Viewpoints: Health Care’s Merger Climate; The CDC And Gun Violence Research
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
The New York Times:
The Downside Of Merging Doctors And Hospitals
Considering how much we already pay for health care, you have to wonder why doctors, hospitals and insurance providers so often fail to coordinate their patients’ care. Your primary care doctor, the hospital you visit and the various specialists you are sent to are typically part of different organizations that do not communicate effectively with one another. Balls get dropped and care suffers. In part, it’s a consequence of siloed medical practice. (Austin Frakt, 6/13)
Los Angeles Times:
A Warning On Hospital Mergers: After California Allowed Big Chains To Grow, Prices Soared
The debate over hospital mergers traditionally has focused on whether allowing hospitals within a local community to merge drives up prices in that community. A new study from the University of Southern California sounds a much louder alarm. The study found that the domination of the state’s hospital segment by two big systems, Sutter Health and Dignity Health, not only drove up prices everywhere their institutions were located but allowed even nonaffiliated hospitals to charge more. That’s a warning for policymakers at the federal level and in many states, where hospital mergers are on the rise. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/13)
The Dallas Morning News:
CDC Isn’t Banned From Studying Gun Violence; It’s Just Too Scared To Do Its Job
There’s a common misconception that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is forbidden from studying gun violence. That’s simply not true. A number of murky rules have left the agency unclear as to what it is and isn’t allowed to research when it comes to guns. But an outright ban? No. (Seema Yasmin 6/13)
The New York Times:
Compare These Gun Death Rates: The U.S. Is In A Different World
The mass shooting in Orlando on Sunday was appalling in scale: 49 killed in a single attack. But it’s not unusual for dozens of Americans to be killed by guns in a single day. Gun homicides are a common cause of death in the United States, killing about as many people as car crashes (not counting van, truck, motorcycle or bus accidents). Some cases command our attention more than others, of course. Counting mass shootings that make headlines and the thousands of Americans murdered one or a few at a time, gunshot homicides totaled 8,124 in 2014, according to the F.B.I. (Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz, 6/13)
Los Angeles Times:
The Right Way To Repeal And Replace Obamacare
More than six years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans are still trying to craft a workable plan to repeal and replace it. The latest attempt was unveiled in May by Rep. Pete Sessions from Texas and Sen. Bill Cassidy from Louisiana. It would provide every American adult with $2,500 to buy health insurance while abandoning Obamacare’s top-down, regulation-driven approach. As a Republican who believes that Obamacare has not fixed longstanding national healthcare issues, and as a healthcare professional who believes that real reform is one of the most important issues in politics, I support the underlying principles of the Sessions-Cassidy plan. I want reforms that empower patients with greater choice, protect the doctor-patient relationship, decrease costs and increase quality. (Joel L. Strom, 6/13)
The New York Times:
Rethinking Embryo Research Rules
Few areas of scientific investigation are more controversial than embryo research, yet few are more brimming with potential. The field promises valuable insights into early human development and new possibilities for treating diseases and disorders. For more than 35 years, there has been broad international agreement that no scientist can experiment on an embryo that is more than 14 days old. This red line was established as scientific guidance in the United States in 1979, and it was incorporated into British law after the 1984 Warnock inquiry into in vitro fertilization. Other nations, including Australia, Sweden and China, have since adopted the same limit, either in law or through scientific regulation. (Kenan Malik, 6/14)
Huffington Post:
The VA Rule On APRNs Should Not Be Doctors Vs. Nurses
When the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) recently issued a proposed rule to allow advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), to practice to the full extent of their education and training, it should have been lauded as an important step towards providing our nation’s veterans with direct access to the high quality patient care they deserve. (Pamela F. Cipriano and Albert J. Shimkus, Jr., 6/13)
Stat:
Should Medical Residents Be Trusted With End-Of-Life Conversations?
As a resident physician-in-training in a large teaching hospital, my job is to learn from senior physicians and to help treat patients. It’s sometimes surprising how much autonomy I am given as a newly minted doctor. After appropriate training, with little-to-no supervision I can run morning rounds, perform a spinal tap, and lead a Code Blue to try to revive a patient whose heart had stopped. But that autonomy doesn’t extend to end-of-life conversations, even though it should. Residents often assume that a physician who has known a patient for years rather than days should begin these especially difficult conversations. (Ravi Parikh, 6/13)
Chicago Tribune:
How A Silicon Valley Breakthrough Failed The Basic Test Of Innovation
Elizabeth Holmes' big idea was a smart medical device that could perform many sophisticated blood tests from just a finger prick. This would be a small miracle for patients who hate needles. In the Silicon Valley fairy-tale version of her career, Holmes and her company, Theranos, would make billions by making life easier for millions. Deerfield-based Walgreens bought into the idea, investing $50 million. The plan was to dispense Theranos blood tests at thousands of Walgreens drugstores, providing customers with a cheap, effective alternative to doctor's office visits — and those scary needles. (6/13)
Los Angeles Times:
How To Help Stop Opioid Abusers From 'Doctor Shopping' For Prescription Drugs
Like 48 other states, California has an online database that records all the prescriptions issued for potentially habit-forming or abuseable drugs, such as OxyContin and Ritalin. The hope is that the system will deter patients from “doctor shopping” to obtain excess quantities of a drug, and help authorities crack down on healthcare professionals who negligently — or cynically — prescribe pills on demand. (6/14)
The Dallas Morning News:
How Texas Is Creating A Mental Health Care Crisis
The state of Texas is experiencing a health care workforce crisis, and the most severe shortage is in mental health. So why, then, has the Texas Medical Association taken legal action to ensure that marriage and family therapists in Texas may no longer diagnose and treat mental health disorders? (Sarah Woods, 6/13)
