Contents tagged with health care
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Health care politics 101
By Tom Banning
TAFP Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice PresidentAt the risk of sounding overly cynical, epiphanies in politics are rare, if they exist at all. Ground-breaking legislative reforms are more likely to evolve from several years of toiling in the political trenches. Even then, legislative breakthroughs may be a result of sheer unanticipated luck, stumbling by an opponent, an inadvertent absence of a determined adversary, or the weird and largely unplanned alignment of mutual interests, as politics makes strange bedfellows.
Legislative reform is by definition a reactionary sport. Reforms typically occur after, not before, the proverbial train wreck, plane crash, biblical storm or financial meltdown. Health care reform is no different and in many respects will be much more difficult to achieve, as reformers are attempting to transform the system before it collapses.
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Estimating relative complexity of care provided in ambulatory settings
Estimating relative complexity of care provided in ambulatory settings
By David Katerndahl, M.D., M.A., and Robert Wood, Dr.P.H.
Since the days of the Resource-Based Relative Value Scales, … more
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It's the system, stupid
By Tom Banning
TAFP Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice PresidentHealth system reform—with the emphasis on the system, not the players in the system—is on the political precipice. In my previous column, I discussed how policymakers, patients, physicians and those paying for health care are so fed up with our floundering health care system that fundamental, systemic change is inevitable.
The good news is that among the policy experts who count and vote, there is a broad, evidence-based consensus that economic recovery and health care economics are inextricably linked. Every report accumulating on politicians’ desks, in their minds and perhaps in their hearts declares the restoration of primary care as fundamental to health system reform.
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Economic concerns cause patients to delay care
Economic concerns cause patients to delay care
TAFP, AAFP promote medical home concept for health reform
More than half of Americans postponed or skipped medical care because of cost last year, … more
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Texas scores poorly compared to other states in new child health care report
Texas scores poorly compared to other states in new child health care report
Texas was tagged as one of the worst in providing children with quality health care, ranking 46th among the 50 states … more