primary care

8 Stories

Doctor Breaks Neck, Sees Reality of Hospital Care

A Harvard physician undergoes treatment for nightmare injury

(Newser) - Arnold Relman was in pretty good shape for a 90-year-old—until the day he fell down the stairs and fractured three vertebrae in his neck, he writes in the New York Review of Books . He was rushed to Massachusetts General, where a crack medical team saved his life by performing...

Down With Annual Checkups!
 Down With Annual Checkups! 
OPINION
Aug 20, 2013 10:21 AM CDT

Down With Annual Checkups!

Brian Palmer thinks people should go to the doctor when they're actually sick

(Newser) - Here's some simple advice that will save you time and money: "If you're not sick, don't go to the doctor," writes Brian Palmer at Slate . Around 45 million healthy people spend 17 million hours a year completing their annual checkups, costing the health care system...

US Doctor Shortage Is Getting Scary

And ObamaCare can't reverse the trend

(Newser) - Struggling to find a good primary care doctor these days? You're not alone. Seems the US has far too few of them, and ObamaCare won't really plug the gap, the New York Times reports. Even with President Obama's health care plan, America will have 100,000 fewer...

Firefighters Play ER Docs to Uninsured

Medical calls have more than doubled since 1980

(Newser) - Operating in a poor area where many lack health insurance, a DC firehouse battles far more than just flames: Some 80% of its calls are for medical emergencies. Because it is believed to respond fastest, Washington’s fire department zooms to almost all the city’s emergency calls alongside EMS,...

US Has Huge Shortage of Primary Care Docs

Health care reform efforts may suffer

(Newser) - Congress may be unable to agree on the details of an overhauled health care system, but there’s one fact on which there’s little debate: America urgently needs more primary care doctors. Experts predict the nationwide shortage of family physicians will reach 40,000 within the next decade, a...

Doctor Shortage Could Hurt Obama Health Care Plans

More primary care physicians are needed to serve aging population, uninsured

(Newser) - President Obama's ambitious plants to expand health care for millions of currently uninsured Americans while simultaneously meeting the needs of aging boomers, may be stymied not only by politics-as-usual but a shortage of primary care physicians, the New York Times reports. Officials are weighing several options, including increasing Medicare payments...

Fewer Medical Students Considering Primary Care

Shortage of family doctors looms: study

(Newser) - Just 2% of graduating medical students say they plan to work in primary care, forecasting a shortage of doctors who coordinate care and keep costs low, the AP reports. And it’s not just higher pay luring them away: They fear the paperwork and increased workload. Primary-care doctors must “...

Clinics Test Prepaid Health Plans
Clinics Test Prepaid
Health Plans
Oct 22, 2007 2:50 PM CDT

Clinics Test Prepaid Health Plans

Flat-rate programs aim to take up slack for uninsured, underinsured

(Newser) - Primary care is increasingly out of reach for patients and unprofitable for physicians, but a prepaid plan at a walk-in clinic could provide a solution, one doctor says. Vic Wood charges a monthly fee for basic and urgent care, allowing his practice to stay afloat and his uninsured patients to...

8 Stories