A doctors stethoscope. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A rare bipartisan health care idea that brings an affordable price to concierge medical care is gaining some attention in Washington. It’s called direct primary care whereby doctors contract directly with patients to provide all of their primary care needs free of insurance interference at a price generally between $50 and $60 a month per patient, according to a New York Times story this week that called the approach “concierge medicine for the masses.” The doctor provides unlimited visits to a physician’s office plus 24-hour access to doctors through e-mail consultations. The primary care model has drawn insurance industry opposition in part because the health insurer middleman is cut out of the equation but companies like Aetna Inc. (AET), ... Continue reading →
Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times EXAMS Direct primary care providers allow unlimited visits to doctors like Erika Bliss. On the road 50 hours a week, the drivers who work for Becker Trucking, headquartered in Seattle, have little trouble finding cheap eats at the all-night diners lining the interstates of the Pacific Northwest. But many drivers were struggling with chronic poor health, and the company’s health costs were rising fast. What his employees really needed, the company president realized, was better access to doctors. So he turned to a novel solution. Becker pays $54 per employee per month to a primary care provider called Qliance. Employees get unlimited doctor visits, 24-hour e-mail access to the medical staff, and same-day or next-day appointments. There ... Continue reading →
Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times EXAMS Direct primary care providers allow unlimited visits to doctors like Erika Bliss. On the road 50 hours a week, the drivers who work for Becker Trucking, headquartered in Seattle, have little trouble finding cheap eats at the all-night diners lining the interstates of the Pacific Northwest. But many drivers were struggling with chronic poor health, and the company’s health costs were rising fast. What his employees really needed, the company president realized, was better access to doctors. So he turned to a novel solution. Becker pays $54 per employee per month to a primary care provider called Qliance. Employees get unlimited doctor visits, 24-hour e-mail access to the medical staff, and same-day or next-day appointments. There ... Continue reading →
Spacefill model of the Cholesterol molecule (Photo credit: Wikipedia) A year after a major study called into question whether prescribing an Abbott Laboratories’ pill designed to raise levels of good cholesterol protected against heart attacks and strokes, doctors are moving away from prescribing the treatment. The brand name, known as Niaspan, was not long ago an increasingly used treatment in a physician’s prescribing arsenal to protect against heart disease. So much was the case that Niaspan, the extended release formulation of generic niacin, was last year at this time headed to sales of $1 billion a year – blockbuster status. Then along came The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, which in May of last year stopped a clinical ... Continue reading →
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Your morning cup of coffee may start to taste even better after a major government study found that frequent coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from a variety of diseases, compared with people who drink little or no coffee.The report, published online in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, analyzed the coffee-drinking habits of more than 400,000 men and women ages 50 to 71, making it the largest-ever study of the relationship between coffee consumption and health.Previous studies have offered conflicting results on the relative benefits or harms associated with regular coffee consumption. While coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant that may temporarily increase heart rate and blood pressure in some people, coffee also contains hundreds of unique compounds ... Continue reading →
US First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during The White House Dance Series: A Tribute to Judith Jamison ceremony in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on September 7, 2010. (Image credit: AFP via @daylife) Before it was even cool to do so, Michelle Obama was talking about the need for everybody in the U.S. to have a “medical home.” Seven years later, a unique initiative once led by the First Lady on Chicago’s South Side is slowly working to get thousands of patients to form a relationship with a primary care doctor. The idea behind a medical home is for patients to get medical care upfront in the doctor’s office where costs are lower than a hospital, particularly an emergency room. ... Continue reading →
By Andy Buchanan Getty Images This column also appears Wednesday at www.ChicagoSideSports.com. I caught a Cubs win at Wrigley on a recent crisp, clear afternoon, and that evening headed to the Gale Street Inn on the Northwest Side for some of their fall-off-the-bone ribs. En route to dinner I called a friend to boast about my good fortune. He was envious but had a warning. �Have you been there lately?� he asked, referring to Gale Street. �They completely re-did the bar area. It�s all nice and everything now, and spacious�just�not the same.� He was right. The large, rectangular bar that dominated the middle of the front room, where everyone would crowd and drink and eagerly await the hostess�s call, was gone. The renovations gave the ... Continue reading →
