Medical Economics Salary Updates For Physicians

The 2005 data for physician salaries is now available from Medical Economics. There seems to be slight improvement for pediatrician salaries, by one percent. Of course this is quite outpaced by inflation, at 3 and a half percent. The pressure for pediatricians is on for further increasing "effiency" and this seems to be the method by which practices eeked out this gain. Squeeze a few more patients into your waiting room and spend 30 seconds less time with each one. The article references all the ways that these efficiencies can be had, for example hire another nurse to "run interference" while you're seeing patients. It seems that our culture has turned the practice of medicine into a football game. For more about the article check out www.memag.com. Pediatricians burned out by the futility of our current disease based insurance network "sick care" may want to pursue a cutting edge administrative support system provided by St. Louis based Personal Pediatrics. This drastically cuts your overhead and enables you the time for prevention, nutrition, and relationship building in your private practice. Why enable a hospital to control your professional destiny?? Why provide another winter of "sick care?" Let's raise a generation of nutrition minded healthy children through a system that rewards your preventive efforts and great bedside manner. Natalie Hodge MD Personal Pediatrics affiliate pediatrician, St. Louis

MSA accounts give more to Doctors and Less to Insurers

Try combining an MSA with a credit card to pay your out of network Personal Pediatrics House Call Pediatrician. We'll be researching the credit card options for you and posting about these over the coming weeks. Credit card companies would never miss an opportunity to create a new market would they? This enables you to pay your doctor directly out or pretax money rather than having to beg for the reimbursement through the old HSA. Natalie Hodge MD Personal Pediatrics Affiliate House Call Pediatrician St. Louis

Medical Savings Accounts and House Call Pediatricians

St. Louis House Call Pediatricians

Medical Savings Accounts Enable Retainer Based Medicine

Credit card companies are really jumping on the bandwagon of providing credit cards to link to the new Medical Savings Accounts. Families that prefer the personalized service of out of network physicians as the Personal Pediatrics House call system may utilize this to have their payments come out pretax. Those that prefer to wait an hour in a office to see a nurse for five minutes may continue in that system. Eventually consumers will wake up to the scam of full coverage insurance. The rapidly rising rates for insurers are unsustainable and the squeeze that insurance reimbursements place on doctors will force them to look for new practice options as the Personal Pediatrics administrative support system.
Look for a St. Louis House Call Pediatrician to be coming to a neighborhood near you soon!

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

I was at an interesting meeting this morning of healthcare managers. As a pediatrician it is interesting to be in such a room. The discussion came around to "how to fix healthcare?" One advocated for a single Government payor system, realizing that as in England, there likely will coexist a 15% or so of population that prefer private pay or private insurance. ( Did anyone think that the Queen of England would wait in the queue?) A two tier system is evolving in America. The critics of the retainer based ( concierge medicine ) model say that it is "elitist." I'm curious how many of these critics happen to own stock in Blue Cross Blue Shield or Aetna or United Health Care? Doctors are in the position of the government (via controlling medicare/medicaid)deciding what their wages "should" be then reducing reimbursements until they get back to that point. (Apparently the target wage is 120 grand a year ( word on the street) Why would any healthy family in America pay Blue Cross Blue Shield 13 grand 5 hundred dollars a year for an hour wait to see a nurse?? Pay Blue Cross 4 grand in case you are hit by a bus and pay your Personal Pediatrics Affiliate House call pediatrician directly out of pretax Medical Savings Account dollars. House Calls for babies?? Some may call it elitist, but we just call it commmon sense. Private or National health house call systems are available in many countries, Japan, South Africa, France, England... Why should children wait in droves in the winter in a busy office when they can have a House Call Pediatrician at their doorstep?

Credit Card Companies enable consumer directed care

Personal Pediatrics

Personal Pediatrics House Call System is enabled by Consumer Directed Care. There is a growing wave of credit card companies who are jumping on the bandwagon of Consumer directed care. As families shift into high deductible plans and plunk a chunk of cash into the new MSA, there will be multiple credit card options such that all medical expenses come out of pretax dollars. This is so much easier than the old fsa, which you must take painstaking efforts to get reimbursement. Why pay Blue Cross 13 grand 5 hundred in 2007 for an hour wait to see a nurse for five minutes?? Pay your Personal Pediatrics Affiliate House Call doctor directly out of your MSA and have attentive personalized care. The only loser here is the health insurance industry. Did they think we wouldn't figure this one out?? Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds. Natalie Hodge MD St. Louis Missouri

Personal Pediatrics Provides Personalized Medical Care for Children

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians
Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

House Call Pediatricians will not sit around and wait for a bill to be passed to provide payment for adopting a system in which patients may access their medical records through the web!! Watch as our story unfolds. Natalie Hodge MD St. Louis Personal Pediatrics Affiliate Pediatrician

Although the growing trend toward systems interoperability will allow physicians to move a patient's data from their electronic health record into a patient's [personal health record] with the ease of a mouse click, private practices and clinics in particular should be able to receive compensation for their efforts in adopting healthcare information technology. Maximizing the value of PHRs, which can increase the quality of care, requires continuous physician input."

