in state and federal governments
have forced all insurers to follow one simple standard.
I tried to create a spreadsheet that would guide readers through
the appeals process for all the different types of insurance and
circumstances. When a patient needs care urgently, for instance,
an appeal follows a different track. But with each day of
reporting, with each expert interviewed, it got more and more
confusing. There was a point when I thought I was drowning in
exceptions and caveats. Some nights were filled with a sense
that I was trapped in an impossible labyrinth, with signs
pointing to pathways that just kept getting me further lost.
Here are some of the issues that make it so confusing:
First, people have to know exactly what kind of insurance they
have. You may think that UnitedHealthcare is your insurer
because that's the name on your insurance card, but that card
doesn't tell you what kind of plan you have. Your real insurer
may be your employer. Some 65% of workers who get their coverage
through their employers are in what's known as "self-funded
plans," according to KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation).
That means the employer pays for medical costs, though it may
hire an insurance company like UnitedHealthcare to administer
claims.
The other main type of insurance that companies provide for
their workers is known as a "fully insured plan." The employer
hires an insurer to take all the risk and pay the claims. With
that kind of plan, the name on your card really is your insurer.
Why does this difference matter? Because the route you follow to
challenge an insurance denial can differ based on whether it's a
fully insured plan or a self-funded one.
But all too often people don't know what kind of plan they have
and aren't really sure how to find out. I'm told that some
employers' human resources departments don't know either --
although they should.
"It is a little scary, because people honestly don't really know
what they have," said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at KFF who
specializes in health insurance research. "I'm just going to
warn you that if you set up the decision tree with an A: yes, B:
no, or C: not sure, you'll find a lot of people clicking not
sure."
Government insurance is its own tangle. I am a Medicare
beneficiary with a supplemental plan and a Part D plan for drug
coverage. The appeals process for drug denials is different from
the one for the rest of my healthcare. And that's different from
the process that people with Medicare Advantage plans have to
follow.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
the federal agency that oversees Medicare, wrote in an email
that the agency "has been actively engaged in identifying ways
to simplify and streamline the appeals process and has worked
with stakeholders and focus groups to identify ways to better
communicate information related to the appeals process with the
beneficiaries we serve."
And we can't forget about Medicaid and the Children's Health
Insurance Programs, which together covered 94 million enrollees
as of Aprilopens in a new tab or window, more than a quarter of
the U.S. population. The federal government sets minimum
standards that each state Medicaid program has to follow, but
states can make things more complicated by requiring different
appeal pathways for different types of healthcare. So the
process can be different depending on the type of care that was
denied, and that can vary state to state.
And don't even get me started on how baffling it can be if
you're one of the 12.5 million people covered by both Medicare
and Medicaid. As far as which appeals path you have to take,
Abbi Coursolle, a senior attorney with the National Health Law
Program, explains: "It's Medicare for some things and Medicaid
for others."
I sought help from Jack Dailey, a San Diego attorney and
coordinator for the California Health Consumer Alliance, which
works with legal-aid programs across the state. On a Zoom call,
he looked at an Excel spreadsheet I'd put together for Medi-Cal,
California's Medicaid program, based on what I had already
learned. Then he shook his head. A few days later, he came back
with a new guide, having pulled an all-nighter correcting what I
had put together and adding tons of caveats.
It was seven single-spaced pages long. It detailed five layers
of the Medi-Cal appeals process, with some cases winding up in
state Superior Court. There were so many abbreviations and
acronyms that I needed to create a glossary. (Who knew that
DMC-ODS stands for Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery Systemopens
in a new tab or window?) And this was for just one state!
Christianne Heck, MD, a neurologist specializing in epilepsy
with Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California,
said her health system has a team of professionals dedicated to
appealing denials and making prior-authorization requests --
where you have to call the insurer and get approval for a
procedure beforehand.
"It's a huge problem," Heck said. "It usually takes multiple
attempts. We have to play this horrible, horrible game, and the
patients are in the middle."
It's especially complicated in oncology, said Barbara McAneny,
MD, a former president of the American Medical Association who
runs a 6,000-patient oncology practice in Albuquerque, New
Mexico.
"My practice is built on the theory that all the patients should
have to do is show up and we should manage everything else ...
because people who are sick just cannot deal with insurance
companies. This is not possible," she said.
McAneny told me she spends $350,000 a year on a designated team
of denial fighters whose sole job is to request prior
authorization for cancer care -- an average 67 requests per day
-- and then appeal the denials.
For starters, she said bluntly, "we know everything is going to
get denied." It's almost a given, she said, that the insurer
will lose the first batch of records. "We often have to send
records two or three times before they finally admit they
actually received them. ... They play all of these kinds of
delaying games."
