Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- A majority of physician practices (55.5%) hold an "unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" view of the impact the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) health insurance exchanges will have on them, a survey of more than 1,000 group practices showed. Almost as many (40.2%) said they were still evaluating their options or planning not to participate with insurance products sold on the exchanges, according to a survey that the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) released Monday at its annual meeting. Those still weighing their options cited the risk of low reimbursement rates (85%), financial liability during a 90-day grace period for...

COLLEYVILLE — The clinic under construction in Colleyville has all the trappings of an ordinary doctor's office. But Dr. Kevin Wacasey is planning something revolutionary here. He’s offering what he says is truly affordable health care. "It's a cash clinic," Dr. Wacasey said. "That's just like it used to be in the good old days back before managed care took over."

Four of the most notorious late-term abortionists in the United States — LeRoy Carhart, Warren Hern, Shelly Sella, and Susan Robinson — may have been portrayed as noble martyrs in the new documentary film After Tiller. They received standing ovations at the Sundance Film Festival, and certainly receive plenty of adulation from the likes of pro-abortion extremists like Amanda Marcotte and Wendy “Abortion Barbie” Davis. But evidently, they’re the only ones. In a recent interview, Robinson talked about how she gives mothers little keepsakes and mementos of the viable babies she murders, and refers to her work as “euthanasia” and...

Via the Drudge Report, we learn that medical docs are fleeing Blue State Jersey faster than "Old Blue Eyes" skedaddled out of Hoboken. This from MY9NJ.com: According to Deborah Briggs, the President and CEO of the Council of Teaching Hospitals, New Jersey loses nearly 70% of the doctors it educates to other states. This is well below the national average of a 48% retention rate. Pray tell, why on earth would any doc want to pull up stakes and leave the bucolic Garden State?  Here's why, again according MY9NJ.com: The top five reasons for physicians leaving are: Better salary offered...

Like an estimated 22 million other Americans, I am a self-employed small-business owner who buys health insurance for my family directly on the individual market. We have a high-deductible PPO plan that allows us to choose from a wide range of doctors. Or rather, we had such a plan. Last week, our family received notice from Anthem BlueCross BlueShield of Colorado that we can no longer keep the plan we like because of "changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA)." The letter informed us that "(t)o meet the requirements of the new laws, your...

Within Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution it states that “he [the president] shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” It is safe to say that before Obama, no president in our history has purposely delayed implementing a law that was supposed to be his crowning achievement. Yet, despite the original deadline of October 1, 2013, the employer mandate for health insurance has been delayed until 2015, and the individual mandate is under attack in the House, and may eventually be delayed, as well. These mandates are at the very heart of Obamacare, and are based on...

Freshmen students at the University of Rochester may have had a terrifying start to their college career, courtesy of a prankster posing as their professor. The video has quickly gone viral, approaching seven million views in just four days. The prankster -- a member of the "Chamber Boys" radio program at the university -- showed up a few minutes early with a briefcase. He erases the chalkboard, writes the name of the real professor and addresses the class. "I'm Dr. Hafensteiner and I'll be your professor for Chemistry 131," he tells the class. The fake professor -- whose real name...

Physicians across the country are attending seminars that teach doctors how to start their own direct primary care practices. Direct primary care practices take no health insurance, only cash. In a recent survey conducted by the DPMA Foundation, 2 out of 3 doctors say they are “just squeaking by or in the red,” and 83% say they are “thinking about quitting the business.” With the looming threat of Obamacare, many doctors are planning to ditch the traditional business model for a more simple and straightforward one. Dr. Jerome Aya-Ay from Palmetto Proactive healthcare in South Carolina uses the “Direct primary...

"Dr. Elhagaly is no longer employed or caring for patients at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea. We are working with his patients to transition their care to another physician. Because this is a personnel issue, we cannot comment further on Dr. Elhagaly’s employment status." "Female circumcision in children, referred to as female genital mutilation in U.S. legal statutes, is a felony-level child abuse crime."

NAHARIYA, Israel — The 3-year-old girl cried “Mama, Mama” over and over as a stranger rocked her and tried to comfort her. She had been brought from Syria to the government hospital in this northern Israeli town five days earlier, her face blackened by what doctors said was probably a firebomb or a homemade bomb. In the next bed, a girl, 12, lay in a deep sleep. She had arrived at the pediatric intensive care unit with a severe stomach wound that had already been operated on in Syria, and a hole in her back. Another girl, 13, has been...