-- Blackford Middleton, M.D., chairman of the Center for Information Technology Leadership, commenting on a bill introduced late last month by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) that would offer financial incentives to physicians who establish interactive electronic personal health records. Middleton's comments were included in a statement issued Oct. 18 by InterComponentWare AG, an international e-health firm

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

Personal Pediatrics House Call System Enabled by Self Employed and Business Owners

Self Employment and Business Ownershipenables proliferation of the Personal Pediatrics House call administrative support system, because those that are self employed and business owners will be the first to open their eyes to the unsustainable nature of the current rate of rise of insurance premiums. These families are personally responsible for their healtcare costs such that they are sifting into the 4 grand a year high deductible plans. I like to call these "Hit by the bus plans." This enables a family to put four or five grand into a Medical Savings account and then link it to a credit card which is used to then pay their doctors directly, all out of pretax dollars. Most of the families in my house call practice have made this switch and are finding that they have me at their house for an hour with their child with an attentive visit that is personalized for NOT MUCH MORE than they were paying before with full coverage insurance. Full coverage insurance in 2007 provides an hour wait to see a nurse for five minutes. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds. Natalie Hodge MD, St. Louis PersonalPediatrics Affiliate House Call Pediatrician

Blue Cross Blue Shield Named in Class Action Suit in California

Blue Cross of California is being sued by hospitals in the state over its rescission policies. The law firm of Hooper, Lundy & Bookman, Inc. said it filed a class-action complaint on behalf of the California's hospitals in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Oct. 13. The firm said the suit seeks to expand protection of hospitals statewide from California Blue Cross' practice of "retroactively rescinding insurance policy coverage for numerous patients after the health care services have been provided by the hospitals." The class-action complaint follows California Department of Managed Health Care's $200,000 fine against the WellPoint, Inc. affiliate for improperly rescinding coverage of one patient. The suit asserts that the rescissions directly impact the hospitals, because they are not being paid for their services, and instead are being directed by the health plan to collect from the patients. WellPoint spokesperson Shannon Troughton declined to comment on the lawsuit, explaining that "we have still not been served with a copy of the complaint, and haven't been able to review it." She added that "our payment practices are in compliance with applicable California law." In a related development, Blue Cross of California is in settlement discussions with certain former members whose individual policies had been rescinded. Troughton said the insurer is in confidential mediation with former members regarding their canceled policies. According to the Los Angeles Times, the insurer agreed to settle more than 70 lawsuits and claims by members whose coverage had been rescinded.


I found this in my AIS newsletter today. I find it interesting how health insurers are increasingly named in suits like this one. Essentially these insurers are saying, lets charge these increasingly skyrocketing premiums and oh, oops, you people who are sick in the hospital are costing us WAY too much money, so we're just NOT GOING TO PAY those claims. Sorry. Why do Americans continue to pay these exorbitant amounts of money to insurers? It is MIND BOGGLING to me! Do they think that their rate of rise of premiums is sustainable?? Do they think tat the American parents will continue to pay so much money for an in network doctor to be in charge of their child's health?? The declining reimbursement has pressured providers to hire nurses to do all the patient care for them anyway, in an environment of antiquated systems and non existent customer service. Why not hire a Personal Pediatrics affiliate Pediatrician to care for your child carefully, thoughtfully and in a way that's convenient for your family and lifestyle, at home. Why not utilize a company for your healthcare that provides password protected access to your child's medical record?? Why should your doctor have such control of your child's medical record such that you have to beg for access with long waits and multiple phone calls?? Take a look at www.personal pediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds. A new wave of healthcare is coming, right to your house. For more about our affiliate pediatricians in your neighborhood, visit the website! Natalie Hodge MD St. Louis Personal Pediatrics Affiliate Pediatrician.

