The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Westwood NJ, one would think after the nursing and Veteran Home fiasco’s during the COVID-19 pandemic the medical profession would be more on guard as to the care of the elderly .
Continue reading Are New Jersey Hospitals Drugging Elderly Patients to keep them Docile?
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Ridgewood NJ, Bergen magazine has named 241 physicians from The Valley Hospital’s Medical Staff to its March 2022 list of “The County’s Top Doctors.”
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Ridgewood NJ, with National Doctors’ Day coming up on March 30 and the median physician’s salary at around $208,000, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2022’s Best & Worst States for Doctors .
Continue reading New Jersey Is 2022’s 5th Worst State for Doctors
photos courtesy of Ridgewood Emergency Services
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Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Emergency Services held its TIES (Teenagers in Emergency Services) training in CPR at it’s recent drill night. Over 40 High School students learning CPR for the first time and several refreshing their skills. They are the First Responders on scene when seconds count, be it at home, at school, on the street or at the mall. Learning CPR and volunteering with Ridgewood Emergency Services are valuable skills. The teens are our future EMTs, Paramedics, Doctors, Nurses, Police Officers and Firefighters.
Becoming a doctor can be one of your best or one of the worst decisions you ever make in your life. It all depends on whether you chose a medical school for the right reasons. Before you decide to become a doctor, you must thoroughly understand the job’s responsibilities. Here are a few details about medical practitioners that you must know before you decide on becoming one.
Continue reading 6 Important Details You Should Know About Doctors Before Deciding To Become One
Over the last century, the way healthcare professionals work has changed massively. One way healthcare has changed, and a way that is definitely for the better is through medical transcription. Healthcare records have traditionally been kept in filing cabinets as paper. In recent years, and with the use of medical transcription software, doctors have been able to store medical records digitally and cut down the amount of time they spend writing, saving, and storing information. Digital medical records can be accessed from anywhere at any time by medical professionals who might need them, rather than having to phone up a hospital and have them dig through their filing cabinets.
Continue reading What is Medical Dictation Software, and How is It Used?
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Ridgewood NJ, In response to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and to recognize the significant efforts of the front-line responder and health care community, Starbucks announced today that it will offer a free tall brewed coffee (hot or iced) to front-line responders at participating U.S. Starbucks stores throughout the month of December to show appreciation for those keeping our communities safe during COVID-19.
Continue reading Starbucks to offer free Coffee to front-line Responders Throughout December
On this can’t miss episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, nine courageous doctors speak out about their frontline experiences treating COVID-19 patients revealing what they’ve learned, what they believe can help end the pandemic in the next 30 days, and their controversial stance on HCQ that has shaken the medical and political worlds after their videos received millions of view before they were ultimately taken down across social media.
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Ridgewood NJ, Coronavirus numbers are on the increase across the United States, and so is the debate about hydroxychloroquine as a treatment and preventative. Senator Joe Pennacchio today said the politically fueled controversy is interfering with doctors who are scrambling to save lives.
Continue reading Doctors Must Be Unshackled and Allowed to Treat with or Without HCQ
photo by Boyd Loving
“Some of you guys in the comments are disgusting. You know nothing about black history or why people are protesting. Black people have been fighting for equality for over 400 years. Educate yourselves before you speak. Stop being Karen’s & Kens & pick up a damn history book. Black people have to work 10 times harder than a white man or woman just because we’re black. You’ll never understand but at least stand for what’s right. You people disgust me.
Sincerely,
A young BLACK a woman”
8Apr – by Daniel Steingold – 189 – In Health Studies
ROCHESTER, Minn. — When it comes to treating a serious illness, two brains are better than one. A new study finds that nearly 9 in 10 people who go for a second opinion after seeing a doctor are likely to leave with a refined or new diagnosis from what they were first told.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic examined 286 patient records of individuals who had decided to consult a second opinion, hoping to determine whether being referred to a second specialist impacted one’s likelihood of receiving an accurate diagnosis.
The study, conducted using records of patients referred to the Mayo Clinic’s General Internal Medicine Division over a two-year period, ultimately found that when consulting a second opinion, the physician only confirmed the original diagnosis 12 percent of the time.
A new study finds that 88% of people who go for a second opinion after seeing a doctor wind up receiving a refined or new diagnosis.
Among those with updated diagnoses, 66% received a refined or redefined diagnosis, while 21% were diagnosed with something completely different than what their first physician concluded
https://www.studyfinds.org/second-opinion-doctor-diagnosis-study/
New law’s success or failure will ‘profoundly influence the future of the U.S. health care system’
by John S. O’Shea, M.D. | Updated 21 Oct 2016 at 9:22 AM
In what may be the most significant modification to Medicare since the program began in 1966, on Oct. 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule for implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). It dramatically changes how Medicare pays doctors for their services.
Does it really matter how doctors get paid? Yes — the success or failure of the new payment system will profoundly influence the future of the U.S. health care system. And while the goals of MACRA are laudable, its implementation carries a number of unknowns and the potential for unintended consequences — for patients and doctors alike.
https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/risk-of-mass-exodus-of-doctors-from-medicare/
Those suffering from cancer, dementia and mental health problems can benefit from gardening, according to health thinktank
Doctors should prescribe gardening far more often for patients with cancer, dementia and mental health problems, the NHS has been urged in a new report.
