The Unhealthy State of Equal Pay for Women in Medicine Continues

A recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine confirms that women physicians still make less than their male counterparts.  We explored this issue in a previous post, and unfortunately little has changed. The study in JAMA Internal medicine by… Read More

Doctors Address Racism

  “We are doctors and medical students who witnessed the events of the week of July 4th, 2016 with horror and grief. The murders of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota and… Read More

What’s the Third Leading Cause of Death in the US?  Medical Error

  According to a recent New York Times article  “If medical error were considered a disease, a new study has found, it would be the third leading cause of death in the United States, behind only heart disease… Read More

End of Life Care Discussions with our Patients:  Are Doctors Ready?

Medicare is now reimbursing end of life care in the form of advance care planning.  The question is: are doctors ready to have serious end of life conversations with their patients? A recent poll commissioned by The John… Read More

Safety Net Hospitals Being Squeezed by Wrong Measures?

Safety net hospitals are having a harder time in the new health care funding landscape- this is not news.  One of new truths is Value Based Purchasing (VBP). VBP promises to reimburse hospitals based on the value of… Read More

Addressing Racism to Improve Population Health

Mary Bassett’s M.D., M.P.H, Commissioner, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, experience as a young doctor and researcher in Zimbabwe continues to frame her perspective as a doctor today.  In an honest and powerful TedMed… Read More

A Partial Primer on DSRIP

On April 14th 2014 Governor Cuomo finalized terms with the federal government to create New York State’s version of the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Plan.  DSRIP provides approximately 8 billion dollars to transform the healthcare delivery… Read More

Happy Birthday Medicare and Medicaid

As is befitting of a birthday, the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid on July 30th provides us with an opportunity to celebrate the enormous influence Medicare and Medicaid have had on American health care and American society. President Johnson signed the historic legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid on July 30, 1965. Read our Doctors Council statement on the 50th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid.

Collaboration Councils and Doctors Council: Doctor Engagement and Improving Care and the Patient and Provider Experience

In May and June Doctors Council members ratified Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs or contracts) with the New York City Health and Hospital Cooperation (HHC) and its affiliates (the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NYU and PAGNY) creating the… Read More

Primary Care Transformation and Doctor Engagement

One of the themes of this blog has been to critique the idea that “physician engagement” can be achieved through management techniques alone. As Donald Milliken writes in the Canadian Medical Association Journal “… ‘physician engagement’ can sometimes seem… Read More