One of the difficult things about having a career in medicine is that reputation is paramount. It is quite precious and is easily shattered. There are not many industries where interpersonal interaction is more important. From interactions between a provider and his patients, nurses, ancillary staff, and other providers, the professional reputation of a doctor is made. Sometimes it is fair, sometimes it is not. It’s an industry where subjective opinions of others dictates the volume and quality of referrals a doctor can get. Read more →

Pastors and church staff members answer a call to take care of the rest of us. They often sacrifice personal time and possessions to support their congregations. But now, the congregations are not returning the favor.

A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) reported that many pastors and church staffers are among the growing number of uninsured or underinsured Americans. A majority of pastors reported receiving little or no help from their national denominations in obtaining health insurance coverage. Read more →

Our series on Medicine and Law is starting to wind down. We’ve covered lots of topics including contract and consent, malpractice, causation, informed consent, and abandonment. Now we will talk about third-party liability.

Third party liability means exactly what it says — that a different party other than the physician or the patient hold liability for an outcome. The most common form of third party liability in the medical profession is when a patient is denied coverage by the insurance company for a recommended procedure. I’m sure many of you have seen the Matt Damon movie where he plays a lawyer and represents a patient with cancer whose insurance company repeatedly denied a bone marrow transplant. That movie summarizes the main issues with third party liability. Read more →

You know, there’s a reason why famous sayings are, well, famous sayings. It’s because they’re true and they usually sum up this truth is just a few words so as to package their neat truism in a tidy little box.

BMJ’s article, New York’s road to health, quickly brought to mind one of those sayings in just two simple words:

Money Talks Read more →

It seems that as of October 1, 2008, Medicare will no longer be reimbursing hospitals for eight conditions that befall patients who are hospitalized, and that might have been reasonably prevented using certain evidence-based measures.

These eight conditions include:

* Pressure ulcers (bed sores)
* Objects left in patients during surgical procedures
* Falls suffered by patients while in hospital
* Blood incompatibility Read more →

I now cringe when I see a health insurance statement. This was not always the case. Each time I receive my insurance statements they say something to the extent of:

Your doctor charged $400 and your insurance company only allows $200. This is not a bill.

I used to flinch when I’d receive these until I finally called up someone and found out that the statement was not indeed a bill. Somehow or another I never ended up having to pay any more to my doctor unless you count a random $20 here or there. Read more →