Outdoor spaces including gardens can reduce social isolation among older people as well as help patients recover and manage conditions such as dementia, according to the influential King’s Fund health thinktank.
Jane Ellison, the public health minister, backed the plan, which could see GPs in particular advising patients to spend more time outside as a way of alleviating their symptoms. “[Gardening] is profoundly good for you … [it] is a great way of keeping people active, of keeping them outside and keeping their sense of wellbeing very high,” she said. “There are things we can do around physical activity in particular that bring immediate payback … I’m trying to put this right across the agenda of dementia and cancer.”
Parts of the country are already investing in this more social approach to health at primary care level and in some places, such as the Bromley by Bow Centre in London, GPs are already prescribing gardening. Such schemes have been proven to reduce patients’ need to see a GP or attend A&E, enhance wellbeing and even promote better sleep.
MAY 10, 2015, 2:55 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015, 12:28 AM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A Franklin Lakes couple did everything possible last fall to stick to their insurance company’s rules when their baby was born.
To keep out-of-pocket costs to a minimum, they chose an obstetrician and a hospital that were part of their health insurance plan. When Brenda Cristiano required a C-section after a long labor, they thought they were covered.
But a few weeks later, they received a bill from the anesthesiologist — for $1,852.
It turns out that no anesthesiologist practicing at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, where GianLuca was born on Oct. 15, accepts Cigna, their insurance plan. So even though the Cristianos used an in-network hospital and in-network obstetrician, they could not avoid out-of-network charges.
It happens over and over again: Hospital-based physicians — whom patients are powerless to choose — do not participate in some or all of the insurance plans a hospital accepts and end up demanding additional payment from patients for their fees. Surprise medical bills from anesthesiologists, emergency-room doctors, pathologists and radiologists, among others, have led to complaints and appeals and forced consumers to pay thousands more than they expected.
Many consumers wind up deeply in debt when they are billed out-of-network rates, said Chuck Bell, director of programs at Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. “Patients are trying hard to play by the rules, to use provider directories and stay within the network,” he said. “It seems that the system is not fair. It does not make it easy for patients to do that.”
These concerns are driving an effort by some New Jersey lawmakers, who plan to submit legislation this week to overhaul the way out-of-network providers and their bills are regulated in New Jersey. Nationwide, nearly one in three Americans with private insurance received a surprise medical bill, in which their health plan paid less than they expected, in the last two years, a Consumer Reports survey found. Of those, nearly one in four received a bill from a doctor whom they didn’t expect to bill them.
The Cristianos went to the hospital to have a baby, and inadvertently stumbled into a crossfire of competing interests, including those of doctors, the facility and their insurance company. For the businesses involved, the stakes are high. Mutual mistrust abounds. Patients are left unprotected, accepting care from physicians whose network status and fees they do not know. The one thing all agree upon is that there has to be a better way.
Anthony Cristiano, a financial services executive, has been sued over his failure to pay the bill from Bergen Anesthesia Group — and he’s hired his own lawyer to fight back.
“The fact that this organized monopoly of … doctors has the local hospital and the residents of Bergen County hostage needs to stop,” Cristiano said. “Valley should be required by law to have a medical specialist on staff, or available” who accepts every insurance plan the hospital does, he said. Otherwise, he said, it “cannot be called an in-network hospital.”
Megan Fraser, Valley’s spokeswoman, said the hospital does not require physicians who practice at its facilities to participate in the same insurance networks the hospital does. However, she said the hospital does “encourage our doctors to negotiate with the plans in which Valley participates and suggest that they be transparent with their patients regarding what plans they do and do not participate in.”
Bergen Anesthesia Group did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, but the head of the state doctors’ association said the issue was “much more complicated than it seems on the surface.”
Doctors don’t have the bargaining clout with insurance companies that a hospital like Valley does, said Lawrence Downs, chief executive of the Medical Society of New Jersey, because insurance companies know the hospital is essential to their network. In contrast, “the terms and conditions the anesthesiologists are offered may be very poor,” he said. “They may not meet the financial needs of the group, or the terms may be objectionable. They have no ability to negotiate that — they are not part of the hospital.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/doctors-deliver-a-costly-health-insurance-surprise-1.1330837
As Medicaid Rolls Swell, Cuts in Payments to Doctors Threaten Access to Care
WASHINGTON — Just as millions of people are gaining insurance through Medicaid, the program is poised to make deep cuts in payments to many doctors, prompting some physicians and consumer advocates to warn that the reductions could make it more difficult for Medicaid patients to obtain care.
The Affordable Care Act provided a big increase in Medicaid payments for primary care in 2013 and 2014. But the increase expires on Thursday — just weeks after the Obama administration told the Supreme Court that doctors and other providers had no legal right to challenge the adequacy of payments they received from Medicaid.
The impact will vary by state, but a study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, estimates that doctors who have been receiving the enhanced payments will see their fees for primary care cut by 43 percent, on average.
Stephen Zuckerman, a health economist at the Urban Institute and co-author of the report, said Medicaid payments for primary care services could drop by 50 percent or more in California, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, among other states.
In his budget request in March, President Obama proposed a one-year extension of the higher Medicaid payments. Several Democratic members of Congress backed the idea, but the proposals languished, and such legislation would appear to face long odds in the new Congress, with Republicans controlling both houses.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/us/obamacare-medicaid-fee-increases-expiring.html?_r=0