McAneny thinks that for 😈 [glow=red,2,300]insurance
companies[/glow], it's really all about the money.
Her theory is that insurance companies save money by
[glow=red,2,300]delaying[/glow] spending as long as possible,
especially if the patient or the doctor gives up on the appeal,
or the patient's condition rapidly declines in the absence of
treatment.
For an
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422123949.jpeg<br
/>[glow=red,2,300]insurance company[/glow], she said, "you know,
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122619-6812456.gif<br
/>☠️ death is cheaper than chemotherapy."
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422142505.gif
I asked James Swann, a spokesperson for AHIP, the trade group
formerly known as America's Health Insurance Plans, what his
organization thought of comments like that. He declined to
address that directly, nor did he answer my question about why
the industry has made appealing denials so complex. In a written
statement, Swann said that doctors and insurers "need to work
together to deliver evidence-based care and avoid treatments
that are inappropriate, unnecessary, and more costly. Most
often, a claim that is not immediately approved just requires
the provider to submit additional information to appropriately
document the request, such as the diagnosis or other details. If
a claim is not approved after correct and complete information
is submitted, there are several levels of appeal available to
the patient and their provider."
Swann outlined some of the appeals steps available, including a
review by a doctor who wasn't involved in denying the claim
initially, the chance to submit additional clinical rationale,
and a review by an entity that's independent of the insurer. He
also noted that Medicare Advantage and Part D programs have
multiple levels of appeals before winding up in court, including
a step that requires a review by an outside, independent
organization.
Domna Antoniadis is a healthcare attorney in New York who
co-runs the Access to Care nonprofit, which educates patients
and providers on their health insurance rights. She spent hours
helping me navigate various appeal systems.
She offered up one important tip for people who use commercial
insurance: Get the full plan document for your policy and read
it. It'll be around 100 pages and will tell you what medical
services are covered and detail all the steps needed to appeal a
denial. Don't rely on the four-page summary, she said. It
probably won't help.
Likewise, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid denial
letters should explain the steps to appeal the decision.
When you can, enlist the help of your medical provider.
Sometimes an insurer says no to a claim because a doctor's
office submitted it under the wrong code, and that can be fixed
quickly.
Antoniadis acknowledged the challenges but believes that
consumers have a lot more power than they realize. They can push
back to advocate for themselves.
"The appeals process is not always handled properly by the
plans, which is why consumers need to report and complain to
their relevant government regulators when they believe they've
been unfairly denied," she said. "That's integral to changing
the system."
HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/106199
#Post#: 1292--------------------------------------------------
O God, plead my cause against an ungodly nation:
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 7, 2023, 4:45 pm
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[center][img
width=500]
HTML https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/uqZCs-iELD1fnhqU6Up9bkaBF2Sp9ro-o041uTBtKbcEAB8zs03SPJonC4UlV6xTlV4-7BCXBMEkqGbuaYVnzZLStHNXJqKeV3GYf4lx24GttnPg2aS-S5hsadB3iD1iYHBaevjhFCqxKO-Qkao0YTfhUumJUf0EpfVHR7i1v-ksstsrzRwDugJRfcKs-Q=s0-d-e1-ft#https://acb0a5d73b67fccd4bbe-c2d8138f0ea10a18dd4c43ec3aa4240a.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/10056/convio_sojomail.jpg?v=1578927594000[/img][/center]
September 7, 2023
[move][glow=teal,2,300]Lauren W. Reliford[/glow] writes in this
week's SojoMail that [glow=red,2,300]kicking millions[/glow] of
people
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422182057.gif<br
/>out of their health care program 🥵 is a
[glow=red,2,300]failure[/glow] of Christian imagination:[/move]
[center]Who Would [glow=teal,2,300]Jesus[/glow] Cut From
Medicaid?[/center]
SNIPPET:
When I teach people how to advocate on Capitol Hill, I say that
the best way to appeal to legislators is to build a common
vision for humanity rooted in shared values. Early in my
political advocacy career, I assumed that as a Christian, I’d
have an easier time of this since more than 87 percent of
Congress claims to share my Christian faith.
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For me, this faith has always been rooted in Jesus’ lived
example of how we are to be unapologetic in our support for each
other. And when Jesus says, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” I
imagined this meant, well, [glow=teal,2,300]🕊️
help thy neighbor, assist thy neighbor, care for thy neighbor,
nurture thy neighbor [/glow]— all without condition or
justification, just as [glow=teal,2,300]☝🏻
Jesus[/glow][glow=teal,2,300] did[/glow].
