The recent coronavirus outbreak has millions of Americans thinking carefully about their health and wellness. For the 37 million of our friends and neighbors battling chronic kidney disease, however, healthcare risks that the rest of us often take for granted are never far from their minds.
Since 1969, America has designated February as “Heart Month” — a distinction that’s personal for me. Eleven years ago, shortly after I was sworn in to Congress, I was taken to the hospital after fainting during a workout. The good doctors at The George Washington University Hospital diagnosed me with bradycardia (a slow heartbeat) and outfitted me with a dual-chamber pacemaker. I flew home the next day and have been healthy ever since. Others are not as lucky.
Another step to ensure best-in-class turnaround times and clinical quality.
Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Americans are paying too much for their prescription drugs. Over the last six years, the median cost of prescription drugs has increased over 70 percent, leaving Americans with an ever-increasing burden for prescriptions that their lives literally depend on. As someone whose family is personally impacted by high prescription drug costs, I understand the struggles that Americans are facing.
What do contract employees, students taking a break from school to go back to work, employees working for low wages and those between jobs have in common? Known as “the gap population,” this group faces a unique difficulty when securing affordable, long-term health insurance.
In America, there is medicine to treat the common cold, regulate diabetes, lower blood pressure and even help cure cancer. But pharmaceutical drugs do Americans little good if they can’t afford them.
Today, 67 percent of Americans are worried about unexpected medical bills and 37 percent are very worried. What some people may not know is that surprise billing is usually the result of a breakdown in negotiations between providers and insurers on how much to pay for these services.
Healthcare is changing dramatically, and not just for patients. The nature of physician employment, too, is undergoing disruption. More and more, physicians who remain independent are banding together under a management services organization (MSO), a legal entity that allows physician practices to share resources, limit risk and gain the necessary efficiencies to compete in a consolidating market.
In 2009 I wrote about my first-hand frustrations as a physician with Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys. A decade on, has my hell gotten worse?
The cost of healthcare has become a hot topic in American politics in recent years, and with good reason. A recent Bankrate survey found that 22 percent of Americans are losing sleep over healthcare or insurance costs, up from 13 percent just one year ago.