January 13, 2015 Obamacare is forcing us doctors to send the government reports on our patients’ personal lives. To understand how this is done, one must understand how doctors are compensated. Anytime you see a doctor, two codes are generated. One is a procedure code called a CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) code. The other is a diagnostic code called an ICD-9 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases – Ninth Version) code. There are literally thousands of procedure (CPT) codes that cover everything from routine examinations to ear wax removal. There are also thousands of diagnostic codes (ICD- 9), one for every known illness. Both of these codes are sent to the government agency and/or insurance company that pays the claim. No codes, no payment. It’s that simple. Under Obamacare, doctors were offered $40,000 each to convert to electronic medical records (EMR). The theory was that the improved efficiency in data consolidation and analysis would result in improved patient care along with epidemiological evidence as to the best way to treat certain diseases. In order to make sure that doctors used the EMR software properly, Obamacare came up with the concept … [Read more...]

The recent merger between Aetna and the managed care company US Healthcare should convince the public once and for all that managed care is a scam. The multibillion dollar deal is part of the ongoing wealth transfer from the middle class to the super wealthy. The CEO for US Healthcare is taking home $1,000,000,000(Your eyes are fine. That's one with nine zeros after it.)along with a $25,000,000 corporate jet, $10,000,000 in stock options, and another $10,000,000 in consulting fees. Managed care has been successful because it has perfected the art of satisfying the vast majority of patients who are healthy while tormenting the sick minority with paperwork, 800 numbers, and bureaucracy to prevent them from obtaining care. Women and their infants are heaved out of the hospital 12 hours after birth. Patients with psychiatric disorders have their most intimate conversations perused by bureaucrats. But this merger is a precursor to a huge taxpayer rip off—managed Medicare. Medicare is the government program that cares for the elderly and disabled. It has been a huge success, increasing the quality of life for our elderly so that the United States now leads the world in life … [Read more...]

Practicing medicine has become a frustrating vocation. While physicians continue to learn new therapies and advanced surgical techniques to improve the lives of their patients, a constant drumbeat by both the government and the private sector to control costs is turning medicine from the art of healing to the art of battling byzantine bureaucracies. Meanwhile, more and more patients are falling through the cracks—even in supposedly good economic times—as health insurance costs escalate. Forty-one million Americans, 17.6% of the under 65 population, are uninsured, the highest in recent history. (1) The primary response of the medical community to this disturbing trend has been either to fight the bureaucratic excesses of managed care or to attempt to organize health insurance plans controlled exclusively by physicians. Neither of these approaches will address the underlying reason for the unaffordability of health insurance: the wages of workers have not kept pace with the escalation in health-care costs. Per capita health-care costs have increased 23-fold since 1970 while wages have increased only 4-fold. The problem is further compounded by increasing disparities of … [Read more...]