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/>
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422145344-560693.png
But since then, I’ve learned a serious lesson about the
limitations of the Christian imagination in politics. Despite
our shared faith, many lawmakers in this country don’t seem to
envision a country where we actually put these values into
practice. My latest disappointment? Millions of people losing
Medicaid coverage — our nation’s primary public health system
that provides health care and support for folks with low income
and/or disabilities — because
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080822134118-17091258.gif💵🎩👿<br
/>[b]states refuse to do the right thing.[/b]
Full article:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164555-532108.png
HTML https://sojo.net/articles/who-would-jesus-cut-medicaid
[center]Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly
nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. Psalm
43:1[/center]
#Post#: 1311--------------------------------------------------
To blithely state that the BCBS Merger will benefit Vermonters
by "lowering costs" 🙄 is to live in a fantasy!
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 14, 2023, 5:57 pm
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[center]
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Commentaries are opinion pieces contributed by readers and
newsmakers. VTDigger strives to publish a variety of views from
a broad range of Vermonters. Commentaries give voice to
community members and do not represent VTDigger’s views.
September 14,2023 This commentary is by Walter Carpenter of
Montpelier, who works in Vermont’s tourism business and is a
writer and a health care activist. In 2006, he nearly died at
the hands of the health care system. He is on the advisory
committee of the Geen Mountain Care Board.
[center]
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[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422133654.gif<br
/>Blue Cross Michigan merger should be prevented at all costs
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HTML https://vtdigger.org/2023/09/13/walter-carpenter-blue-cross-michigan-merger-should-be-prevented-at-all-costs/[/center]
#Post#: 1313--------------------------------------------------
"There is little concern about patients or medical
personnel of all levels, it is all about money."
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 17, 2023, 11:41 am
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[center]
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September 14, 2023 by Mitchell Louis Judge Li,
MD
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422180554-644315.gif,<br
/>and Arthur Smolensky, MD
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/>
Mitchell Louis Judge Li, MD , is a practicing emergency
physician and founder of the advocacy group, Take Medicine Back
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422144605.png
HTML https://www.takemedicineback.org/.
Arthur Smolensky, MD, is CFO
and COO of Middle Tennessee Emergency Physicians, and assistant
professor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Nashville/Murfreesboro Emergency Medicine residency.
[center]The Wrath Toward
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622153112-1373803.png<br
/>
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622210450-1415528.gif<br
/>[glow=red,2,300]Contract Management Groups[/glow]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422121611.png<br
/>Is Right Where It Needs to Be
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422145344-560693.png[/center]
SNIPPET:
What will happen to ownership and control in 2026 when
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202719-1406786.gif<br
/>💰 [glow=red,2,300]Apollo (the private equity
behemoth)[/glow] can force the sale of USACS if they don't
recover their investment? Do they have a say in the staffing
ratios of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the
department, or is this dictated to them top-down with the bottom
line likely to be [glow=red,2,300]top[/glow] of mind? Do they
have easy access to what is billed and collected in their names
using their professional licenses, and can they find out without
fear of retaliation?
Reality Based Comment:
EwMPH
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122257-657398.png
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202719-14071062.gif<br
/>[glow=red,2,300]CMG's[/glow] are the bottomline of why we have
such [glow=red,2,300]horrible[/glow] healthcare. There is little
concern about patients or medical personnel of all levels, it is
all about
😈
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422205132-6451602.gifhttps://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-010922192452.gifmoney.<br
/>All that is left is
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422182057.gif<br
/>unhappy patients, overwork medical staff dreaming of leaving
the
profession, and a whole lot of bad medical care.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422141413-627726.png
Full article:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164555-532108.png
HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/106333
#Post#: 1329--------------------------------------------------
When I'm talking about corporatization, I'm talking about large
insurance companies, retail chains, and private equity f
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 22, 2023, 1:36 pm
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[center]
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September 21, 2023 by by Emily Hutto, Associate Video Producer
[move][b]In this interview,[color=teal] Jane Zhu, MD, MPP, MSHP,
associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science
University in Portland, discusses a recent article she
co-authored on the corporatization of healthcare in the New
England Journal of Medicine: "A Doctrine in Name Only --
Strengthening Prohibitions Against the Corporate Practice of
Medicine."[/move]
[center]
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[center]The [glow=red,2,300]Cost[/glow] of
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202719-1406786.gif<br
/>
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040922144518.gif<br
/>Corporatized Medicine
HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/106430[/center]
[center]Worse outcomes, increased burnout, and higher costs
linked to
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/>[glow=red,2,300]corporate influence[/glow]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422145533-5671050.gif[/center]
Reality based COMMENT:
Laser_Doc
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I remember when Hillary Clinton organized a conference to band
insurance companies together, forming what became known as
managed care. As smart as physicians are and were, they saw only
the overt advantages of what was perceived as increased
reimbursements, increased referrals, less interaction and
fighting with insurance companies, less impact on patients, etc.
