October 2009
51 posts
The Commerce Clause →
“If we were to accept the Government’s arguments, we are hard pressed to posit any activity by an individual that Congress is without power to regulate.”
In a 2003 column, Walter Williams explored the abuses of the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution. The Commerce Clause’s original intent was to encourage free trade between states. It’s current interpretation...
Funny (albeit slightly cheesy) Joke
A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon.
As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest.
After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, “I’m sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away.”
The distressed woman wailed, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead,” replied the vet.
“How can you be so...
Insurance: what it is, and what it is not →
Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed and known small loss to prevent a large, possibly devastating loss.
Only some future events are insurable....
The FDA →
Of the 144 studies the FDA has required under the program since 1992, 64 percent have been completed and more than one-third are still pending, according to the GAO. Investigators said the FDA does not rigorously track whether companies are making progress on their required studies, although the agency is improving.
FDA officials say they have overhauled their tracking system since the GAO...
48 Hours →
RCS President John Black said: “Throughout this affair the call from the Department of Health has been that this legislation is about making patients safer.
“We now have a clear message from the front line that patient care is being made significantly less safe through systems that lead to poor continuity of care, the loss of teams and ‘wildcat’ closure of...
Is the System Rigged? →
Former insurance executive Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast, in an exclusive interview for Truthout.org, that “the system’s rigged” to kill off so-called “health cooperatives.” …Earlier today, Potter told Truthout.org that the Senator’s plan is “disingenuous or naive,” because, in most states, “the system’s rigged” to lock up...
Bank Health →
Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad banks are hard to find.
Going slow buys time. An economic recovery could save some banks that would otherwise go under. But if the recovery is slow and smaller...
Bracing in External Rotation for Shoulder... →
Recently, some authors have advocated bracing people who have dislocated their shoulder, in external rotation- a somewhat annoying position for the patient. However this study refutes that notion. Interestingly, one of the authors who advocated the external rotation bracing had patented a special brace for this purpose. I am thoroughly convinced, that it is a must to understand the inherent...
SLAP tears and the clinical exam →
Some studies demonstrate greater than 90% accuracy of certain tests for Superior Labrum Anterior Posterior (SLAP) tears. (By the way, this is one of those acronyms in search of a description - instead of the other way around). A SLAP tear is a tear in the the superior portion of the ring of cartilage that encircles the shoulder socket or glenoid.
This study highlights the need for doctors who...
Cemented Hemiarthroplasty vs non Cemented... →
Medscape put out a list of some of the best orthopedic abstracts of 2009
Wall Street's Naked Swindle →
This was a brokered bloodletting, one in which the power of the state was used to help effect a monstrous consolidation of financial and political power. Heading into 2008, there were five major investment banks in the United States: Bear, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Today only Morgan Stanley and Goldman survive as independent firms, perched atop a restructured Wall...
“Few of us can easily surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense....”
– Aurthur Miller
“It was Carl Menger’s profound insight in 1871 to recognize that economic...”
– Gary North
New Proposed Plan for Malpractice Reform →
“Under the plan, patients who’ve suffered an injury at the hands of a medical professional or institution could take their case to a local panel of experts appointed by state authorities.
The patient wouldn’t have to prove negligence, only that the doctor could have avoided the problem by following established guidelines for clinical practice.
If the experts find that a patient...
What would happen if everyone was required to... →
jayparkinsonmd:
This would apply to everyone making 300% over poverty. And of this group, how many actually spend over 10% out of pocket on healthcare? A fraction. These stats are hard to find, but I’d wager that 80-85% of people could spend less than $5,000 per year on actual healthcare usage. If you make $50,000 a year as a family, you spend $5,000 out of your own pocket on healthcare before...
“Great developers - not programming languages - build great products.”
– The Best Programming Language for a Lean Startup (via hiten)
In my opinion, the only people who ask about programming languages are those who don’t understand programming languages.
(via caterpillarcowboy)
This is usually true. As with anything, though, there are exceptions. There are wonderful...
The Internet: the freest economy the world has... →
“On the internet, the beautiful aspects of human nature manifest themselves, and we see individuals and companies maximizing their talents and resources for reasons of profit, pleasure, altruism, and mere progress in itself. Given that the government neither inhibits the activities of the internet nor props up or favors any particular actors or individuals, perhaps we are witnessing the...
