Just want to remind all of you that as of tomorrow, July 1st, 2011, counterfeit-proof prescription blanks MUST be used by all physicians for prescribing of ANY controlled substances. A list of approved vendors of counterfeit-proof prescription pads can be found on the Department of Health web site at http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/counterfeit-proof.html.It is also important o know that approved vendors are required to provide monthly reports to the DOH, documenting who purchased the prescription pad or blanks and how many were purchased.
Have spoken today with one of the vendors and was assured that they make every efforts to expedite deliveries of counterfeit-proof prescription pads.
Yours
Bernd
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Mystery Shoppers
Attached a link to today's New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/health/policy/27docs.html reporting that the federal government plans to deploy mystery shoppers who will call doctors in nine states to try to schedule an appointment first posing as someone with private insurance and another time as someone with public insurance. The goal is to ascertain access to care issues , especially as the healthcare system braces for millions more Medicaid patients in 2014.
Already doctors are lining up in opposition to these "snooping" tactics. In response Christian J. Stenrud, a Health and Human Services spokesman, said: “Access to primary care is a priority for the administration. This study is an effort to better understand the problem and make sure we are doing everything we can to support primary care physicians, especially in communities where the need is greatest.”
So shall we oppose in principle all tactics that are aimed to assess the scope of the primary care shortage and related access to care issues? Are there any meaningful alternatives to the proposed "snooping" tactics deploying mystery shoppers to doctors offices? What role can we play not only to highlight the problem but to offer solutions?
I look forward to your responses and comments.
Yours
Bernd
Already doctors are lining up in opposition to these "snooping" tactics. In response Christian J. Stenrud, a Health and Human Services spokesman, said: “Access to primary care is a priority for the administration. This study is an effort to better understand the problem and make sure we are doing everything we can to support primary care physicians, especially in communities where the need is greatest.”
So shall we oppose in principle all tactics that are aimed to assess the scope of the primary care shortage and related access to care issues? Are there any meaningful alternatives to the proposed "snooping" tactics deploying mystery shoppers to doctors offices? What role can we play not only to highlight the problem but to offer solutions?
I look forward to your responses and comments.
Yours
Bernd
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Medicare Claims Show Overuse For CT Scans
06/18/11
Attached a link http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/health/18radiation.html to an interesting article published in today's New York Times entitled “Medicare Claims Show Overuse for CT Scanning.”
The authors highlight that according to Medicare claims data some hospitals overuse chest CT scans and, thereby, needlessly expose patients to radiation by scanning their chests twice on the same day. The Medicare agency distributed the data to hospitals last year to show how they performed relative to each other and to encourage more efficient, safer practices. The review of that data found more than 200 hospitals that administered double scans on more than 30 percent of their Medicare outpatients — a percentage that the federal agency and radiology experts considers far too high. The national average is 5.4 percent. The figures show wide variation among states as well, from 1 percent in Massachusetts to 13 percent in Oklahoma. Overall, Medicare paid hospitals roughly $25 million for double scans in 2008. Added revenue may not be the reason dual scans are ordered. But the absence of treatment protocols may explain the variation of CT Chest use among physicians.
Possible solutions should include standardized, evidence-based diagnosis and treatment procedures according to which physicians can tailor their approach to patient care accordingly.
I hope that Medicare will open its database for researchers and health economists to help all of us to make educated and smart medical care decisions which will benefit our patients, too.
Yours
Bernd
Attached a link http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/health/18radiation.html to an interesting article published in today's New York Times entitled “Medicare Claims Show Overuse for CT Scanning.”
The authors highlight that according to Medicare claims data some hospitals overuse chest CT scans and, thereby, needlessly expose patients to radiation by scanning their chests twice on the same day. The Medicare agency distributed the data to hospitals last year to show how they performed relative to each other and to encourage more efficient, safer practices. The review of that data found more than 200 hospitals that administered double scans on more than 30 percent of their Medicare outpatients — a percentage that the federal agency and radiology experts considers far too high. The national average is 5.4 percent. The figures show wide variation among states as well, from 1 percent in Massachusetts to 13 percent in Oklahoma. Overall, Medicare paid hospitals roughly $25 million for double scans in 2008. Added revenue may not be the reason dual scans are ordered. But the absence of treatment protocols may explain the variation of CT Chest use among physicians.
Possible solutions should include standardized, evidence-based diagnosis and treatment procedures according to which physicians can tailor their approach to patient care accordingly.
