Insights

<p>In a provocative April 9 <a href="http://diseasemanagementcareblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/will-health-insur…;, Dr. Jaan Sidorov, who writes the <a href="http://diseasemanagementcareblog.blogspot.com/">Disease Management Care Blog</a>, envisions how federal health reforms could prompt health insurers to consolidate to the point where, like AIG, they are "too big to fail." </p>

<p>Journalists - particularly those in rural areas - will definitely want to follow the epidemiological investigation of <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/recommendations.htm">swine flu</a> that struck a nine-year-old Imperial County girl and a 10-year-old boy in adjacent San Diego County.The kids are fine now, but public health officials have never before seen this strain of swine flu in the United States. Here is the AP <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzz357patY4-QaJFvo9O9…;

<p>Those of us lucky enough to attend New York Medicaid Inspector General Jim Sheehan's talk Saturday at the <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/">Association of Health Care Journalists</a> conference in Seattle heard him make reference to <a href="http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/fed_regs/actions/2009/fr01062.htm">Dr. Jayam Krishna-Iyer</a>. I was curious about the back story. Here it is:</p>

<p>A doctor who can't prescribe drugs is like a fish that can't swim. It's usually a sign that something is wrong.</p>

<p>I wrote a <a href="/blogs/130">post</a> earlier this week about a <a href="http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100952">Nieman Reports</a> article by <a href="http://www.townsendletter.com/June2008/nutmed0608.htm">Dr. John Abramson</a>, a clinical instructor at Harvard and outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical industry. After serving in the National Health Service Corps, Abramson worked as a family physician for 20 years in Massachusetts.

<p>Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) on Friday gave an engaging speech on his <a href="http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/Legislation/Healthy_Americans_Act.cfm">h… reform plan</a> at the <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/calendar-details.php?id=175&amp;EventTy… of Health Care Journalists conference</a> in Seattle, getting in a nice laugh line when he called <a href="http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML">COBRA insurance</a> “the only federal program named after a poisonous snake.”</p>

<p>Doctors see a lot of naked people.</p><p>It starts in medical school when they see a lot of dead naked people, and one would think that after cutting into a cadaver and examining body parts in great detail a naked body would lose a little of its allure.</p><p>Not so for <a href="https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/providercredentialsearch/ProviderDetail_1.a…. Kamal F. Aboulhosn</a> of Yakima, Wash.</p>

<p>The decision by Astra Zeneca to stop the so-called <a href="http://www.drugs.com/clinical_trials/crestor-outcomes-study-jupiter-clo…; trial of its Crestor cholesterol medication last year garnered a ton of press attention. The New York Times captured the general tone of the coverage with this lead on a front-page story. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/text/i1000.pdf">Initia… 1000</a>, the so-called "Death with Dignity Act," took effect in Washington state on March 5, after being approved by voters in November. And it has put hospitals in a strange position. Hospitals are considered the place where doctors and staff do everything in their power to keep a person alive. Now hospitals are being asked to allow their patients to kill themselves.

<p>Dr. Neil Hollander of Huntington Beach, Calif., looked to be just another doctor who had misplaced his notes in November 2003 when he agreed to settle a Medical Board of California case by taking a record keeping course. </p>