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FamMedRocks Ep287: Reviewing 2012

We had a great show on the last Saturday of 2012 with co-host Kat as we talked about the stories that we'll remember from the past year. You can listen to the show below or you can download the mp3 file here and listen anytime to Family Medicine Rocks Episode 287. (Photo credit)

Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your support of me and my social media projects over the past year. I am always humbled thinking about people like you taking the time to check out what I'm doing. I'm really hoping to build on last year and make it a great 2013!

If you enjoy what you hear, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast's iTunes feed and have the show come to you so that you can listen anytime on your mobile device. I also encourage you to follow me on twitter, "like" the facebook page for this site, check out my youtube channel, and see my linked-in page. Enjoy!

Lincoln Movie

Over this holiday weekend, I got to see the movie about Abraham Lincoln. You can check out the trailer above. At the end of the movie, I learned that much of this movie came from the book "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." I'll have to take a read of that book again.

Something that I really enjoyed about the movie was the careful political balance Lincoln had to do not only to keep the votes of his supporters for the Thirteenth Amendment, but also to gain the votes of those who were against him. Of course, people will point out the buying of votes. But, what I think made Lincoln great was his power of articulation and precise communication of his point of view.

A lot of people drew analogies between this movie and the recent/current Fiscal Cliff crisis. I admit that I'm a little bit of a political junkie, but lessons from this movie go beyond politics. I learned that I need to be more clear in my communication with peers and with patients. And, the art of storytelling, which the Lincoln character did so well in this move, has been lost in America today. It's a skill that I need to learn. I guess that is what this blog is for - to try to perfect that important skill...

Welcome To The New Site

Ever do something totally nuts? Well, this is one of them. In the past few days, I decided to change up the website and try out this new Squarespace 6 platform. The former site (which is still there for now) was on the Squarespace 5 platform.

Many of you out there are more geeky than I am, so this process was pretty stressful, but, hopefully, if you're seeing this, everything worked out. This site is far from being "finished." It will continue to be a work in progress, and I apologize for things like broken links, and stuff like that.

Welcome to the "soft" launch or the "under the radar" launch of the new site. Feel free to look around, try things out on the site - especially the "Share" button on the right lower part of this post and the like/comment buttons on the lower left part of this post - and give me feedback. Thanks!

Physician Fiscal Cliff Predictions

 

Now that we have survived the Mayan Calendar "end of the world," physician organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians are trying to raise awareness of the "Physician Fiscal Cliff" of 27% Medicare Payment Cuts to Physicians as of January 1, 2013.

Does this seem like deja vu? Well, it is. The threat of Medicare Cuts to Physicians occur once or twice a year. One year ago, I wrote a post on this blog called "I will stop taking Medicare patients as of January 1st" which generated decent discussion on the blog, on twitter, and on facebook. AAFP has already posted information if physicians are considering opting out of Medicare.

So, here we go again. The bad news is that this story is not getting any traction in the main stream press - other than from our friends at Forbes yesterday who posted the article "27% Medicare Pay Cut For Doctors Real Danger In Fiscal Cliff." (BTW, the photo in the article is surgeons. This reinforces the bias against primary care physicians - Sheesh)

What's going to happen in this deal? Even with last night's failure of the US House to pass their "Plan B" bill, I'm still going to make these predictions which are in line to what has happened in past "crises":

  • The "Doc Fix" legislation will be split out of the main "Fiscal Cliff" negotiations and passed on it's own
  • Instead of a 27% cut, lawmakers will approve a 2 percent increase in payments, like they have in the past (Lawmakers will call this a 29% increase in physician payment. It's lawmaker math...)
  • This legislation will be for one month which will mean we'll all go through this again next month, similar to what happened in 2010 (Congress will not even consider a permanent Medicare SGR Fix)
  • The votes will be done and the President will sign on Thursday, December 27th, 2012

In past years, I've kept track of legislative updates on the website "The Hill" with looking for the key phrase "doc fix." What do you think of my predictions? Tell me where I'm wrong and tell me what your predictions are for this "Physician Fiscal Cliff" drama....

Mental Illness + Guns + American Culture = Tragedy

I will say this up front: Newtown, Connecticut will not be the last time tragedy strikes. For good or bad, in this age of social media including twitter, it is easier to track the coverage of this story and people's opinions about it. I have been thinking about this constantly today, and talking with my friends & neighbors about what happened this morning. (Above Image Credit: CNN)

Outlining the problems setting up this tragedy are well known and well documented: 

  • Mental Illness: It is no secret that there is lack of adequate tracking and treatment of the mentally ill in the United States. I wrote a series of posts more than 5 years ago following the Virginia Tech shootings: "Mental Care Delivery In the US," "Depression = Murderer?" "Privacy Laws Need Scrutinized" Will mental illness finally have its due and be seriously addressed in this country? Nope.
  • Guns: Do guns kill people? Yes. Do people kill people? Yes. Do we need more gun laws? Probably. Are there too many gun laws? Probably. Twitter is fired up on this issue right now. Will anything really change? Nope. Republicans will not let that happen.
  • American Culture: Of course there is a desensitization of violence in American culture. This has been happening for a long time. The usual suspects will be blamed including music, the internet, movies, television and video games. Will anything about these change? Nope. Democrats will not let that happen.

