News Updates for a Changing Profession

Check out these two interesting medical news blurbs on nytimes.com:

Harvard Neurosurgeon Awarded $1.6 Million in Harassment Suit

A jury awarded $1.6 million to a female neurosurgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital after determining she had been exposed to a hostile work environment and been the subject of retaliation after she complained. The Boston Globe says Dr. Sagun Tuli sued the hospital and her boss, Dr. Arthur Day, chairman of neurosurgery. Dr. Tuli, 39, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, testified that Dr. Day repeatedly made demeaning statements to her while she was operating, once telling her, "You are just a girl. Are you sure you can do that?" On another occasion, during a dinner, asking her to get "up on the table and dance for us."

Medical Device Maker to Report Doctor Payments Online

The medical device maker Medtronic will start publicly disclosing its payments to doctors online, reporting anyone who receives payments of $5,000 or more a year in consulting and other fees, The Wall Street Journal health blog reports. The action comes as some United States senators push for what they're calling a "physician payment sunshine act" that would require all companies to disclose their financial arrangements with doctors. Medtronic has been accused of paying kickback to physicians who use its products.

--I think the lessons here are this: the future of medicine has no room for the macho crap and that you'd better be careful with your relationships with device makers and big pharma.

Cuomo, Fighting for Docs

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has made fighting health insurance companies his forte. Check out the article HERE. A third industry giant Wellpoint, has voluntarily come forward to reform their payment practices. This followed Aetna and Cigna; both companies paid fines and hired third parties to rebuild their out-of-network payment database. Cuomo has now established for himself a legacy of fighting insurers' outdated and unethical payment schemes as well as other abuses in the health care industry.

It is about time that someone start policing these companies. For years health care spending in this country has skyrocketed, physician pay has remained fairly stagnant, and the financial burden of health care on the average person has increased dramatically (even serving as a leading reason for bankruptcy.) Yet somehow, the insurers are sucking up enormous profits. This industry has been given a free ride for a long time. Especially with the attempt at medicare privatization, when the federal government wasted tax dollars in trying to alleviate the medicare beauracracy. It has been revealed in various reports that these privatization plans lead to higher patient cost burden. That is not, I assume, what was intended.

I am glad to see that Cuomo has begun fighting insurers. Profiting off our health care system is a privelege that they have, and that privelege must be retained through responsible behavior in the marketplace.

Thank You Mr. Attorney General.