Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Record-Keeping Dispute Forces New Hampshire Doctor To Surrender License
The Washington Post: An 84-Year-Old Doctor Who Refuses To Use A Computer Has Lost Her Medical License
Aside from a fax machine and landline telephone, Dr. Anna Konopka, 84, doesn't have much technology in her office. Instead, her patients' records are tucked into two file cabinets, which sit in a tiny office next door to her 160-year-old clapboard house in New London, N.H. Records are meticulously handwritten, she said. ... Konopka said she felt forced to surrender her medical license in September after New Hampshire Board of Medicine officials challenged her record-keeping, prescribing practices and medical decision-making, according to court documents. She is specifically accused of leaving the dosage levels of a medication up to a young girl's parent and failing to treat the girl with daily inhaled steroids. (Eltagouri, 11/29)
WBUR: Do Doctors Need To Use Computers? One Physician's Case Highlights The Quandary
Do you need computer skills to be a competent doctor? That's one of the central questions surrounding a difficult case unfolding in New Hampshire this month: Anna Konopka, an octogenarian doctor who eschews computers and has been practicing medicine for the better part of six decades, surrendered her license under a September agreement with the state's board of medicine — partly because of multiple complaints related to her record keeping, Merrimack Superior Court Judge John Kissinger said. (Dwyer, 11/28)
Stat: Are Nurses The New Sales Reps?
For the past decade, Eli Lilly allegedly relied on a scheme in which nurses were used to illegally promote its diabetes medicines to physicians. A recently unsealed lawsuit describes how the company hired nurses to talk up its treatments to doctors and their patients, an arrangement that purportedly violated federal kickback laws. By doing so, Lilly avoided concerns that sales reps might get little to no face time with doctors and simultaneously helped save physicians from the expense of providing followup care, according to the lawsuit. The approach is sometimes known as “white coat marketing,” which the lawsuit noted is considered problematic by authorities because it may blur trust between doctors and patients. (Silverman, 11/28)
Kaiser Health News: Doctors Make Big Money Testing Urine For Drugs, Then Ignore Abnormal Results
Medicare and other insurers pay for urine tests with the expectation that clinics will use the results to detect and curb dangerous abuse. But some doctors have taken no action when patients are caught misusing pharmaceuticals, or taking street drugs such as cocaine or heroin. Federal pain guidelines say doctors should discuss test results with patients and taper medication if necessary. (11/29)