I hope that Medicare will open its database for researchers and health economists to help all of us to make educated and smart medical care decisions which will benefit our patients, too.
Yours
Bernd
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Support Doctors in Bahrain
Attached a link to an AMA press release http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/ama-expresses-concern-over-bahrain-trial.page? encouraging America's physicians to write to Bahraini officials, using a sample letter from the AMA website, and join the world's medical community in urging the fair treatment of the health care professionals detained in Bahrain.
Please participate because your support counts.
Yours
Bernd
Please participate because your support counts.
Yours
Bernd
Governor Scott Suspends Drug Testing Order
Attached a link to an article from today's Sun Sentinel http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-scott-suspends-employee-drug-testi20110616,0,6797555.story reporting that Governor Scott has suspended the order he signed earlier this year requiring random drug tests of all state employees in light of an ACLU law suit. The governor had signed the order for so-called "suspicion-less" drug tests – so termed because all state employees would be subject to them, regardless of their job or whether they were suspected of using drugs – in March. He also successfully urged the Legislature to require drug tests of all new applicants for welfare assistance, which the ACLU is also expected to challenge.
I encourage all of you to speak up loudly against the mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients which will be challenged in court, too.
Yours
Bernd
I encourage all of you to speak up loudly against the mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients which will be challenged in court, too.
Yours
Bernd
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
The Big Rip-Off
In today's Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/06/2254083/prescription-for-healthcare-shopping.html#storylink=misearch John Dorschner points out a painful truth: healthcare consumers are being ripped off every day by healthcare service providers.
According to Alan Sager, a healthcare policy expert at Boston University, “Anytime I’ve read reports of patients or journalists seeking comparison pricing, they’ve encountered the same inconsistency, confusion, frustration and often misleading information,” he said. “When we go into a big supermarket, we all pay the same price for a gallon of milk. In healthcare, there are multiple prices in the same place.”
I myself have a hard time to find out the REAL costs of my own healthcare needs. Recently my daughter had to do undergo laboratory testing for which I was charged a $900 co-pay. I tried to appeal and as a result my case was immediately referred to a collection department. I barely saved my credit rating and paid. Its outrageous! The profit margins are beyond belief exceeding 1000 percent!! The so-called "free-market" argument is a joke!! An article in today's Wall Street Journal points out that in a survey of 1,000 British Medical Association members - all doctors - 80% of those surveyed were "mostly or very unwelcoming" towards the idea of privatization of the National Health Service. Meanwhile, American doctors and politicians continue to support the private health care market model. There is NO health care market but an aggregation of monopolies suffocating the average health care consumers.
Its time to fight back! We should demand a single-payer system with uniform and transparent pricing structure.
Yours
Bernd
According to Alan Sager, a healthcare policy expert at Boston University, “Anytime I’ve read reports of patients or journalists seeking comparison pricing, they’ve encountered the same inconsistency, confusion, frustration and often misleading information,” he said. “When we go into a big supermarket, we all pay the same price for a gallon of milk. In healthcare, there are multiple prices in the same place.”
I myself have a hard time to find out the REAL costs of my own healthcare needs. Recently my daughter had to do undergo laboratory testing for which I was charged a $900 co-pay. I tried to appeal and as a result my case was immediately referred to a collection department. I barely saved my credit rating and paid. Its outrageous! The profit margins are beyond belief exceeding 1000 percent!! The so-called "free-market" argument is a joke!! An article in today's Wall Street Journal points out that in a survey of 1,000 British Medical Association members - all doctors - 80% of those surveyed were "mostly or very unwelcoming" towards the idea of privatization of the National Health Service. Meanwhile, American doctors and politicians continue to support the private health care market model. There is NO health care market but an aggregation of monopolies suffocating the average health care consumers.
Its time to fight back! We should demand a single-payer system with uniform and transparent pricing structure.
Yours
Bernd
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Governor Scott Signs Pill Mill Bill into law
After initially fighting one of its key provisions, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill Friday aimed at cracking down on clinics that frivolously dispense pain pills, feeding a nationwide prescription drug abuse epidemic. The bill tightens reporting requirements to the database from 15 days to seven days, a change critics said the program needed to make it more effective. The measure also increases penalties for overprescribing Oxycodone and other narcotics, tracks wholesale distribution of some controlled substances, and provides $3 million to support law enforcement efforts and state prosecutors. It also bans most doctors who prescribe narcotics from dispensing them, requiring prescriptions to be filled at certain types of pharmacies. Scott has been under pressure from elected officials throughout the country to do something about the proliferation of so-called "pill mills" in Florida that attract people from other states seeking easy access to highly addictive, powerful painkillers.
