Comparing Spending on Medical Care in the United States and Other Countries

By: Louis J. Goodman, PhD, CAE, and Joseph Valenti, M.D.

This letter to the editor first appeared in JAMA.

To the Editor The study by Dr Papanicolas and colleagues¹ examined health care and social spending in the United States and other high-income countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They concluded that US social spending and health care utilization were similar to these countries and that underinvestment in social spending did not appear to be a driver of increased US health care spending. One way this could be interpreted by policy makers is that health care and social spending should not be adjusted. We believe this interpretation would be unfortunate for 3 reasons. Click here to read the full letter to the editor.

Physicians are Human Too

By: Robert W. Seligson, MBA, MA

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

For physicians facing burnout and depression, seeking help can be risky. Physicians Foundation Treasurer Robert Seligson details his personal experience with burnout, and how he led the North Carolina Medical Board to ensure physicians feel safe getting the care they need. Read more.

CMS Request for Information: Direct Provider Contract Model

By: Gary Price, M.D., Walker Ray M.D., and Tim Norbeck

Respectfully submitted by the Physicians Foundation to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) informal request for information regarding a Direct Provider Contract model. Click here to read the full RFI.

Canaries in the Coal Mine

By: Gary Price, M.D. and Tim Norbeck

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

The workforce of American physicians is one of our largest ever, with estimates varying from seven hundred to nine hundred thousand practicing physicians. It is one of our most highly skilled workforces, one of the most difficult and expensive to train, and one of the costliest to replace at an estimate of one million dollars per physician. Read more.

A Collaboration to Keep Physicians at the Center of Health care

By: Louis J. Goodman, PhD, CAE, and Lawrence Downs, Esq.

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

The evidence is mounting that medical practice is under siege by a barrage of unrelenting rules, regulations and requirements that have little bearing on achieving the best outcome for the patient. A research center collaboration just launched by The Physicians Foundation and Weill Cornell Medical Center aims to do something about that. Read more.

U.S. Health Outcomes Compared to Other Countries Are Misleading

By: Walker Ray, M.D., and Tim Norbeck

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

Well, here we go again. More new studies that indict the U.S. health care system directly and, by inference, America’s physicians have been published. A new report in JAMA indicates that the American health care system fares quite poorly. We disagree and feel compelled to address this. Read more.

Physicians’ Broader Vision For The CMMI’s Future: Look Upstream

By: Walker Ray, M.D., and Tim Norbeck

This piece originally appeared in Health Affairs Blog.

Medical care, it turns out, doesn’t always lead to better health. That may sound like a radical statement coming from an organization representing physicians, but we believe it’s time to broaden our notion of health if we want to truly care for the nation’s patients. Read more.

Sky High Drug Prices Can Be Controlled. Here’s How.

By: Jennifer Hanscom

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

There’s rocket science and then there’s drug pricing. Maybe that’s a stretch, but it’s true that health care is complicated, and one only has to take a look at what drives drug prices to see just how complicated. The process of determining drug prices seems arbitrary and opaque, as evidenced in years past by the sudden and inexplicable increase of common drugs like EpiPens. Read more.

Good Health Means More Than Visiting Your Doctor

By: Robert Seligson

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

The conversation about how best to reform our health care system has largely centered on the battle over legislation. But underlying the contentious discussion over who and what should be covered by health insurance and the cost is an often-overlooked aspect I contend is equally important to the health of our citizenry: the factors outside of the doctor’s office that help us stay healthy. Read more.

The U.S. Opioid Crisis: How Can We Can Remedy?

By: Gerald McKenna, MD

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

The United States is in the midst of an opioid crisis unlike anything we have seen in medicine since the HIV epidemic in the 1990s. Imagine, the U.S. has five percent of the world’s population but uses 50 percent of the world’s opioid analgesics. In 2017 alone, an opioid overdose was the cause of more than 60,000 deaths – quadruple the number of deaths since 1999. This death rate continues to increase and shows no signs of slowing. Read more.

Poverty Does Not Have to Equal High Health care Spending

By: Walker Ray, M.D., and Tim Norbeck

This article first appeared on the Physicians Foundation Forbes Channel.

“Los Angeles is no ordinary place.” These are the words of Dr. Richard “Buz” Cooper whose life work explored the effects of poverty on health care.

Dr. Cooper used Los Angeles as one lens to explore the relationship between income and health care costs in his 2016 book, Poverty and the Myths of Health Care Reform. Ranking just behind New York in the number of millionaires, Los Angeles ranks first in the number of poor. The cost of living in Los Angeles is 30 percent above the national average, however, almost 30 percent of the population – that’s more than the total population of Chicago – lives on an income of less than $12,500. Read more.

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