By Pennsylvania Senator Vincent Hughes
Throughout my legislative career, I have been involved in efforts to provide access to high quality, reasonably priced health care for Pennsylvanians who cannot afford the security of life-saving health care coverage.  We’ve struggled, fought and have made progress.
In Pennsylvania, we’ve passed landmark legislation implementing far-reaching and nationally-recognized programs like the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and adultBasic.  As a result, tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who were without decent health coverage have been helped.  Despite this success, a great deal of work remains.
Sadly, far too …

By Richard Amerling, MD
The debate raging over ObamaCare has been carried on mostly by politicians, pundits, policy wonks and economists, with little input from those most intimately involved with delivery of health care—medical practitioners.  Doctors have too often been marginalized as self-interested.  If that were true, there would be far fewer practicing physicians.  Of course we are concerned with income, as are all taxpayers and businesses faced with rising costs and taxes.  Unlike other businesses, however, most doctors are unable to pass higher costs to consumers due to price controls on reimbursement.    When costs outpace …

WebMD offers an interesting feature on the doctor/patient relationship.  Brenda Della Casa had been seeing her primary care physician for two years and had brushed off her concerns about getting rushed care – until she had a health scare she couldn’t ignore. She told her doctor she was experiencing terrible back pain and stomachaches. Her doctor checked her, said she was fine, and sent her on her way.
Five days later, Della Casa, was traveling and had pains so severe she could barely move. When she received a voicemail from her …

Changes to Medicare will give the Feds control of surgical decisions
By SCOTT GOTTLIEB
Senate Democrats are touting the American Medical Association’s endorsement of their health bill as evidence that doctors support the reforms, but there are important reasons why the American College of Surgeons and 18 other specialty groups remain opposed.
The plan’s most tangible efforts to restrain medical costs are through its controls on specialist physicians. Based on the government’s premise that specialists often make wasteful treatment decisions, the health-care legislation in Congress will subject doctors to …

What does the Senate health bill, which is poised to become law, mean for the docs?  Dr. Scott Gottlieb, an internist, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former senior official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
“The plan’s most tangible efforts to restrain medical costs are through its controls on specialist physicians. Based on the government’s premise that they often make wasteful treatment decisions, the health-care legislation in Congress will subject doctors to a mix of financial penalties and regulations to constrain …

By Congressman Joe Sestak
The health care reform measures that I helped passed in the House — the landmark Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 3962), along with the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act (HR 3961) — will dramatically improve our health care system for patients and providers.
The primary concern of all doctors is treating the sick and healing the wounded. Health care reform will expand access to lifesaving care for millions of Americans who lack insurance. It will also improve care for everyone by ending denial of coverage for …

By Cathleen London, MD
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently released its 2009 update to the 2002 recommendations on breast cancer screening.  Specifically, they addressed critical evidence gaps that were unresolved at the time of the 2002 recommendations, including the effectiveness of mammography in decreasing breast cancer mortality among average-risk women age 40-49 years and 70 years and older; the effectiveness of CBE and BSE in decreasing breast cancer mortality among women of any age; and harms of screening with mammography, CBE, and BSE.
In reaching their conclusion, the task …

By Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.
I am shocked and appalled at the cataclysmic shift in the guidelines to later age and less frequent mammograms.  This is diametrically opposite from the American Cancer Society guidelines, and from what most oncologists and practicing physicians think is needed.

Fundamentally, I do not agree with delaying mammograms to age 50, or reducing screening to every two years, or stopping mammograms at age 74.  I think these new guidelines are detrimental to our goals of getting early detection and prompt treatment for women with breast …

Are more doctors buying electronic medical records than before? Or, has the Stimulus bill only reinvigorated research, creating a growing pool of tire kickers?
This Friday marks the close of the first reporting period for Recovery Act funds. Any grants or loans awarded between February 17th (the signing of the bill) and September 30th will be reported in the survey. Results will be posted on Recovery.gov.  We are eager to see the final data. Every day we hear from doctors and office managers that want to take advantage of Stimulus dollars. …

By Jean-Pierre Forage, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Much political hay has been made over the fact that 45 to 50 million
Americans are without health insurance.  Little recognition is given to
the fact that care was provided to these patients without compensation.
While it seems to be politically popular to call for healthcare reform and
find new ways to pay for this in the form of new taxes and restructuring
government, one fact remains:  patients in this country have always been
cared for by physicians with or without payment.  In this current economic
crisis I would submit to you that …