Global Healthcare Stands at a Crossroads

Global healthcare stands at a crossroad. Rising costs, aging populations, and an antiquated healthcare system have put pressure on governments, businesses and society to make significant changes in the delivery of care.

Which direction will the industry take?

Acure, an IBM subsidiary, helped create the Danish National e-Health Portal, which provides a central, highly secure Internet site where citizens can manage all of their healthcare needs. And every hospital makes its electronic patient records available through the system, allowing physicians to instantly determine a patient’s health history and records, regardless of which provider they’ve previously visited.

I found this on a blogpost taken from IBM's intranet. I suppose in Americaour capitalistic nature dictates that since there is an 8 billion dollar market for e software/hardware solutions, every one wants a piece of that pie. I suppose this is better for our marketplace to create secure patient portals, because we sure as hell can't sit around and wait for our government to provide that for us. The Personal Pediatrics Administrative support system is a timely solution for families who want communication with their doctor, home visits, electronic accessto their child's medical records, and a commitment to personalized preventive medicine. The relationship between the pediatrician and patient in this system is "Pure" because there is no insurance company to deny preventive claims and skew care towards handling only acute illnesses as in our current system. Watch for our growing network of affiliate pediaticians who embrace the future and raise a generation of nutrition and prevention saavy children and families. Some people have called this "Concierge Medicine" We just call it common sense. Natalie Hodge Personal Pediatrics Affiliate Pediatrician St. Louis
s that since there is an estimatede 8 billion dollar market for software systems as the above,

American Children Desperately Need Prevention

I find myself reeling from an exciting weekend I had at a nutritional conference in Memphis this weekend. As an aside it is for a supplement product named Juice Plus which is the essence of multiple fruits and vegetables packed into a capsule. Before you roll your eyes physicians who may be reading this (you know who you are),consider this... Children in our country are desperately overfed and undernourished. This obesity problem has reached catastrophic proportions in the USA. Our pharmaceutical industry nourishes a culture of treating disease with pills for which they are hansomely paid. I spent ten years in conventional pediatrics practice unable to code for obesity prevention in a visit. Insurers are happily providing "sick care" and pediatricians are happy to fill their offices of sick kids for brief visits secretly hoping that they will get sick again so that they can get another 24 dollars and 15 cents from insurance. Is anyone paying attention to the pipelines in vaccine development for major pharmaceuticals?? I am. Within five years it is likely that we will have drastic reductions in our volume of sick visits in pediatrics, due to vaccine development. Conventional pediatricians will continue to curse and complain as their revenues continue to plummett. By this time a new pediatrics practice model will be thriving and rapidly altering the landscape of preventive pediatrics in America. We are the pediatricians who make house calls, answer cell phones, utilize cutting edge software and hardware to provide paperless recordkeeping and spend time with your family educating them about the importance of nutrition through our Personal Pediatrics Nutrition Program. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds! Dr. Hodge Personal Pediatrics Affiliate Pediatrician St. Louis

Kaiser Family Foundation Poll finds many Americans Dissatisfied with Healthcare

I ran across this today. A poll by Kaiser Family Foundation finds that Americans are universally dissatisfied with their quality of healthcare. A second finding by the study finds Americans are worried about rising healthcare costs. These two issues have become common catchphrases for the those commenting on the healthcare industry. Well if we are SO dissatisfied with the care that Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and United Health Care are providing via doctors accepting their in network services, ( wait an hour to see a nurse for five minutes) then why are we continuing to pay our health insurers increasing premiums for care?? Any one who pays BCBS 13 and a half grand in 2007 for a healthy family of four must be out of their gourd. If you want a quality doctor that you can spend time with, why not spend more money on your doctor directly?? Combine this with catastrophic insurance and actually save money. Remember that health insurers like to call these plans "rate savers" to imply that one must be cheap or stupid to need to utilize such an "inferior" insurance product. Consider a new breed of pediatrician that makes house calls, communicates by email and is available for families. Watch www.personalpediatrics.com and sign up for our newsletter to see how you can get a personal pediatrics affiliate pediatrician practicing in your neighborhood today. Some people call this concierge medicine. We like to call it common sense. Natalie Hodge MD

