News and Commentary 
                        Teenage Pregnancies
1/3/23
                                                                                                                       1 minute read 

I read in the news that there is a school in Texas where all the students are pregnant. The school makes special considerations for their situation. Most of these students are between 13 and 19 years old. 
I also read that there are similar schools in many other states. 
I think this is very good, however, is anybody thinking about how to help avoid teenage pregnancies. 
    Cancer Detection
3/6/23

                                                                                                                              1 minute read

Did you know that there are some blood tests that can be done on humans that tell us if this person has a cancer or not. This has been in existence for a while. The main question is the test is done and is positive for cancer, but you cannot find where the cancer is by doing other tests. 
                       Health Information Exchange
5/3/23
                                                                             1 minute read

    We just found out that now doctors will be required to check on patients medical records in other hospitals that the doctors are not part of. In principle, that seems good and nice because you need to know what was the treatment for this patient in the other hospital. We also need to make a comment that any patient on a whim can go to another hospital with completely different electronic medical records, and get treated. Then, he comes back to us. For that, the local government has decided that they will do an Exchange Program so that any doctor can connect with any computer program from any hospital and see the information on that patient. What we also have heard that individual physicians will have to pay $4000 per physician. As I understand it, there will be a company that collects that $4000 to make it possible for these physicians to check on a patient that has gone to  another hospital. However, that seems excessive. Sometimes, weeks may pass and the doctor will not need this service. On the other hand, hospitalists that admit patients to the hospital, may need that service. Hospitalists are always working for somebody, I don't know who is going to pay that $4000 for them.

                                                          Insurance
5/9/23
                                                                                                                    30 second read

Today, I got two letters in the mail.
Both these letters were denials from the same health care company.
    They had previously asked for explanations as to why we did the surgeries on these patients.
     We sent the explanations on each one. Now, they are denying the money that they owe us.
    They tell us if we disagree we will start appeals. This we will do. However, there is a good chance that they will ask us to escalate.
    From my experience, I don't think our appeals will change their decision.

                                  Breaking the Law
5/9/23
                                                                            1 minute read
 
          I don’t know about you, but I have noticed so many people cutting in front of me while I am driving. Sometimes, they’re so close that I can avoid them and prevent a catastrophe.
          These are people in trucks and pickups.
          I started by letting them know by honking my horn loud and clear and long. I choose this very carefully and I do that after they have turned away. Preventing a situation where they can come back at me.
          I am just thinking if everyone could do the same then maybe we can together put an end to this dangerous nuisance. I don’t recommend this to ladies and people who carry guns.

                                    Closed for Lunch
5/10/23
                                                                                  1 minute read
   
     Today I had a patient who called me for an antibiotic. This was at about 1:30. It was amazing that there was no pharmacist available. The recording announced that they had gone to lunch and to check back with them at 2:00. I had never heard of this before, pharmacists taking lunch breaks. What if a patient really needs that medication?
                           Authorization in Health Care
5/12/23
                                                                                 1 minute read

    If you have private health care, then the insurance company will have to give us permission to do your surgery. Normally, this involves calling the health care company and talking to a person. This person could be a secretary, but rarely a registered nurse or physician. Then, we have to answer some questions and we may be granted an authorization. Sometimes, this is so hard and gets delayed a few days while the patient may be waiting. Medicare and Medicaid at this time do not require that. For a physician to get permission from a non-physician to proceed with surgery seems to be unusual.
    And the patient will suffer.

Overhead

6/9/23

1 minute read

           

I am sure you have been hearing about the national budget and the wringing of hands. You may realize, that we as Americans have a debt about 30 trillion dollars. That interprets to hundreds of millions of dollars a year in interest. The overhead is the money that we keep borrowing and spending.

Do you know what your overhead is? It is the money that you spend or some people spend on your behalf.

If you don’t know your overhead, then you’re liable to spend more than what you make.

You may want to invest in a notebook and a pen and start writing every day that you purchase anything. Computers are just fine, and you can find all kinds of programs to compute all that. However, a notebook and a pen would probably be much more eloquent than many apps and computers.