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Even in states where laws protect minors’ access to gender-affirming care, malpractice insurance premiums are keeping small and independent clinics from treating patients.
The Medical Board of California, which licenses MDs, is developing a program to evaluate, treat, and monitor doctors with alcohol and drug problems. But there is sharp disagreement over whether those who might volunteer for the program should be subject to public disclosure and over how much participants should pay.
Family medicine doctors already deliver most of rural America's babies, and efforts to train more in obstetrics care are seen as a way to cope with labor and delivery unit closures.
A majority of medical schools now offer dual MD-MBA programs, compared with just a quarter two decades ago. The number of medical students seeking a business degree has nearly tripled. This begs the question: Whom will these doctors serve more, patients or shareholders?
Some hospitals and physician groups are rejecting Medicare Advantage plans over payment rates and coverage restrictions, causing turmoil for patients.
Despite the prevalence of autoimmune conditions, like the thyroid disease Hashimoto’s, sometimes finding help can prove frustrating as well as expensive. There are often no definitive diagnostic tests, so patients may rack up big bills as they search for confirmation of their condition and for treatment options.
Many proposals have been floated about how to address the nation’s primary care problem. They range from training slots to medical school debt forgiveness but often sidestep comprehensive payment reform.
Treatments that don’t help patients, and may even harm them, are difficult to eliminate because they can be big sources of revenue.
The principles and practices of geriatrics are being widely disseminated. And we understand much more now about how to improve older adults’ care. Yet we don’t have enough geriatricians to meet the growing demand.
Native Americans and rural residents are underrepresented in medical schools. But in this new program, 25% of students are Indigenous and half are from rural areas.
The American College of Emergency Physicians agreed to withdraw its 2009 white paper on excited delirium, removing the only official medical pillar of support left for the theory that has played a key role in absolving police of culpability for in-custody deaths.
New HIV infections occur disproportionately among Black women, but exclusionary marketing, fewer treatment options, and provider wariness have limited uptake of preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, drugs, which reduce the risk of contracting the virus.
Many women, especially Black women, have reported discrimination in maternity care, but expectant mothers lack tools to see where this happens. Funding and regulations to measure disparities have been slow in arriving, but some innovators are trying to fill the void.
The American College of Emergency Physicians will vote in early October on whether to disavow its 2009 research paper on excited delirium, which has been cited as a cause of death and used as a legal defense by police officers in several high-profile cases.
LaFayette and other rural areas of the country tend to have high rates of health problems but not enough doctors. Many are adapting by investing in nontraditional prevention and treatment options.
Doctors say billing for email consultations reduces message volume and gives them more free time. The increasingly prevalent practice has also raised fears about negative impacts to patient care.
The declining share of U.S. doctors in adult primary care is about 25% — a point beyond which many Americans won’t be able to find a family doctor at all.
Patient advocates have long alleged the Medical Board of California is ineffective at policing doctors. But a proposal to beef up its budget and overhaul procedures faces stiff resistance from the doctors’ lobby.
Florida’s new immigration law requires hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status at admission and in emergency rooms, and report that information plus the cost of care for residents without legal status. Doctors and nurses who oppose the policy seem reluctant to criticize lawmakers for fear of political retribution.
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