Disney Pledges commitment to Childhood Obesity Problem

Yesterday Disney pledged its commitment to its support to minimizing its association with unhealthy foods for children. I am happy to see this evolve and have a major corporation which is contributing to the poisoning of our children step up to the plate and self regulate. The Pediatrician of the Future is less worried with illness in children and will be focusing of continuity of care for patients and communication with families. We will be focusing on the PREVENTION of OBESITY in America. For the first time in the history of MAN we have a life expectancy that is decreasing for children, due to our rampant pervasive problem of pediatric obesity. Parents need to remember that this industry will deceive you when it comes to marketing " healthy" food for your child. Read labels and avoid high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils. In general shop around the store and avoid ANY food that has a cartoon character on the box. For that matter, avoid foods that come in a box. Remeber that your insurance company is interested in covering "sick care" rather than health care. Consider a high deductible plan paired with an MSA and pay a Personal Pediatrics Affiliate Pediatrician in your neighborhood directly to keep your child healthy, rather than infect your kid with more viruses while sitting waiting in his office, so that he can make more money by having his nurse see you and tell you that your kid is "Sick". For more info on disney's commitment take a look at this link http://www.nytimes.com/pages/health/index.html

For more information about finding a Personal Pediatrics affiliate pediatrician in your neighborhood take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com. Watch our story as it unfolds!! Warm regards, Dr. Hodge

'We've got to adopt health information technology, and get on with it'
The price tag remains the single most significant barrier to electronic medical record system adoption by physicians today, two leaders of prominent physician organizations said Tuesday. William F. Jessee, MD, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association, and Douglas Henley, MD, executive vice president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, were part of a panel speaking to AHIMA members at their annual meeting in Denver.
October 11, 2006
Healthcare IT News

This is a difficult issue for physicians. It is easier to adopt the costly new technology if the technology actually enables the provider to create better service and communication for their patients, ( whom I now like to call " clients" or even better "Customers") EMR adoption will be quick when doc's are shown how to make improved incomes and provide service that is unprecedented in healthcare today. In healthcare generally doctors talk about " patients" like the commoditized " number" they have become. Health Insurers have " Customers' and "clients. " Doctors have "Patients." Doctors do not consider " patients" to be "Clients." Why not adopt an electronic medical record system that actually revolutionizes the way in which you deliver care. Why not utilize a service that DRASTICALLY reduces your practice overhead. Eliminate the poor performers in your office staff and allow the computer system to handle your data rather than your outdated, grumpy staff. Remember what happened to tellers when the banking industry revolutionized itself?? Families will always need the expertise of a pediatrician. They more and more will demand improved communication and pay you directly rather than Blue Cross Blue Shield. BCBS provides an hour wait to see a nurse for five minutes in 2006. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds!! Warm Regards, Dr. Hodge

Blue Cross Blue Shield Wants to make Health Insurance Mandatory

BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota suggested that Minnesotans should be required by law to have health insurance..... Visit http://www.aishealth.com/GNOW/101606.html#gnowten for more information

This makes me chuckle. A health insurance company wants to make buying health Insurance Mandatory!! Maybe life insurers should make life insurance mandatory TOO! How dare any family in this country not pay 13,500 dollars yearly to Blue Cross Blue Shield so that they can turn around and pay 30 cents on the dollar back to insurers?? How dare any family not make Blue Cross in network physicians (who are contracting out all their visits to nurses to remain profitable )be in charge of their children's care?Here's some news for insurers... The expertise of the Personal Pediatrics afiliate physicians is valuable and sought after by families who have not been fooled by the scam of health insurance in america. Why no pay your Personal Pediatrics affiliate Pediatrician directly for personalized service, house calls, email access and continuity of care?? Why not combine this care with a high deductible plan and save money?? Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it evolves! Natalie Hodge MD

Blue Cross Wants to Make Health Insurance Mandatory!!

BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota suggested that Minnesotans should be required by law to have health insurance..... Visit http://www.aishealth.com/GNOW/101606.html#gnowten for more information I ran across this yesterday. Now this makes me chuckle. What if life insurers wanted to make life insurance mandatory?? Of course an industry who is beginning to lose serious market share because of it's failings in the product it's providing to its consumers wants to make it MANDATORY!? ( Meaning in primary care it provides access to an over run pediatric office staffed by busy nurses, difficulty making an appointment, and finally an hour wait to see a nurse or agisgruntled doctor for five minutes) Health Insurers raised their rates another 13 percent this year. Why wouldn't consumers save their money and spend 4 grand on a high deductible plan and pay their pediatricians directly through an administrative support system as MDVIP (for adults)or Personal Pediatrics for KIDS?www.personalpediatrics.com Insurers are not inroufallible and consumers will make the choice to have personalized care through Personal Pediatrics affiliate pediatricians as our services become more readoly available. Natalie Hodge MD "PersonalPediatrics...The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today. "

Blue Cross Wants to Make Health Insurance Mandatory!!

BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota suggested that Minnesotans should be required by law to have health insurance..... Visit http://www.aishealth.com/GNOW/101606.html#gnowten for more information I ran across this yesterday. Now this makes me chuckle. What if life insurers wanted to make life insurance mandatory?? Of course an industry who is beginning to lose serious market share because of it's failings in the product it's providing to its consumers wants to make it MANDATORY!? ( Meaning in primary care it provides access to an over run pediatric office staffed by busy nurses, difficulty making an appointment, and finally an hour wait to see a nurse or agisgruntled doctor for five minutes) Health Insurers raised their rates another 13 percent this year. Why wouldn't consumers save their money and spend 4 grand on a high deductible plan and pay their pediatricians directly through an administrative support system as MDVIP (for adults)or Personal Pediatrics for KIDS?www.personalpediatrics.com Insurers are not inroufallible and consumers will make the choice to have personalized care through Personal Pediatrics affiliate pediatricians as our services become more readoly available. Natalie Hodge MD "PersonalPediatrics...The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today. "

ow Silicon Valley Will Reboot Your Doctor

Andy Kessler is a finance guy who’s worked on Wall Street and ran a hedge fund. And like a rich-man’s Michael Lewis, he’s written a couple of books about Wall Street and the money world, and, following down the path that Maggie Mahar’s taken, he’s moving onto health care (presumably before he finds something more interesting like baseball! His book is called The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor. I'm reading this and not finished yet, but it's essentially another techie's read on how software and hardware can and will revolutionize medicine. Usually these books discuss how the EMR will make doctor's "more efficient" meaning how they can enable them to see EVEN MORE patients for EVEN LESS moneyin an in network insurance scenario!! Consider a proliferating model of pediatric care in which a package of hardware and software enables the pediatrician to make house calls and develop unprecedented relationships with families and children, focusing (really) on preventive care. Pediatricians must leave the insurers system which for the past ten years has DENIED CLAIMS for treating and preventing obesity. The health of our children depends on it!! Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds!! Natalie Hodge MD "The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today"

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

Are physicians and hospitals on track to meet President Bush's goal of making electronic health records (EHRs) available to most Americans by 2014? No, say authors of a new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and HHS's Office of the National Coordinator for HIT. "24% of physicians are now using some sort of EHR technology," said Ashish Jha, M.D., study co-author and assistant professor at Harvard School of Public Health, at an Oct. 11 news conference. "However, when examining the adoption rate of EHRs with features that truly make a difference such as CPOE [computerized physician order entry] and clinical decision support tools, that number drops to 10%." Only 5% to 10% of hospitals have EHRs that incorporate these tools, he added. Providers in a solo or partner practice are less likely than ones in large-group settings to adopt the technology, according to the report. That's a problem, said David Blumenthal, M.D., report co-author and director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System, since half of all physicians in the U.S. practice in a solo or partner setting. So what needs to happen to "speed up" adoption of EHRs? Besides addressing the financial restraints and disruption of care concerns when implementing a system, more patient involvement and education is needed, said Myrl Weinberg, president of the National Health Council. "Without patient engagement and demand for this technology, EHRs will not succeed," she said. The report, "Health Information Technology in the United States: The Information Base for Progress," appeared in the Oct. 11 Web edition of Health Affairs and is also available at the foundation's Web site.

This is an interesting study done by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. There is interest among the heathcare IT industry to know what things are going to SPEED UP the adoption of EHR's? Read- So we can make craploads of money off our investment in these software companies producing the EMR technology. I'll tell you why the sales cycle for selling stuff to doctors is so terrifically long ( 18 months) Physicians are so caught up in the treadmill of patients since their insurance contracts have so extensively devalued their time and services delivered. Consumers are lost in this shuffle, paying Blue Cross Blue Shield 13.5 grand a year for an hour wait in a busy office to see the nurse for five minutes. Are they going to pay BCBS 15 grand in 2008? I don't think so. There is essentially no incentive for an in network physician to fork out the dough in the short term for the EMR because it's expensive. It's a means to become even MORE "efficient" see more patients, receive less and EVEN LESS dough for each patient farmed through the office. Why not enable pediatricians to provide a service for their families that is SO extraordinary that is makes all the competition in healthcare IRRELEVANT!? Personal Pediatrics is an administrative support system enabling pediatricians to return to a simpler form of practice, the house call. Our system is proliferating since consumer directed plans which link to an MSA make our out of insurance network fees tax deductible. What mother wouldn't want personalized in home care for her new baby, minimizing the exposure to viral infections of the office? What pediatrician wouldn't want to utilize this patented system of hardware and software to free oneself from the office and it's outdated systems and overhead?? Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds!!

