The biggest health care fix

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [eBrief]( How to move the needle on patient satisfaction and other measures that matter. Consumers have a choice -- are they choosing your hospital? [Get the eBrief now](. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is a marathon, not a sprint. [Here are some tips]( to stay in the race and [here are 5 best practices]( to meet MACRA/MIPS requirements. A typical provider spends close to $4,000 on paper and fax supplies each year and loses another $41,000 to patient no-shows. Sound high? [Calculate your spend](. [Infographic]( 7 questions that will help prepare your hospital for the unexpected. [Learn more](. [Patient misidentification can lead to medical errors, patient harm, and costly inefficiencies]( for providers. Get the facts on patient misidentification, and [learn how to avoid it]( from organizations that use biometrics to do so. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Jun 28, 2018 [The biggest health care fix: a relentless focus on primary care]( There are so many theories out there about what we should or shouldn’t be doing with our complex and fragmented health care system. We are facing a perfect storm of factors: an aging population, a huge increase in chronic disease, new and expensive treatments, and rising expectations of what care we should be receiving. All […] [5 reasons to get involved in organized medicine]( The following are intended to inspire to medical students and residents to learn more about organized medicine. Whether it be at the national, state, county, or specialty level, there are numerous societies with opportunities for contribution. 1. To pull back the curtain. Many physicians are innately curious and like to “see how the sausage is […] [Dear CVS: Please change your hold music]( Dear CVS, Please change your hold music. Please. Do the right thing. It’ll take you, or someone who works for you, or even a barely pubescent adolescent who nevertheless knows how to program music on his iPhone with more aplomb than anyone born before 1975, only about 48 seconds. And 48 seconds is substantially less […] [Bilateral empathy lowers patient expectations]( Generally speaking, patients and physicians are working towards good health. While many patient expectations can be unreasonable, others are practical; this article amalgamates them. Can you identify the absurd demands? But multiply half of the listed expectations by hundreds or thousands of patients, and we begin to understand why there is such a high rate […] [The physician reluctance to seek mental health treatment]( The recent suicides of an NYU resident and a medical student highlight the growing mental health problem among physicians and physicians-in-training in this country. This crisis is certainly not exclusive to physicians, as evidenced by the suicides of designer Kate Spade and television personality Anthony Bourdain. However, suicide among physicians is of particular concern. A […] [Confronting sexism in medicine]( The recent prominence of the #MeToo movement has shined a light at many places in our society where insidious or even obvious sexism against women has long gone unremarked. Even when noticed it’s just shrugged off as the way things are. In honor of this, #MeToo was named Person of the Year for 2017 by Time Magazine. Medicine […] [How medical training can affect the physician psyche]( Since the two very sudden public suicide deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, society has again recognized that we never know what is under the surface of another’s façade. As physicians, these tragic occurrences emphasize that our caregiving requires seeing the entirety of an individual’s many parts. While we acknowledge that the façade is […] [Bullying immigrant children in the name of politics]( We’ve all seen the news and heard the stories about children being separated from their parents as they cross over the U.S. border. The pictures of human beings, including very young children, behind wire mesh (some argue that they are not really cages) is simply horrifying. Over the past decades, we have seen atrocities happening […] [Accept the decisions patients make]( In an era where health information is freely flowing thanks to the internet and Dr. Google, I’ve come to expect that patients who see me for the first time will have done their homework — about their cancer, treatment options, and yes, even about me. To be frank, it’s not uncommon for patients to mention they’ve […] [Separating children at the border is a danger to their health]( Fair and just societies protect children. The Trump administration’s unconscionable practice of separating children from their families at the border between Mexico and the United States is making me rethink what kind of society I live in. The images and the stories are heartbreaking. In an effort to deter families from migrating to the United States, reports say the […] [When does a condition become a medical issue?]( It has become a sign of legitimacy to call a personal problem “medical.” This aims to distinguish the problem from those of morality or character. It implies both that the problem is serious, and that it is unbidden and largely out of the sufferer’s control. Unfortunately, it isn’t clear what exactly qualifies as “medical,” so […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Conference planners!]( Find vetted, handpicked physician speakers that shine on stage. [Physician Speaking by KevinMD: Your audience deserves the best](. --------------------------------------------------------------- If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 345 Hudson Street New York NY 10014 USA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](