Newtown will be added to the litany of names of other tragedies like Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora, this week's Happy Valley Oregon. The question always turns to this: "How can we prevent the next tragedy?" More gun laws? Probably. Better mental illness care? Probably. Changing American culture? Probably.

But, let me tell you this. Change is not going to happen. There has to me massive steps on multiple fronts to even try to address this very complicated problem. That is what makes this a continual sad situation. This story will be in the news cycle for two weeks. And, then after Christmas and after New Years, the drive to make change will dissipate. I wrote the following passage back in 2007 in a post entitled, "Can The Cycle Be Broken", and, again in 2011 following the shootings in Tuscon, and unfortunately, it still rings true today:

Of course, people are outraged by this situation. I'm outraged by what happened. But, I've seen this too many times. We are shocked by what happened, we mourn the victims, we blame whomever we need to blame for what happened, then we go back to our apathy until the next tragedy happens. Well, I'm sick and tired of this useless cycle. Instead of outrage turning into apathy, let's turn outrage into action. And, I'm not talking about knee-jerk reactions...

Um, uh, wait a minute. As I think about things now, I'm thinking about what realistically can happen? Would it mean a radical change in American culture? A culture that celebrates violence? A culture that makes celebrities out of people like Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Cho Seung-Hui. Unfortunately, this is a culture that shirks at the idea of accountability. A culture that believes that it's someone else's job to fix the problem. A country and culture that feels no personal investment to fix its own problems. Am I wrong here? Please tell me I'm wrong...

It breaks my heart that tragedies like this continue to happen. But, if this status quo continues, I will wait for the next city to be added to this list to write about this again...

FamMedRocks Ep286: Dr Davis Liu

Thanks again to my guest on Family Medicine Rocks Episode 286 who was Dr. Davis Liu author of the book "The Thrifty Patient: Vital Insider Tips for Saving Money And Staying Healthy." We had a great conversation about the book which I think is a great read. It's only about 100 pages in paperback and really directed toward the patient/health consumer.

The titles of the chapters include "What To Do To Stay Healthy," "Prescriptions: Not Just For Sick People," and "Using Dr. Google: When To Seek Care And How To Get The Best Care." And, at the end of each chapter, there is something called "Take Home Points" which are the essential things to remember from that chapter.

In addition to the book, we talked about why we think Family Medicine is important and why it's important that Primary Care and Family Medicine need to be empowered to show the nation our value as physicians. You'll see in the video above, Dr. Liu's closing thoughts talking about Leadership.

In addition to this book, he is the author of "Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely." You'll see from his website that he has also written op-ed pieces and done a lot of media work when it comes to television and radio. We need more Primary Care and Family Physicians like Dr. Davis Liu getting out there in media.

I encourage you to check out the entire audio podcast for Family Medicine Rocks Episode 286. I also encourage you to check out the podcast page for the show, and subscribe to the iTunes feed. In addition follow me on twitter, "Like" the facebook page for this show, check out my youtube page, and take a look at my linked-in page. Enjoy!

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Open Letter to AAFP Board of Directors

 

Dear AAFP Board of Directors,

Through my inside sources, I have learned that your first Board meeting of the year starts today. Actually, it wasn't through secret sources, it was through social media. First of all, I just wanted to thank all of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to serve the Academy - what an exciting time for all of you!

A lot of people out here will give you policy recommendations on where the Academy should stand on certain issues. This letter is not that. This letter is to encourage the Board to continue its great use of Social Media to effectively communicate with membership and to communicate with the public.

As a Family Physician and Social Media Enthusiast, I have really enjoyed things like the Leader Voices blog, the increased activity of twitter/facebook, and the beginnings of the use of video announcements/commentary by Board members. There was probably an "orientation to media" session given at some point, and I hope that social media was a part of that.

I wish you all the best in your work this week at your first Board meeting. It's easy to get caught up in the work of the Board, but don't ever forget us our here in the grassroots. Even more important than what you're doing behind closed doors, what's more important, in my humble opinion, is communicating "what" and "why" you're doing something to the AAFP membership. Have a great Board meeting.

Mike Sevilla, MD

#CPI12: Attendee Interviews

This is the next post in a multipart essay on last week's 2012 Conference on Practice Improvement organized by the Society of Teachers in Family Medicine and American Academy of Family Physicians. This conference took place in Greenville, South Carolina and previous posts were ones on the pre-conference and a video interview with Dr. Bruce Bagley.

I also recorded a couple of video interviews with attendees from the meeting, and you'll see them below from Dr. Jay Lee and Dr. Bryan Hodge. It's always great getting the attendee perspective at the meeting. Enjoy!