Personal Pediatrics Leads the House Call Revolution

It is interesting to me that physicians have allowed insurers to lead the way in storing the "medical record " for the American public. United healthcare group has announced they will "give physicians access" to this data. Why would any pediatrician not have control of the content of each of their patients electronic medical record, as well as give families content rich web based education about their child's health? Why would any pediatrician not enable their patients families to have password protected access to their child's medical record?? What pediatrician would not want the cost savings that this function creates in practice overhead?? ( read: about 100 grand a year in staffing?? Why are pediatricians continuing to pay 250,000 yearly ( this is average) in overhead that is a result of outdated systems?? ( practicing in the same paper environment as MD's 50 years ago??) There is an interesing title to a healthcare blog that I like to follow by Roberto Ruggeri at Microsoft http://blogs.msdn.com/rruggeri/ His subtitle I believe must be directed to healthcare professionals, " Healthcare IT Happens, Whether You Like It or Not" Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds!! Natalie Hodge MD Saint Louis, Personal Pediatrics affiliate pediatrician

Doctors Slow to Communicate by Email

"OK, so it's well known, that the adoption of e-prescribing and EMR technology by physicians has been slow, but now a new study finds that most physicians don't even utilize inexpensive, widely used IT tools in clinical practice. The study — to be published in next month's Journal of General Internal Medicine — finds that 3.4% of 1,662 U.S. physicians report e-mailing their patients, 39% access online professional journals and 40.8% say they use clinical-decision support, including government and professional society Web sites and searchable databases. The study finds that a practice's size plays a much larger role than a physician's age. Although recent medical school graduates tend to use IT more than do more experienced doctors, the study reports that solo/two-person practices were less likely to use IT regardless of physician age. For more on the study, click here. " I pulled this off an AIS newsletter today. The fact that only three percent of doc's are emailing illustrates that insurers are still running the show when it comes to healthcare. If insurers paid for it, by God, doctors would be doing it. Period. This show how far removed "Traditional Medicine" is from the normal competitive pressures of business. Can you imagine your banker or accountant or investment advisor not having a website or enhanced electronic communicaton? As we move to the consumer directed care model with high deductible plans combined with MSA's families will have the choice of pediatricians for their children. A. Full Coverage Insurance- Wait for an hour to see a nurse for five minutes. B. High Deductible Plan with MSA funding Personal Pediatrics affiliate pediatrician's retainer fees- Enhanced doctor patient communication and attentive house calls for your child. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds. Natalie Hodge MD St. Louis

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) has signed into law a pair of bills that will permit health plans to offer wellness coverage that could include premium rebates or reductions, or reduced copayments or deductibles.... Visit http://www.aishealth.com/GNOW/100906.html#gnoweight for more information. Now this makes me laugh. In the year 2006 lawmakers have decided that its important PERMIT health plans to OFFER wellness coverage. As a practicing pediatrician in St. Louis this really is funny. We have spent the last ten years in a system that penalizes pediatricians for preventive care. Not only could we not code for "obesity" as a diagnosis and get paid for it, we would be commiting a felony offense for coding" hyperglycemia" or "hypertension" instead as this is insurance fraud. All the while business cropped up, an entire industry to assist in losing weight, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers. Pediatricians dropped the ball on preventing pediatric obesity 10 years ago. If we weren't so deeply dependent on insurers for our livelihood we never would have let that happen. For a more "pure" relationship with your pediatrician, consider contracting directly with one of our Personal Pediatrics affiliates in your neighborhood and receive the latest in cutting edge technology, therapeutics and communications from your doctor, without the concern that treatment is withheld due to "Poor Insurance Reimbursement." Would you wait around for the goverment to "Permit" your health plan to"Offer" wellness? You kid will be ten and obese for life by then!! Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story as it unfolds! Natalie Hodge MD St. Louis

