Doctor, First Tell Me What It Costs
“Doctor, First Tell Me What It Costs” – The New York Times
“Doctor, First Tell Me What It Costs” – The New York Times
A JAMA study shows that even though Americans are eating more nuts and whole grains than they used to (see previous post), they aren’t coming CLOSE to meeting dietary requirements: Changing what people eat takes a long time!
My colleagues and I have been doing lots of research lately on how physicians and patients discuss out-of-pocket expenses during clinic encounters. One of our recent publications has been getting lots of attention, with this being the latest example. I thought I would share it with you: Recent qualitative findings published in Health Affairs showed that physicians…
In the U.S., we do a lousy job of paying for long-term care. We don’t help people cover the costs of nursing homes or home-health aids when they have chronic, life-threatening illnesses. As a result, more Americans die in the hospital than they would if we covered long-term care more generously. At least that’s the…
Shutterstock Medical appointments are getting shorter by the year. Sometimes it feels like doctors have no time to spend with their patients. What’s to blame for these brief clinical interactions? It could be the electronic health record, or EHR. Because of changes in how insurance companies and the government pay for medical care, doctors increasingly…
Obamacare is a big, messy law with so many moving parts, it is often hard to tell how well it’s working. People debate whether it is killing jobs or creating them; they argue about whether it is lowering medical expenses or raising them. These debates often feel irresolvable because the law, being a national one,…
We probably have a shortage of physician in the U.S., especially primary care providers. Our population is rising faster than the number of docs. But we don’t seem to be suffering from a shortage of healthcare administrators: Oh in addition, doesn’t look too convincing that all those administrators are finding ways to reduce healthcare spending….