DJP Update 8-8-2011 Turmoil in Washington, DC & financial markets; a new book on PPACA & a link to Grace-Marie Turner article
Lots going on in Washington, DC. USA credit rating reduced by Standard and Poor’s from AAA to AA+ with “outlook negative”.
Here is the very long link to the full report: http://www.standardandpoors.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobheadername3=MDT-Type&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobheadervalue2=inline%3B+filename%3DUS_Downgraded_AA%2B.pdf&blobheadername2=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobheadername1=content-type&blobwhere=1243942957443&blobheadervalue3=UTF-8
If you have trouble with that link, go to: http://www.standardandpoors.com/home/en/us
and then click on FULL REPORT near top of page.
Here is an excerpt from the overview:
The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.
Lots of finger-pointing going on. Stock market dropped 500 points by end of President’s speech today. Gold is at all time high of $1700.00 per ounce. Gold price always has been a good indicator of fear in the financial markets.
But you can read about that in other places. What is obvious to me is one cannot stay fiscally sound if you spend more than you make (or take in taxes if government). Getting more credit cards does not solve the problem.
And that brings me to a favorite topic of mine: PPACA
The new healthcare as you well know is, in my opinion, a disaster. It will not lower the cost of medical care and evidence is emerging on that point.
But enough from me.
I want to inform you of a new book on the healthcare law. I had the opportunity to read it before it was published and I wrote a blurb about it as did many other individuals.
Book: The Health Reform Maze: A Blueprint for Physician Practices.
Author: Richard L. Reece, MD
Publisher: Greenbranch Publishing
Comment from Publisher including ordering information:
This is your roadmap for health reform to date. Although clear exits and destinations remain murky, Dr. Reece has managed to create a statistically entertaining map for health reform. The Health Reform Maze: A Blueprint for Physician Practices contains many entries that Dr. Reece has composed over the last four years on his Medinnovation blog.
What makes this book so unique is Dr. Reece’s keen insight and understanding of both physicians’ and patients’ value system. “When it comes to trying to understand the current healthcare reform, this book covers it all in easily understandable language,” says Nancy Collins, President of Greenbranch Publishing and Publisher of the Journal of Medical Practice Management®. “Dr. Reece approaches the unclear issue from the patient and the physician perspectives while still managing to stay compelling, engaging, and even entertaining.” This book, ideal for practice managers, physicians, medical directors, insurers, policy makers, and even business school and health manager programs alike, is a must-read when trying to tackle the questions surrounding health reform.
Dr. Reece’s book The Health Reform Maze: A Blueprint for Physicians Practices contains blog entries that deliver comprehensive but easy to read discussions concerning the uncertainty, the threat of lower reimbursements, and what practices can do in response to reform. The entry format allows the reader to even pick and choose from the sections without having to read straight through. Dr. Reece delivers a balanced (and less judgmental) overview of the reform. This book breaks the trend of specialized, narrow healthcare reform reports. Because of its multiple points of view and various perspectives, it tells you everything you may want to know about health care reform but were afraid to ask.
$48.50 plus $9.95 for S&H, ISBN 978-0-9827055-4-4, pages © 2011
Order here: http://shopmpm.com/Health_Reform_Maze_Blueprint_Physician_Practice.asp
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Here is my blurb/review and then the blurb/review from the editor of The Journal of the Connecticut State Medical Society.
DJP:
“This is a must read collection of essays that gives the good, the bad, and the ugly of the new healthcare law, PPACA. Dr. Reece shares a balanced presentation of proponents and opponents of the law and gives hope for a better way to reform the system.”
Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD, FACS, Former president of American Medical Association, and author of On Leadership
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Review/Blurb from editor of The Journal of the Connecticut State Medical Society.
“This is a book that is of value to all the players – doctors, insurers, health planners and government administrators of health care and finance, as well as hospital leaders, legislators and the patient/consumer. Dr. Reece, trained as a pathologist, has been a writer of distinction for all of his professional life.
He was editor of the respected Minnesota Medicine for over twenty years, and in recent years has written ten books examining the American healthcare system and its effect on the sick and the well, the rich and the poor, the doctors and the bureaucrats, the government and the people. This latest effort is his reading of the impact of the Affordable Care Act since its passage, as derived from his blogs entered on the web from March, 2010 to January 2011.
The author believes that reform of health care has been designed by a politically center-left Congress and President, for a center-right more conservative nation. He makes it clear that what was needed was stepwise evolutionary change and what we have with “Obamacare” is a revolution in the provision of and payment for healthcare in the U.S. The appointed leader of the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Donald Berwick, is, in the view of the author, committed to the central control of healthcare policy rather than one likely to rely on market forces. Since passage of the law, two camps have marshaled their forces – those on the left who argue that government must participate ( further) in the system of healthcare, and those on the right who want less government, lower taxes, less debt and preservation of the right of individuals to decide for themselves. The accusatory rhetoric heats up on both sides and Dr. Reece, through his reading of the published media, the blogosphere, and interviews with recognized thinkers and actors on the healthcare stage, delivers facts and candid appraisal of the ongoing debate in plain language. Valid concerns are expressed that the law as it stands will leave us short of doctors, thus short of access for those gaining insurance coverage. The emphasis on Accountable Care Organizations, and the efforts to diminish fee-for service payment systems and bundle payments to doctors and hospitals are pushing amalgamation into larger systems with doctors as salaried workers. These phenomena are dissected and exposed in easily understandable language, sometimes with a touch of humor: “Don’t launch vast projects with half-vast ideas.” Dr. Reece’s book is a lively, practical and valuable contribution to today’s ongoing discussion.”
H. David Crombie, M.D. Editor, Connecticut Medicine, The Journal of the Connecticut State Medical Society
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Multiple other reviews/blurbs and you will know many of the people who wrote them: Lou Goodman, PhD, CEO, Texas Medical Association, Tim Norbeck, CEO Physicians Foundation, etc. Check out all of the blurbs and a listing of the chapters at:
http://shopmpm.com/Health_Reform_Maze_Blueprint_Physician_Practice.asp
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LAGNIAPPE: Be not depressed with recent events in America. This too shall pass. This land of liberty will overcome.
P.S. one more tweet from http://twitter.com/#!/djpNEWS
Listen carefully to Grace-Marie Turner. A smart woman.
DJPNEWS Donald Palmisano
Read! #IPAB More disaster of #PPACA RT @sonodoc99: @DJPNEWS IPAB Power Grab MT @galeninstitute Grace-Marie Turner eepurl.com/e9MtM #tcot
Stay well,
Donald
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