Posted by Guest Blogger on Fri, Dec 04, 2009 @ 02:06 PM
By Carlos Medina, M.D.
To those of us who have been following the healthcare debate, emergency physician advocacy has never been more important. Especially with all of the disinformation and downright falsehoods flying around.
That's why I urge you to click on this ACEP link: http://www.emergencymedicinerealities.com/
Once you're there you can use a variety of links and media options to let your colleagues, friends, and family know the realities of accessing emergency care - and the importance of ensuring that whatever healthcare reform package sees the light of day, it's reflects positively on emergency medicine.
There's also a link that let's you contact the Congress regarding emergency medicine issues. And as we know by the recent news about the healthcare overhaul, advocating for important issues about emergency medicine has never been more timely or important.
Please let me know if you have some favorite sites or links that you use for advocacy purposes. We're all in this together. And the more we communicate as emergency healthcare professionals the louder our voice will be!
Posted by Guest Blogger on Fri, Dec 04, 2009 @ 12:47 PM
By Marty Ogle, M.D.
As a practicing emergency department physician, I've been following the nation's healthcare reform debate very closely. I'm sure doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals in hospitals and emergency rooms throughout the country are doing the same.
While I certainly have my opinions on how I would like the healthcare reform issue to play out, I've also been taken aback by the news coverage - which has often been inflammatory at best and hysterical at its worst. Just give me the news and forget about the rant, please. What I want to know is: are we going to get healthcare reform? And if so, what's it going to look like?
If you're as frustrated with the quality of the news coverage as I am and would like a great source of information, go online to the NPR site. It's thoughtful, unbiased and provides excellent coverage and debate. You'll find it at: http://tinyurl.com/NPRhealthcare where you'll have access to a variety of articles, a blog, and videos on everything from "what healthcare reform means to consumers" to following the healthcare debate in congress. No hysterics, just the facts. And facts are what we need most these days.
I urge you to visit the site - and please forward any of the sites or resources that you think provide good, solid non-biased healthcare reform news. We're all in this together, so let's stay informed
Posted by Guest Blogger on Thu, Dec 03, 2009 @ 04:53 PM
By Marty Ogle M.D.
As emergency physicians and healthcare professionals, healthcare reform - whatever it ends up looking like - will affect our practice, our hospitals, and our patients.
Even though Congress is now in recess, its members are meeting with constituents around the country (as you've likely seen in the news). Congressional leaders are also currently crafting key healthcare reform bills to be considered in September.
So now's the time to contact your Senators and Representative, letting them know your healthcare reform concerns. One of the easiest ways is to go to the MGMA Advocacy Center to tell your representatives to finally repeal the Medicare physician payment formula and tell them not to link new payment systems to this flawed update system.
It's also important to encourage them to include administrative simplification proposals to reduce costs.
While you're at it, be sure to remind them that as your elected representatives, they should not delegate authority to make important Medicare-related reforms to a non-elected entity.
With the heated and oftentimes irrational discord going on at the moment, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that true healthcare reform is necessary, is prudent - and there are serious issues that will affect us as practicing physicians. Having your voice be heard is more important than ever right now!
Send Congress an email now and let's keep the healthcare discussion on track.