Physicians have no business interrogating patients about their gunsIn the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, President Obama and other anti-gun advocates have called for changing Florida’s pro-Second Amendment laws. Their chances of getting the “stand your ground” statute overturned are slim, but the anti-gun groups are making significant progress in the Sunshine State in allowing activist doctors to push their agenda to disarm families. A federal appeals court heard oral arguments on July 18 in the case that has become known as “Docs vs. Glocks.” The issue before the court is whether a patient’s right to privacy and protection...

The official line on health care, which pervades not only the mainstream, but also much of the alternative media is this: The most important thing is that we all receive the best care, and that someone else pays for it… 1. What IS the “best care”? While what constitutes the best of anything is largely subjective, most of us agree, at least in generic terms, that certain things are better than others. Moreover, limited by our budget, we usually have the opportunity to make such choices–unencumbered by third parties. No doubt, plenty of misinformation circulates regarding whatever we are interested...

What the [Un]affordable Care Act Has Already Accomplished Keith Smith, MD What the [Un]affordable Care Act Has Already Accomplished Jul 29, 2013 By Keith Smith, MD http://www.SurgeryCenterOK.com Lest we get too excited about all of the bad news surrounding the unworkability of what I call the Unaffordable Care Act (UCA) or ObamaCare, we should remember that this law has already achieved much of what its architects intended—if you agree with me that the purpose if the law was to: line the pockets of certain connected cronies create an industry-wide consolidation in the insurance and hospital business inject mass chaos into...

On January 16th, 2013, at a press conference, President Obama announced that he would be taking 23 executive actions to reduce gun violence.  There had been much speculation on what the president might do with executive orders. Representative Stockman from Texas had warned the President about not infringing on the Second Amendment with executive orders. The President, in his remarks, talked about executive orders, executive actions, and closed his remarks by saying "Thank you. Let's sign these orders." This has lead to some confusion about what executive orders were signed.  Forbes  listed "The 23 Executive Orders On Gun Safety Signed...

Doctors who own private practices are looking for a way out. Fed up with their rising business expenses and shrinking payouts from insurers, many are selling their practices to hospitals. It's happening nationwide and has picked up pace, said Tony Stajduhar, president at Jackson & Coker, a physician recruitment firm. Experts say the number of physicians unloading their practices to hospitals is up 30% to 40% in the last five years. Doctors who sell typically become employees of the hospital, as do the people who work for them. The reasons for the trend vary. Doctors are tired of the hassle...

You should care a lot about how health reform will affect your doctor. The reason: it will also affect you. Here's what's happening: hospitals are merging and they are acquiring doctors. In the process, they are making the market less competitive, gaming third-party payment formulas and doing other things that make our health insurance premiums and our taxes higher than they otherwise would be. None of this is the result of any plan the administration ever announced, however. What did the Obama administration intend to happen? The clearest explanation of their vision of health reform comes from Harvard Medical School...

Obamacare is set to provide some 16 million people with health insurance through Medicaid or the new exchanges next year. Unfortunately, their policies may not be worth much — as they may not be able to actually get care. America is suffering from a doctor shortage. An influx of millions of new patients into the healthcare system will only exacerbate that shortage — driving up the demand for care without doing anything about its supply. Those who get their coverage through Medicaid or the exchanges may feel the effects of the shortage even more acutely, as many providers are opting...

Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Calif., believes that if her Assembly Bill 926 passes, researchers will be able to pay egg donors as they develop medical advances that can help all women. To her, the bill is an issue of simple fairness -- gender equity, really. Since a well-intended 2006 bill banned researchers from paying egg donors more than expense reimbursement, researchers have been at a competitive disadvantage, while affluent couples can offer fertile women top dollar. UCSF Professor Marcelle Cedars lamented at a hearing of the state Senate Health Committee on Wednesday that the status quo robs potential egg donors of...

Venture behind the scenes in any hospital, and you will be astounded by the amount of time taken up with paperwork. Detailed reports, for every single patient encounter (largely for defensive purposes), are input into ever more sophisticated computer systems. The latest wrinkle allows medical billing experts to view these reports as they are being entered in real time, so that they can issue helpful pop-ups suggesting how additional billing items can be added. Hospitals need the additional revenue since insurance limits reimbursements, and they are forced to treat many patients at no charge. Hospital poverty can also be used...

In Texas, 34 percent of doctors are not accepting new Medicare patients or have limited the number of patients. • In Iowa, 17 percent have shut out Medicare patients• The American Medical Association says 17 percent of more than 9,000 doctors surveyed restrict the number of Medicare patients in their practice. Among primary care physicians, the rate is 31 percent./p> The cost of health care has been a nagging public policy issue for decades, even before the government took on the task of insuring retirees in the 1960s. The issue continued to fester through the Social Security reform of the...