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Fall
Fall is absolutely my favorite season of the year: the brilliant colors, the smells, the harvest- nature’s burst of life before it sleeps. Made all the sweeter (and more sad) because it is so fleeting. To follow are some pictures that I took last year during the fall at the Rochester Public Market, one of my favorite places. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Stolen Medical Data →
A file containing identifying information for every physician in the country contracted with a Blues-affiliated insurance plan was on a laptop computer stolen from a BlueCross BlueShield Assn. employee. It is not yet known whether any identity theft has resulted from the data breach.
The file included the name, address, tax identification number and national provider identifier number for about...
If health care taught Health Care 101, what would...
ourownsystem:
Ed Cotton at influx writes of a coffee shop (Intelligentsia Coffee) that has set-up a “lab” in NYC to teach people about coffee. He then asks a stop-you-in-your-tracks question:
If your brand was to educate people, what would it teach them?
Oh gosh, my mind is flowing with possibilities. An educated patient would be an informed patient. An informed patient would make...
Interesting Facts from 1905
I have not verified all of these but most sound about right. Just something for fun….amazing how much we now take for granted
(I italicized a few medical related items)
The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven...
Soda Taxes Not Making a Dent in U.S. Waistlines →
“In an analysis of 16 years of data (1990 to 2006) on how various forms of soft drink taxation affected body mass index, researchers found that taxation has only a minor effect on BMI, which is a measurement based on weight and height. For example, a 1 percent tax increase causes a BMI decrease of 0.003 points — less than a tenth of a pound for a man of average height.”
...
Hybrid Healthcare (and other entities): why it's a... →
“In America we appear to be suffering from this “hybrid” disease, not just in health care but in every major industry. We have systems that mix the worst incentives of public and private to avoid making any real choice as to what kind of system we want to have. This has led to embarrassingly high costs that with the advent of the financial crisis are unsustainable. This “hybrid disease” has...
The Fraud of Partisan Politics →
“Henry Adams observed that “politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” This marshalling of hatreds is not the whole of politics, to be sure, but it is an essential element. Thus, Democrats encourage people to hate big corporations, and Republicans encourage people to hate welfare recipients….In any event, the parties’...
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The Consumer →
“Among other consumer protections, the law limits how and when banks can hike interest rates and fees on credit cards.
Analysts have predicted banks would make up lost revenue by charging annual fees more frequently on credit cards and checking accounts, even for customers in good standing.
“We are making this change in response to market conditions, new federal laws and regulations,...
Records were made to be broken →
“The oldest female athlete at the World Masters Games in Sydney has broken a world record in the shot put — at the age of 100.”
Good for Ruth! She should inspire us all to get out there and get active.
“To restrain man is not to redeem him… I think the danger is not that...”
– Mencken
Reality Receding: James Howard Kunstler →
Just started reading some of James Howard Kunstler’s stuff. He is a writer, commentator and painter living in upstate New York ( a place close to my heart). He has some interesting takes on suburbia. Below is an excerpt from a recent essay. He is a talented writer. WARNING -if you are offended by foul language, the link to the full essay contains a word that some abbreviate as Charlie...
Unfilled Jobs and High Unemployment...how can it... →
Economists say the main problem is a mismatch between available work and people qualified to do it. Millions of jobs with attractive pay and benefits that once drew legions of workers to the auto industry, construction, Wall Street and other sectors are gone, probably for good. And those who lost those jobs generally lack the right experience for new positions popping up in health care, energy and...
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Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey and health reform →
“Before I started my business, my political philosophy was that business is evil and government is good. I think I just breathed it in with the culture. Businesses, they’re selfish because they’re trying to make money.”
At age 25, John Mackey was mugged by reality. “Once you start meeting a payroll you have a little different attitude about those things.” This...
Few Traffic Rules = Safer Roads →
“So far, the data seems to support Monderman’s theory. At least one report (PDF) on Drachten’s traffic experiment found a significant drop in accidents and injuries after traffic signals were removed at a busy intersection — from between four and ten a year before the change to one per year thereafter. Traffic also began to move faster through the intersection even as it...
Presentation at the International Symposium on...
PHYSICIAN KNOWLEGE AND OPINION OF THE CMS’S PHYSICIAN QUALITY REPORTING INITIATIVES (PQRI) AS THEY RELATE TO OSTEOPOROSIS Matthew J. DiPaola M.D., Satya Patel M.D., Judith Spahr MLS, MEd, CCRP, CTR Thomas Jefferson University, Lankenau Institute for Medical Research
Background: The 2006 Tax Relief and Health Care Act (TRHCA) (P.L. 109-432) required the establishment of a physician...