We should now urge the Department of Health to provide education and training programs for physicians and other healthcare professionals on how to use the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and to fund those necessary efforts.
For more information see http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/03/2249936/scott-signs-pill-mill-bill-into.html
We should now urge the Department of Health to provide education and training programs for physicians and other healthcare professionals on how to use the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and to fund those necessary efforts.
For more information see http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/03/2249936/scott-signs-pill-mill-bill-into.html
ACLU Sues Governor Scott Over Drug test Rule
ACLU Florida has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Rick Scott over his executive order to force drug testing on state employees. The suit argues that Scott's order is an unreasonable search of the government that violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.The ACLU maintains that the mandatory random drug testing Scott has ordered on about 100,000 workers is only allowed under special circumstances, such as workers who carry firearms or railroad workers involved in accidents.
I urge all medical professionals involved in federal workplace drug testing procedures to await the outcome of this lawsuit BEFORE deciding on their participation in the proposed state wide drug testing for state employees.
For more information and the complete text of the law suit see http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/aclu-sues-gov-scott-over-drug-testing-order
I urge all medical professionals involved in federal workplace drug testing procedures to await the outcome of this lawsuit BEFORE deciding on their participation in the proposed state wide drug testing for state employees.
For more information and the complete text of the law suit see http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/aclu-sues-gov-scott-over-drug-testing-order
Physicians Challenge Florida Goverment
Attached an article highlighting an issue which is going to be resolved in court. Unfortunately, Governor Scott signed HB 155 into law which will bar physicians from asking patients about gun ownership. Florida is the only state in the nation to have such a law which was pushed by the NRA.
Sadly, the Florida Medical Association does not oppose the new law exposing its members to charges of harassment if they "dare" to provide their patients information about gun safety. Any alleged violation of the new law will expose physicians to disciplinary action and even license revocation!
Now its time to stop government intrusion into the patient-physician relationship.
I encourage doctors to pay attention to this issue and to take action.
Yours
Bernd
PalmBeachPost.com
By DARA KAM
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 10:58 p.m. Thursday, June 2, 2011
Posted: 8:19 p.m. Thursday, June 2, 2011
Three groups of doctors are suing Gov. Rick Scott over a bill he signed into law Thursday restricting health care workers from asking patients questions about guns.
Lawyers representing members of Florida chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Physicians asked Scott last week to veto the measure (HB 155) and threatened to sue if he signed it into law.
The Florida Medical Association does not oppose the new law.
Bruce Manheim of the Washington-based Ropes & Gray law firm said Thursday he would file the lawsuit immediately after Scott signed the law.
Doctors say the law infringes on their First Amendment constitutional right to free speech by barring them from asking about gun ownership, something they say is necessary to do their jobs.
It will "have a muzzling effect on doctors" who routinely ask parents and teenagers about swimming pools, dangerous drugs, bicycle helmets and car seats as well as about firearms in the home, pediatrician Tommy Schechtman said.
Under the law, doctors and other health care professionals will face sanctions including fines and losing their licenses if they ask patients about guns in the home without a direct belief that the inquiry is relevant to the patient's safety or health.
"It is my job. It is my responsibility. I have a moral obligation, an ethical obligation to be doing this," said Schechtman, who has offices in Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and Boca Raton.
But Scott spokesman Lane Wright said the first-term governor is confident he is on solid legal ground by signing the bill.
"Others would argue it would be an infringement of a citizen's rights who owns a gun to have a doctor ask those questions," Wright said. "Why should any law abiding citizen have to report to a doctor that they have a gun?"
Florida is the only state in the nation to have such a law, according to National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer, a former president of the gun rights organization.
Hammer said some health care professionals are pushing anti-gun messages to their patients under the guise of home safety questionnaires. The measure was prompted by complaints from gun owners following an incident this summer in which an Ocala-area physician told a couple to find another pediatrician after they refused to answer questions about whether they owned a gun and how it was stored.
The NRA and other supporters don't object if doctors routinely distribute safety brochures to all patients that give instructions on swimming pools, firearms or other safety-related issues, Hammer said.
"But doctors should not be spending the time that patients are paying for to talk to them about matters they're not there for. They come to doctors for medical care and medical treatment, not to have politics in the examining room and not to be lectured on firearms. They are medical doctors; they are not firearms instructors," she said.