Sandeep Shah and Skyscape Enables Personal Pediatrics

You might ask how the pediatrician of the future is going to access data and stay up to date on patient info, labs and cutting edge diagnostic tools? Well we are enabled by many new wireless solutions crafted by companies like Skyscape. Why should any parents child's medical record be tied to an office that's remote, difficult( sometimes near impossible) to access, and not nearly secure as new paperless systems that companies as Microsoft and Skyscape enable?? Why should any child have to leave the house when he is ill with a fever?? Why should any busy mother have to waste her entire day trying to secure an appointment by outdated and time consuming means?? Why should the siblings of the ill child have their schedules interrupted and be subjected to the multiple infections rampant in the outdated and overrun pediatrics office?? Why should you allow anyone but a well qualified, experienced, board certified, committed top level pediatrician care for your children?? Why do consumers stand to have nurses call you back at night when you're worried about your child's fever/injury/emergencies?? I'll tell you why, because Blue Cross Blue Shield's full coverage plan ( notably 12% rise from last year, 13,500/yr) will pay for this level of service! In 2007 in pediatrics full coverage gets you an hour wait with outdated systems and a brief visit with a nurse practicioner. For more on the Personal Pediatrics system of administrative support and how it fits into our emerging consumer directed care model, take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com. Watch as our story unfolds. Personal Pediatrics... The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today. Natalie Hodge MD Saint Louis Missouri

Microsoft Technology enables Personal Pediatrics Administratie Support System

Bill Crounse MD, Healthcare Industry Director For Microsoft, writes a nice blog http://blogs.msdn.com/healthblog/ that showcases the usefulness of Microsoft technology in Healthcare. The Personal Pediatrics administrative support system is an example of his predictions for the future, which incidentally are the same as ours at PP, are very much an extention of Bill Gates book, Business at the Speed of Thought. Our proprietary house call system software and hardware package utilizes the lates in wireless digital communications to bring " The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today" right to your living room for your child's pediatrics care. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and watch our story unfold. Natalie Hodge MD CEO Personal Pediatrics, Saint Louis Missouri

Bill Crounse at Microsoft predicts the Personal Pediatrics Trend

I've just been reading Bill Crounse's Blog at Microsoft, Head of Healthcare Innovation. He makes some interesting predictions which are in line with the proliferation of the Personal Pediatrics admiistrative support system. First that we are looking at the end of health care insurance as we know it, or as "we used to know it." He says that this shift will enable a new generation of healthcare providers to compete for consumer directed care options. Second that wireless systems will completely revolutionize healthcare delivery. This alludes to the PP administrative support system, the pediatrician of the future with a treo and a laptop. Why should anyone's sick child sit in a waiting room full of sick kids when our Personal Pediatrics affiliate physicians bring care right to your doorstep?? Mine don't. Of course, their mother is the pediatrician of the future, right?? We commit to utilizing resources at Microsoft to continually update our systems and bring our families greater service. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics .com and watch as our story unfolds!! Natalie Hodge MD Pediatrician of the Future... St. Louis

House Call Nation

Families in my house call practice always ask me "Why are you the first person to start making pediatric house calls" as an exclusive practice? Who knows? I think pediatricians are so steeped in the dysfunction of their offices that it is hard to look outside of that. Many pediatrics offices in St. Louis have found that nurse practitioners are quite profitable and employ them to see their patients for them. Nurse call lines at night take many of the phone calls for emergencies for offices as well. Parents notice that they can rarely speak to their doctor of choice. A new generation of pediatricians is cropping up using the Personal Pediatrics administrative support system. This frees a pediatrician from the office and enables a return to a simpler relationship with patients, providing house calls. Our patented system of hardware and software drops the bottom out of wasteful office staffing costs. Families pay for services that insurers are unwilling to cover as email access and direct cell phone access. Watch the Personal Pediatrics Story as it unfolds across the Nation. www.personalpediatrics.com

Personal Pediatrics Patient Portal

I am reading about Aetna's providing patients access to " Medical Records" and health information. I'm sure that they are not referring to " THE Medical Record" that is physically sitting around on paper in many doctors offices across the country. Why is it that insurers are so far ahead in providing insurance customers services when compared to medical providers as primary care practicioners? I'll tell you why, they have normal competitive business pressure, i.e. they have to answer to customers and what customers want in order to flourish and peddle their insurance plans across the country. Pediatricians and other primary care care providers that remain in insurance networks are ultimately answering to INSURERS when it comes to what services that they will provide to their patients. If an insurer won't pay for a new vaccine, patients don't get the vaccine. If insurers won't pay for e-mail communication, they don't get to communicate with their doctors by email. If the insurer pays marginal fees for visits, the doctor sure as #$%^ won't be making house calls or spending any more time than ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY on each visit. Incentives are given to physicians who are "efficient" READ ones that farm children in and out of their offices like CATTLE. When pediatricians contract with patients directly as the Personal Pediatrics administrative support enables, a pure form of medicine emerges. A physician will provide X services for Y dollars, which fuels cutting edge emerging therapeutics and evidence based medicine as well as convenience for chidlrenand excellent doctor-patient ( family) communication. This administrative support system enables emergence of " The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today" in the national marketplace. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and look for a Personal Pediatrics affiliate pediatician to be making house calls in a neighborhood near you. Natalie Hodge MD, Saint Louis

