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The model, which gives patients direct access to their doctors and longer appointment times, is proving hard to scale up. Some people spend $200 a month on the golf course or on a fancy cable TV package, says David Westbrook, a hospital executive in Kansas City, Mo. His splurge? He pays Dr. John Dunlap $133 a month for what he considers exceptional primary care. Dr. John Dunlap runs a direct primary care practice in Overland Park, Kan., offering patients direct access to him by phone and longer appointment times. The model is similar to concierge medicine. "I have the resources to spend a little extra money on my health care to my primary care physician relationship," Westbrook says. "Because I have that access — and am very proactive in managing my personal health — I think I'm going to be healthier." That $133 is in addition to Westbrook's monthly insurance premium, which he still needs to cover whatever Dunlap can't handle in his primary care practice...

When you are checking into your doctors' office for the first time, you are handed a HIPAA form. Within that document is legalese describing how your information will be protected....some of the time. Few people read it, skipping to the signature form. Patients skip to the forms about their past and present medical issues The following is a guest article by Deborah Hsieh, Chief Policy & Strategy Officer at Ciox.  When most of your patients hear “health data rights,” they likely think of HIPAA, or the long forms they rarely read in their doctors’ offices. What they may take for granted is the protections for health data that covered entities must provide. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 and is the framework on which health data protection has been constructed. The initial intent of the Act was to support the continuation of health insurance coverage and to ensure the security and confidentiality of patient information/data. The...

 Medicaid expansion was linked to a 6 percent reduction in opioid overdose deaths, according to a new study. The study in an online version of the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that counties in states that accepted the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had a 6 percent lower rate of opioid overdose deaths compared to counties in states that did not expand Medicaid. The study finds the data indicates that Medicaid expansion may have prevented between 1,678 and 8,132 deaths from opioid overdoses between 2015 and 2017. For comparison, there were 82,228 total opioid overdose deaths in that time period, the study states.  “These findings add to the emerging body of evidence that Medicaid expansion under the ACA may be a critical component of state efforts to address the continuing opioid overdose epidemic in the United States,” the study states. Graph of Overdose Deaths per 100,000 population In this nationwide, population-based study o...

Say you’ve received a brand-new Fitbit for Christmas to get you started in tracking your exercise routine and reach your fitness goals. Great! However, there might be more going on behind the scenes of you keeping fit with the help of technology than meets the eye... Just like the Jedi Order's Light and Dark side of The Force, health trackers also have contrasting sides akin to the Sith and the Jedi, and you might have unintentionally signed a pact with the dark side already… In hindsight, it might have been a better idea to have asked for a LEGO Millennium Falcon instead... The Medical Futurist, we’re great fans of wearables (or health trackers) that help you make more informed decisions when it comes to your health. However, we can’t stay indifferent to the potential risks which using these devices entail such as individual tracking, inaccuracies and even supplementing harmful behaviors. If you were oblivious about the flip side of the health-tracking industry, then join us as we...

The Ten Year Plan Unknown to many there are federal guidelines as to how federal funds are spent. The National Academies of Medicine advisory committee released their list of priority areas for medicine whose goals are for 2030.  The NAM has provided this list since 1979. Beginning in 1979 and in each subsequent decade, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has overseen the Healthy People initiative to set national goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention. The Healthy People effort also informs public health planning and measurement at the state and local levels. The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health charged The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine with assisting in the development of Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) for Healthy People 2030. To accomplish this task, the National Academies convened a consensus committee to provide advice on two components of the Healthy People 2030 effort. The committee was...

The top one goes to statements about veterans' health care. President Trump has made 901 false or misleading claims related to health care since taking office three years ago, a Washington Post database shows. His foremost claim? That his administration single-handedly overhauled care for veterans with the 2018 Mission Act — a measure that does make it easier for some vets to visit private medical providers but is mostly an update of a law signed by President Barack Obama. His foremost claim? That his administration single-handedly overhauled care for veterans with the 2018 Mission Act — a measure that does make it easier for some vets to visit private medical providers but is mostly an update of a law signed by President Barack Obama. Trump’s pronouncements on a range of health-care topics — such as preexisting condition protections, the effects of Medicare-for-all and the state of the Affordable Care Act — are among the more than 16,200 false or misleading claims he has made in h...

Past approaches to fixing our healthcare system have led to an absurdly complicated and convoluted system based on political motivations - see examples such as the “Affordable Care Act,” which crippled the ability for Americans to gain access to healthcare in the name of health coverage.  The truth is the status quo is broken. Prices and spending levels continue to rise. The healthcare bureaucracy continues to grow. Americans are hurting because of it. In order to fix our system, we need healthcare freedom.   The Personalized Care Act will put millions of Americans in control of their healthcare choices by expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) - a mechanism necessary to creating healthcare freedom which will allow Americans to personalize their care. Under this bill, funds from HSAs can be used for options such as direct medical care, healthcare sharing ministries, medications, and insurance premiums. No one should stand in the way of you and your doctor – this in...