So "everyone" ultimately joined managed care.
Only after a threshold of essentially universal physician
membership was achieved, did the landscape shift.
[glow=red,2,300]Decreased[/glow] reimbursement, only certain
referrals allowed, [glow=red,2,300]pre-authorization[/glow] for
procedures and surgeries and medications, and care
[glow=red,2,300]tailored to algorithms[/glow] as opposed to
individual patient needs.
It also became true that computerization, rather than simply
enhancing medicine, became a tool of control, that electronic
patient records became laborious and required obtuse proof of
service rendered, that [glow=red,2,300]corporate control[/glow]
became lack of autonomy and assembly line-like induced
productivity measured by RVUs.
As just one example, all my patients were referred by other
physicians, with office visits in the past summarized by short
3-line notes that captured the essence of the patient, their
medical problem, and the physician insight. As time went by,
these short but very meaningful notes were generally replaced,
by multiple pages of computerized gibberish that simply served
proof that the physician did all required for the level of
reimbursement that was billed.
But the greatest fear should be of AI, establishing that
algorithms can not only be used by less committed
paraprofessionals, but now also by microchips capable of
churning out their standardization, no less than by using our
own professionally created and approved standardsof care. This
apparently will be not just for some fields, but even including,
e.g., psychiatry, as well as extending to personal
relationships. Microchips are not trained to think out of the
box, except when they hallucinate for truth.
Search engines have become increasingly monetized, as have been
and will be physician acceptance of all of these evolving
transitions.
I was among those who incorporated technology early,
computerizing my practice some 40 years earlier than others. But
as much as I and my patients have benefitted, if I had a choice
between no technology and how it has been and is about to be
used, I would choose none. Hopefully, we will not just build
guard rails, but rather expand the empowerment of physicians
through control of technology without its use being mandated,
without overseers monitoring, and without further destruction of
what remains of physician and patient privacy.
HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/106430
#Post#: 1336--------------------------------------------------
If Doctors in History Faced Modern Rules
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 27, 2023, 3:09 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
EDWIN LEAP
SEP 27, 2023
[center]
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[center]If Doctors in History Faced Modern Rules
HTML https://edwinleap.substack.com/p/if-doctors-in-history-faced-modern[/center]
[move]Imagine if you will...[/move]
Jdw 👍
Be the change we wish to become. Until far far more physicians
embrace the ineluctable linkage between a multiple payer system
predicated by employment, or retirement, there will be no
progress. Physicians to be the catalyst, but far too many of our
colleagues, whether It’s ten or forty cent, went into medicine
to ‘make money’ and this is what we have wrought. How else to
explain the majority of physicians Vp for republican low tax and
free market solutions to everything, including health care (I’m
confident they would defund public eduction and social security
if they could). There will be a revolution in how we finance
health care; it can't go,on this way forever. But physicians are
now mired in battles over credentialing and distracted, and too
many of us -yes I’m talking about you proceduralists, are still
making huge money and on the golf course 2 days a week. However,
no,politician goes blameless k this disaster. The trails lawyers
will oppose any move toward public financing of health
care-where will the deep pockets be to sue once we have no fault
government health insurance? A good place to start is simply
extend media aid to all children under the age of 18. What a
moral and public health vicinity that would be , at very minimal
cost. But it is the camel inside the tent isn’t it?
AGelbert > Jdw
Well said. Thank you for saying it.
My comment was not as polite, but I pointed at the same problems
you address.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090422150144.png<br
/>AGelbert
Part of the problem is that litigious lawyers have ruined honest
doctoring proctices. But, there is, in addition to the "Health"
(LOL!) Insurance profit over patient modus operandi, another
problem.
About 23 years ago, I learned that IBM had come up with some
advanced medical diagnostic software running in one of their
super computers ("Big Blue"). It worked quite well, consistently
beating doctors to the best diagnosis and proper treatment,
including safe, health restoring medication prescriptions. That
was LONG before so-called "Artificial Intelligence", but it
worked just fine. I'm sure that it wasn't just the lawyers that
loudly voiced concerns about this advance in technology due to
liability issues involved with software deciding how to treat a
patient, especially if the patient died as a result of said
treatment.
