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Category Archives: Rants
Finding the Right Role Model in Response to the Boston Bombings
Acts of terrorism in the homeland tend to bring out the best and the worst in us; which makes it all that more important to try to find the right role model to emulate in responding to these major insults to our collective national consciousness. You might think that we should first look to our political leaders, but you have to be selective. Hardly anything politicians say gets me inspired or riled up anymore: I … Continue reading
Posted in Rants, Uncategorized
Tagged Adrianne Haslet, boston bombing, Emergency Care, Senator Ball, torture
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The Role of Altruism in Emergency Medicine
Recently I heard Dr. Sanjay Gupta give a talk at the Marin Speaker’s Series. He covered a lot of ground (he is CNN’s most traveled correspondent), and one of the issues he discussed was altruism. He cited a study linking altruism to neural activation of a pleasure center in the brain. This study substantiated his belief that altruism was a fundamental attribute of human nature, something he has seen consistently and repeatedly on every continent. … Continue reading
Posted in Rants, The ER Experience
Tagged altruism, altruism in medicine, balance billing, charity care, Emergency Care, emergency medicine, ER co-pays
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AHIP Releases Totally Bogus Survey of Physician Billed Charges
I use to hear the phrase ‘totally bogus’ all the time in the ‘80s, and when America’s Health Insurance Plans released a ‘Survey of Charges Billed by Out-of-Network Providers’; I knew I had come across the perfect example of a totally bogus piece of deliberately misleading health insurance industry propaganda. According to the survey summary: “for consumers who choose to seek care out-of-network, our latest survey shows that the charges billed by some out-of network … Continue reading
Analysis of Proposed New CMS Rules on Medicaid Cost-sharing for ER Care
CMS just published some newly proposed rules that enable States to impose increased cost sharing on Medicaid patients for non-emergency care in the ER. These rules open the door even wider for these States to abuse ER providers and hospitals, and discourage Medicaid patients from seeking needed care. Sadly, CMS did not even bother to consult with the American College of Emergency Physicians before drafting these rules, which makes it a lot more difficult to … Continue reading
2012 Fickle Finger of the Year Award
Since 2012 was a national political election year, candidates for receipt of the 2012 Fickle Finger of the Year award are so numerous and nefarious that choosing a winner was actually more difficult this year than last. You may remember that in honor of the namesake of this blog, Roan and Martin’s Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award for dubious achievements during the year, I culled through 2011’s rather long list of potential winners and … Continue reading
Posted in Rants, The Lighter Side, Uncategorized
Tagged 2012, democrats, gerrymandering, polarized politics, political blunders, republicans, Tod Akin, Wayne LaPierre
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