The idea seems so simple: (A) When hospitals leave catheters in people’s bladders for too long, people get urinary infections. (B) Third party payers like Medicare and insurance companies are then billed for the cost of treating these infections. (C) If Medicare refuses to pay for these treatments, and force hospitals to bear the cost…
Medicine, today, is supposed to be “patient-centered.” But sometimes the patients feel a little off balance. What can they do when everyone seems to be trying to push aggressive, expensive treatments on them? One solution — or a partial solution — is known as shared decision making, in which patients are given specific tools, such…
Imagine yourself in this patient’s situation. You have just found out you have cancer, and the next phrase out of your doctor’s mouth is “You’re going to die with this cancer rather than of this cancer.” Which word do you think will jump out of that sentence? “With”? “Of”? My money is on “die.” –…
Here is a link to my guest spot on You, The Owner’s Manual radio show, hosted by New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Roizen. It is a lively interview, worth listening to if for no other reason than Roizen’s great taste in writing: “I really enjoyed the book,” he said to me at one…
Q: Much of the debate around health care reform has centered on whether the government or the individual will control health care decisions. Is that a valid argument? Most medical decisions are between clinicians and their patients, and will continue to be that way as the federal health reform law is implemented. Medicare bureaucrats aren’t…
Here is my latest Critical Decisions video. This one gives a broad introduction to the reasons I wrote the book.
The role of race in college and graduate school admissions remains controversial in the U.S. In fact, the Supreme Court is currently taking up a challenge to a University of Texas program that considers race in its admission decisions. Critics of race-based admissions question whether educational institutions would serve the goals of affirmative action better by…
“CASES: When Bad Advice Is the Best Advice” – The New York Times
Imagine you are 17 years old again and applying to college. You have your heart set on Stanford, but know it’s a long shot. Your well-meaning aunt, aware of your interest in that fine Palo Alto institution, buys you a Stanford sweatshirt. Would you wear it before you found out whether you had been accepted? ……
In September the United States Preventive Services Taskforce, a panel of medical experts, concluded that tests to screen for ovarian cancer do more harm than good. As a result, insurers will not be required by federal law to pay for such tests. And the announcement was met with near silence. Why was this recommendation greeted…