Healthcare Professionals Fight Back

It seems there are many ways that physicians are fighting back against insurers that undervalue our services by continuing to cut reimbursement. I just read that in Atlanta doctors are resorting to class action lawsuits against insurers for misrepresentation and JUST NOT PAYING CLAIMS, bottom line. Pediatricians wrestle with this issues as well. This is a new adaptation I was not familiar with. So in private practice you can do one of four things. 1. See more and more patients spend less time with each 2. Hire a nurse to see all your patients for you, this is a favorite amongst pediatricians in St. Louis. 3. Sue insurers in a class action lawsuit as doc's in Atlanta are doing and pray that you win and get some money out of it to make up for all those lost billings. 4. You can do all of the above or any combination of the above with lots of whining and complaining for the rest of your life. OOps I forgot, what about patients, what about people, what about the children that you are caring for, festering in your waiting rooms for hours??? Here's the best option for pediatricians, stop adapting to the whims of the insurers and do the best for patients, contract with them directly for services or utilize Personal Pediatrics administrative support solution to convert your practice over to a low cost paperless house call system which provides incredible service for clients, drastically reduces your financial reliance on insurers, and enables you to connect with families in a way that is not COMPROMISED by your contracts with insurers. Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and see what our pediatricians are doing about childhood obesity. Remember that insurers have limited your ability to care and prevent pediatric obesity in the way you wish was possible. Natalie Hodge MD St. Louis "The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today."

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians Here's the thing: I'm noting today an article about a COMMON occurrence among insurers. A woman in Southern California found herself dropped from her health insurance coverage when it was disovered she had an expensive chronic illness. Healthy people are the ones that enable health insurance carriers to charge 13,000 grand a year and STILL manage to pay their investors out 30 cents on the dollar. This happens in the pediatics field commonly. I find families that don't want to have their child to have a diagnosis of asthma due to inability to get coverage by insurers. Here's a tip!!! Why would anyone in their right mind pay BCBS 13 grand a year when you can get catastrophic coverage for 4 grand and pay your doctors dirctly out of a Medical Savings Account that links to a credit card??? Better yet, get the credit card that links to your new MSA that you can gain airline miles with and take your family to the south of france for a vacation instead of subsidizing those BCBS investors with YOUR money. Isn't it time that consumers had a choice of pediatricians for their babies and children that answer cell phone calls, make house calls, provide unprecedented service and medical expertise in a model that is tax friendly?? ( READ TAX DEDUCTIBLE) Consider the Personal Pediatrics administrative system. Remember your full coverage insurance pays for an hour wait to see a nurse in 2006. Wouldn't you like to see your child's doctor have an allegience to YOU and YOUR family instead of bowing to the whim of insurers?? Are you tired of your child's doctor saying" Your insurance company won't pay for that shot or reimburse for that visit?" Get ready for " The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today" www.personalpediatrics.com

Personal Pediatrics Provides All in One Concierge Model technology solution

As consumers discover the benefits of combining a high deductible plan and Medical Savings account with a high tech traveling Personal Pediatrics affiliate Physician's services, the full coverage insurance plan will die a speedy death. Why should any family in America spend 12,000$ a year for a healthy family of four to sit hours in a doctors waiting room for a brief visit with a nurse practitioner?? As our system expands and consumers become aware of the alternative convenience and excellent communication that our doctors provide, sitting in a busy pediatric office with a multitude of ill and contagious children will be a thing of the past. Our affiliate physicians utilize a patented system of paperless medical recordkeeping and cutting edge software that enables travel AND cutting edge medicine. Dr. Natalie Hodge in St. Louis is Practicing Personal Pediatrics Care in St. Louis and is the prototype for the Pediatrician of the Future. Pregnant mom's will deliver and have attentive in hospital care followed up by at home visits so appreciated in the delicate bonding phase of the first month of a baby's life. This enables breastfeeding to become well established and is especially convenient for a mom with other toddlers at home. "Personal Pediatrics...The Pediatrician of the Past and Future...Today"