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Discussing AAFP Gun Violence Essay

Family Medicine Rocks podcast episode 289 will be live at 2pm Eastern Time on Thursday, January 10th, 2013. The title of the episode is "Gun Violence, Flu Update, and Monetization." This jam-packed show has the following content:

Wrap-up FamMedRocks Episode 288

The first show of 2013 was Family Medicine Rocks Episode 288. Thanks to all of you who listened live and who have already downloaded the show. Here are the summary of the topics discussed:

  • Do you Self-Diagnose yourself on the internet? Many people do. I invite you to check out this link from our friends at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The link has some great data including 80% of internet users look online for health information. I also invite you to check out the video above in which I give my opinion about people who self-diagnose themselves and/or people who use the internet for health information.
  • What is a Self-Tracker? These are individuals who track their own health and wellness, especially using technology like smartphone apps and wearable technology like the FitBit. Also included in this section of the show is an interview with Susannah Fox about self-tracking.
  • In the final section of the show, I read and give my opinion regarding an essay by Phil Baumann entitled, "Physician Social Media: Has Advice About It Become A Crock? Yes - A Dear Doctor Letter." 

You can listen to the full audio podcast below. You can also download the entire show here and listen at your convenience. I also invite you to follow me on twitter, "like" the facebook page for this site, check out other videos on my youtube page, and check out my linked-in page. Enjoy!

Early Flu Season 2013

Over this weekend, in the national news, you're seeing stories of what they're calling an Early Flu Season for the 2012-13 year. A quick search gets stories from NBC News, Huffington Post, Fox News, and ABC News. I had the flu 5 years ago, and I wrote about it in the post "Influenza Case Study: Me."

It is not too late to get your flu shot, which experts are saying is a good match to the current flu virus strain that is out there. Check out this list of people who should get the flu vaccine from the CDC. In the video above, you'll see a TV interview I did last month. Back at that time, there was influenza cases in the southern part of the US, but it's now the case that the virus is spreading nationwide. So, if you haven't already, get your flu shot!

Physician Medicare Cuts Delayed Til 2014

Well, they did it again. The press is congratulating Congress on the "success" of coming up with a New Year's Night deal on that no one likes. For physicians, this deal contains a delay in the 27% cut in Medicare payments to physicians according to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). For full coverage of this story, I encourage you to read articles from Medpage Today, Kaiser Health News, and Modern Healthcare. (Photo credit: New York Times)

The 26.5% cut in Medicare reimbursement mandated by the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula was averted in a literal 11th hour vote Tuesday in the House of Representatives. The House vote to pass the "fiscal cliff" bill ok'd earlier by the Senate delays the SGR cuts for a year. The bill cleared the House by a vote of 257-167; senators had passed the same bill in an 89-8 vote just after 2:00 a.m. vote.

While Congress has put another bandaid on the SGR problem, a long term solution is still needed, because when December 31, 2013 comes, we'll be going through this thing all over again, and the potential cuts will probably be in the 30% range. Medical organizations will again be out encouraging their members to lobby congress for a long term Medicare payment solution. How effective will they be? We'll see...

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...