Children's Book

I am very excited to announce that my daughter, Stephanie Bonifazi, and I are launching Zoey Goes To the Zoo, A Delightful Animal Book for Children Ages 2 To 5. We hope you and your children or grandchildren will enjoy this short book, loaded with age appropriate happy facts about many animals and with full color illustrations.  Great bedtime – or anytime – reading.  It is available now on amazon.com, in paperback and Kindle.

 

 

Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System On Sale For Three Days

 

The Kindle version of my book will be on sale at Amazon.com for only $0.99 on Wednesday, August 17 through Friday, August 19, 2016.  Great opportunity to get the book at a huge discount. All reviews would be welcome. For more information go to http://motivationalpress.com/Patient-Confidential/

 



ICD-10 Codes Go Into Effect on October 1, 2015

 

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal discussed the advent of the new International Classification of Diseases, commonly known as ICD codes. The federal government developed this system of classifying diseases and injuries. The codes serve as the universal language used by doctors and hospitals to describe diseases and injuries. For insurance and governmental purposes, the ICD codes are used rather than text, such as "broken right hip." The current version of the codes is ICD-9, which was adopted in 1979. Under the ICD-9 codes, there were about 18,000 different codes. Under the ICD-10 codes, which go into effect October 1, 2015, there are about 142,000 different codes. Proponents of so many more codes cite the fact that much more detailed medical data will be generated by these codes to help in research and treatment. Critics cite the huge additional cost of learning all these codes and then using them correctly, and the fact that they represent yet another paperwork problem for doctors and hospitals already buried under paperwork. Time will tell.  

A Recent Physician-Authored Book Highlights

Some of the Growing Problems in the Healthcare System

Elaina George, M.D., a Board Certified Otolaryngologist, has written a book which highlights some of the growing problems in the delivery of healthcare: Big Medicine: The Cost Of Corporate Control And How Doctors And Patients Working To Get Her Can Rebuild A Better System.

 

I am often asked how the Affordable Care Act and other new laws affect the patient-perspective advice I give in my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System. My answer is that being an informed, interactive patient will be even more critical with these new laws in effect. There will be many more patients vying for a static or perhaps even diminishing number of healthcare providers. The patient must make the very most of every healthcare encounter.

Dr. George says in her book, "There is no question among doctors that limiting healthcare access will become the future. Adding 30 million more people enrolled in government-paid Medicaid into a system now shackled by reduced resources makes it impossible to avoid limiting access."

 

She goes on to describe some of the consequences of this, "An unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act is the sacrifice of the doctor patient relationship enshrined in the Hippocratic Oath. The pressure for doctors to practice medicine driven by government mandated cost control measures will ultimately affect an individual's right to determine the course of their own healthcare."

 

I advise people to study up now on how to influence the quality or their healthcare if they have not already done so.

The Rise In Second Opinions

The Wall Street Journal ran a recent article about second opinions. In interviews about my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, the thing I am most often asked about is a second opinion. I say in my book, " . . . I believe most doctors think that [second opinions] are a good idea in the right circumstances." The article points out that second opinions may in many cases now be done on-line. This service is being offered by such well-known institutions as Massachusetts General Hospital and Cleveland Clinic, as well as stand alone businesses. The patient pays a fee and sends his medical records to the second opinion provider who then renders a second opinion. As the article acknowledges, this is especially valuable for patients who do not live close to major medical centers. I think that a face-to-face second opinion is better, but do not diminish the usefulness of the on-line second opinion when necessary.  However obtained, it is obvious that second opinions are being sought in increasing numbers. George Pauly of Massachusetts General estimated that its "online second-opinion service, which started about eight years ago, handled about 10,000 cases last year compared with fewer than 1,000 five years ago . . . ."

Richard on the Radio

 

 

I will be interviewed for a Bloomberg radio program which will air at 12 noon ET on Saturday, August 29, on 970WFLA Tampa.  There is also a live video stream at the same time.  The program can be accessed by going to: http://webeamtv.com/ and clicking on the American Medicine Today link.

Article Stresses the Importance of Being a Proactive Patient

An excellent article in The Wall Street Journal stresses the importance of managing one's own health care, which I stress in Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System. The article contains many good tips and discusses programs being developed by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help patients in this endeavor.

The article states, "'Conflicts between medications, and doctors that don’t talk to one another, is a big and common problem,” said John Piette, director of the Center for Managing Chronic Disease at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. 'People have difficulty managing both symptoms and side effects of multiple medications,' he added." It goes on to say, "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in July issued a free curriculum for training health-care professionals and others in how to care for patients with multiple chronic conditions.

In Patient Confidential, I repeat many times that the patient needs to be educated and ask questions, and cannot be a passive object of medical care. The article quotes Dr. Victor Montori, a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, "Patients must also educate themselves about the health care they need, said Dr. Montori."

In the Afterword to Patient Confidential, I say, "If you learned nothing else, I hope you learned how critical it is that you be proactive in your healthcare. If you don't understand something or it doesn't sound right, ask, ask and ask some more."