Photographs Courtesy of Renee Rendler-Kaplan I love American ingenuity. There is always somebody ready to capitalize on somebody else’s misery. First, thanks for the many kind words from people who had no idea about the “hamster on a wheel” life of a primary care doctor. I discussed how difficult primary care doctors (internists, pediatricians, family [...]
Archive for the ‘Health Care Policy’ Category
No PayDay Loan Needed!
Posted in Health Care Policy, What's Up, Doc?, tagged family practitioner, internist, life of primary care doctor, payday loan, pediatrician, primary care doctor, Renee Rendler-Kaplan on May 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Uh Uh Tomorrow is Payday
Posted in Health Care Policy, What's Up, Doc?, tagged doctors, hospital, payday, primary care, primary care office, salary doctor, salary increase, salary waitress, student loans, treadmill, waiting an hour for the doctor, waiting room on April 21, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Photograph Courtesy of Bob Cuthill Tomorrow is payday and that is difficult in the life of a primary care physician (I’m not trying to get you to feel sorry for me, just trying to explain the realities of being a primary care doctor in 2010). Can’t make payroll tomorrow. This has become a frequent occurrence over [...]
What an Exhausting Day!
Posted in Health Care Policy, tagged hip fracture, illness, internal medicine, medical problems, Neil Kad, newborns, patients, pediatrics, primary care on April 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Photograph of Stethoscope Courtesy of Neil Kad Wow, Busy Monday, with lots of sick people from the weekend needing to be seen. Patient with hip fracture in the hospital and healthy girl newborn–both doing well! Reminds me how exhausting it is to listen and really try to help twenty two to twenty five patients a [...]
A Foreign Language: The Medical Billing System
Posted in Health Care Policy, What's Up, Doc?, tagged clean claim, CPT, diagnosis codes, health care billing, Health Care Policy, health care reform, HIPPA, ICD, medical billing, medical coding, medical decision making, medical fraud and abuse, outcomes, overhead, patient non-compliance, pay for performance, primary care, rejected claim on March 22, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I can sum up the biggest problem with the health care system in one word: bureaucracy. The regulations that doctors have to memorize, in addition to plain old medicine (which in my experience is complex enough!) looks like the indecipherable ingredients on the back of a processed food bag: CPT/ICD codes, HIPPA compliance, Red [...]