Computers and software kept getting faster and cheaper since
then, didn't they? Even that old IBM software, if installed over
a few years (e.g. 2000-2002) in a million or so computers in
medical facilites in the USA, could have been used to greatly
reduce the cost of medical care through increases in efffciency.
Yet, "apparantly" nothing came of it.
After that, computer prices kept going down, but medical costs
just kept going up FAR faster than inflation.
I wonder why that happened, not that AMA defense of MD
privilege, prosperity and prescription power would have anything
to do with that...
You doctors need to look at lawyers and "Health" (LOL!)
Insurance Corporation 'greed is good' practices in order to
solve this red tape mayhem you have been saddled with. Don't
forget to also look in the mirror.
👉
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#Post#: 1342--------------------------------------------------
He reports being pushed, shoved, and struck several times while
at work over the past year. He cannot even begin to quan
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: October 1, 2023, 3:17 pm
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[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040623141651.png[/center]
September 26, 2023 by by [glow=teal,2,300]Harry
Severance[/glow], [color=teal][b]MD
[center]'The Last Straw' [glow=red,2,300]Driving[/glow] Workers
Out of Healthcare[/center]
[move]Unaddressed workplace [glow=red,2,300]violence[/glow] may
be a domino further [glow=maroon,2,300]disrupting[/glow] the
[glow=teal,2,300]system[/glow][/move]
SNIPPET:
For how many of the 4 to 5 million healthcare workers (20% of
our entire U.S. healthcare workforce) who have left healthcare
in the last few years -- including over 117,000 physicians (over
10% of our nation's doctors) who left healthcare in 2021 alone
-- have the conditions of an unsafe healthcare workplace become
a definitive factor or "final straw" in their decisions to
leave?
Read more:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164647-5372345.gif
HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/106503
xyz 👍
One cannot help but wonder if the intentional creation of
political divisions and distrust within our society, especially
the condoning of violent acts by one's political followers,
exacerbates the willingness of our patients to feel entitled to
inflict injury on others with whom they disagree, including
health care workers who are trying to help them.
Dr_Rob 👍
As an ER doc I learned to always position myself between the
patient and the exam-room door.
FLOBRN 👍
A contributing factor in Nurses leaving, is administration
consistently saying” what could you have done differently “. WHY
is it always OUR fault?
Im_Just_a_PA 👍 > FLOBRN
So true FLOBRN. I was told by my chief of medicine that
providers were not to restrain patients if they became violent.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164519-508103.gif
I asked them "am I supposed to just stand there while one of my
nurses is attacked?" I got a blank stare, and then a nod of the
head indicating yes. 🤦‍♂️
That patient that attacked us? Yeah, 3rd and 4th people attacked
in that same department in 18 hours. 🥺
HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/106503
#Post#: 1367--------------------------------------------------
There is NO NURSING SHORTAGE!
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: October 17, 2023, 1:40 pm
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AGelebrt NOTE: I just ran into this info and am passing it on to
caring people here who have been barraged by
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622153114-13822364.jpeg<br
/>corporate media
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090822164512.png<br
/>crocodile tears about the "Nursing shortage":
STAT
[center]Is there a nursing shortage in the United States?
Depends on who you ask[/center]
Oct. 16, 2023 By Brittany Trang
SNIPPET:
While hospitals are complaining about shortages, health care
workers told STAT that they perceived the understaffing as
intentional; hospitals will hire, but not to capacity. Retired
colleagues won’t get replaced. Some vacancies never get posted.
“‘You nurses can do it,’” DeWilde said is the refrain when they
are short-staffed. Concerns over understaffing drove the Kaiser
Permanente health care worker strike and motivated Saint Louis
University Hospital nurses to strike for one day in September.
“[Hospitals] staff in order to maximize profits,” said Jean
Ross, co-president of National Nurses United. “It used to be
they tried to talk around that a little bit, do a little spin.
[Now] they’ll come right out and say it: ‘Our profit margins,
our profit margins.’”
What does the data say?
In its statement decrying the use of the term “nurse shortage,”
National Nurses United cited three statistics: There are 1
million more registered nurses than are currently employed as
nurses; the number of candidates who are passing the nurse
licensure exam for the first time is continually growing; and
the registered nurse workforce is growing — but just in settings
other than acute care, such as insurance or ambulatory care.
(The NNU published its memo in May 2023, when the tally of
registered nurses was 4,604,199; when STAT checked this month,
that number had grown by more than 100,000 to 4,708,451.)
Given those numbers, “I would say it’s pretty hard to conclude
that we have a shortage of nurses,” said Aiken.
Full article 🧐
HTML https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/16/nursing-shortage-us-hospitals-unions/
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