But Mannheim said the new law is so vague about when questions are permissible that it would have a chilling effect on health care practitioners fearful of having to defend themselves before the Board of Medicine.
"Questions about firearm safety, as innocuous as they may be to the ordinary person, could be construed by someone as constituting harassment by a physician and simply on the basis of that judgment a physician could be taken through these disciplinary proceedings," he said. "It immediately chills the speech of our clients and their members and accordingly we intend to move very quickly with a lawsuit."
Schechtman said the new law won't stop him, however. More than 1,500 children die each year from household gun-related injuries, he said.
"Some of us won't shut up. Sometimes you have to decide to do the right thing which is what I will do. It's not going to stop me from doing anything," he said.
But other physicians may feel it's not worth the risk.
"It will have its intended effect. That's the thing that's scary to me. And that's why I think we have to take this off the books. I think it's sending a wrong message that people shouldn't have to worry about guns," Schechtman said.
Sadly, the Florida Medical Association does not oppose the new law exposing its members to charges of harassment if they "dare" to provide their patients information about gun safety. Any alleged violation of the new law will expose physicians to disciplinary action and even license revocation!
Now its time to stop government intrusion into the patient-physician relationship.
I encourage doctors to pay attention to this issue and to take action.
Yours
Bernd
PalmBeachPost.com
By DARA KAM
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 10:58 p.m. Thursday, June 2, 2011
Posted: 8:19 p.m. Thursday, June 2, 2011
Three groups of doctors are suing Gov. Rick Scott over a bill he signed into law Thursday restricting health care workers from asking patients questions about guns.
Lawyers representing members of Florida chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Physicians asked Scott last week to veto the measure (HB 155) and threatened to sue if he signed it into law.
The Florida Medical Association does not oppose the new law.
Bruce Manheim of the Washington-based Ropes & Gray law firm said Thursday he would file the lawsuit immediately after Scott signed the law.
Doctors say the law infringes on their First Amendment constitutional right to free speech by barring them from asking about gun ownership, something they say is necessary to do their jobs.
It will "have a muzzling effect on doctors" who routinely ask parents and teenagers about swimming pools, dangerous drugs, bicycle helmets and car seats as well as about firearms in the home, pediatrician Tommy Schechtman said.
Under the law, doctors and other health care professionals will face sanctions including fines and losing their licenses if they ask patients about guns in the home without a direct belief that the inquiry is relevant to the patient's safety or health.
"It is my job. It is my responsibility. I have a moral obligation, an ethical obligation to be doing this," said Schechtman, who has offices in Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and Boca Raton.
But Scott spokesman Lane Wright said the first-term governor is confident he is on solid legal ground by signing the bill.
"Others would argue it would be an infringement of a citizen's rights who owns a gun to have a doctor ask those questions," Wright said. "Why should any law abiding citizen have to report to a doctor that they have a gun?"
Florida is the only state in the nation to have such a law, according to National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer, a former president of the gun rights organization.
Hammer said some health care professionals are pushing anti-gun messages to their patients under the guise of home safety questionnaires. The measure was prompted by complaints from gun owners following an incident this summer in which an Ocala-area physician told a couple to find another pediatrician after they refused to answer questions about whether they owned a gun and how it was stored.
The NRA and other supporters don't object if doctors routinely distribute safety brochures to all patients that give instructions on swimming pools, firearms or other safety-related issues, Hammer said.
"But doctors should not be spending the time that patients are paying for to talk to them about matters they're not there for. They come to doctors for medical care and medical treatment, not to have politics in the examining room and not to be lectured on firearms. They are medical doctors; they are not firearms instructors," she said.
But Mannheim said the new law is so vague about when questions are permissible that it would have a chilling effect on health care practitioners fearful of having to defend themselves before the Board of Medicine.
"Questions about firearm safety, as innocuous as they may be to the ordinary person, could be construed by someone as constituting harassment by a physician and simply on the basis of that judgment a physician could be taken through these disciplinary proceedings," he said. "It immediately chills the speech of our clients and their members and accordingly we intend to move very quickly with a lawsuit."
Schechtman said the new law won't stop him, however. More than 1,500 children die each year from household gun-related injuries, he said.
"Some of us won't shut up. Sometimes you have to decide to do the right thing which is what I will do. It's not going to stop me from doing anything," he said.
But other physicians may feel it's not worth the risk.
"It will have its intended effect. That's the thing that's scary to me. And that's why I think we have to take this off the books. I think it's sending a wrong message that people shouldn't have to worry about guns," Schechtman said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)