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Monday, October 10, 2011

health Care Reform Articles - October 10, 2011

Here is a link to some You-Tube footage filmed by Paul Hochfeld of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in Portland, OR.


L.A. County expands no-cost healthcare

Hoping to establish new programs before Medi-Cal takes over in 2014, it plans to register as many as 550,000 patients and assign them to medical clinics for free services.

By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
6:40 PM PDT, October 9, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-health-reform-la-20111010,0,4823359,print.story



Pressing for better quality across healthcare

As steward of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, Donald Berwick is leading a charge to cut errors and increase efficiency. But time for such measures may be running out.

By Noam N. Levey, Washington Bureau
9:47 PM PDT, October 4, 2011
Reporting from Atlanta
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health-innovation-20111005,0,1263701,print.story


Posted: October 10
Updated: Today at 7:12 PM


Maine Voices: Got Patients? Doctors exploring new approach to health care in Maine

The new concept -- the patient-centered medical home -- stresses quality over quantity.

CAPE ELIZABETH - Today, doctors across the country abide by a 15-minute rule of thumb when scheduling your visit. As we all know, during these 15 minutes doctors are trying to address chronic care, preventive care and acute care all in one short window of time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Kerney is IBM’s senior state executive in Maine and a resident of Cape Elizabeth.
One of the reasons for these tightly scheduled blocks is administrative work has begun taking up to 30 percent of doctors' time. These administrative tasks, coupled with financial responsibilities and time pressures, continue to force doctors to spend less and less time with patients.
From my experience, doctors and patients want to be able to have meaningful dialogue about everything from complicated chronic diseases to overall well-being.
It is no wonder that patient-doctor relationships have changed so dramatically over the past 20 years, leading to less satisfaction among doctors as well as patients.



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