Opinion

Jonathan Kaplan, MD, MPH, reflects on what he learned from buying a plastic surgery practice. 

Special interests keep patients in the dark, right where hospitals want them.

Doctors can use the psychological techniques of deep listening and emotional validation to help patients feel heard and understood.

If you’re feeling burned out, here are some steps to take control and move beyond burnout.

Routinely evaluating patients’ needs in the increasingly on-demand approach to healthcare is critical to success.

The occasional negative patient complaint online can actually turn out to be a good thing for your reputation.

Advocacy takes time-a rarity for physicians. But there are five simple ways to advocate for needed healthcare changes.

Many doctors think leaving full-time employment equates to arduous travel, but that doesn’t necessarily need to be the case.

Quality primary care takes time with patients, so it’s time for physicians to press for the time needed to truly make needed change.

With better support, patients may experience better care and outcomes as major health issues are identified early and averted.

Because CMS can’t and Congress won’t get rid of hospital-based facility fees, doctors and patients must take action.

Sometimes you have to look past dollars and cents and simply do what makes sense for both patients and physicians.

While CMS says it aims to allow doctors more time with patients with less documentation, its proposed E/M changes simply don’t achieve that goal.

To truly improve patient care and reduce costs, primary care is the best buy in healthcare. Here’s why.

Repealing the Stark Law is a good first step, but more must be done to put doctors back in charge of patient care.

When it comes to patients struggling with social issues, a little effort on the part of the practice can go a long way.

Here are a number of ways physicians can work with their patients to best overcome cost barriers for their prescriptions.

Three strategies to overcome burnout and bureaucracy and remain committed to medicine.

Physicians face financial ruin if patients continue to access products they simply cannot afford.

Ten steps to widespread adoption of free markets offering competition on healthcare price and value.

By empowering physicians with evidence-based guidelines, they are better-equipped to make clinical decisions that are cost-effective and drive high-quality outcomes.

The patient should see a friend in his doctor, not a stranger with a white coat and a stethoscope.

Lectures don’t work to motivate patients because the use of guilt and threats are horrible motivators. The same goes for doctors.

Physicians and their pain patients will continue to suffer such inconveniences, insults and financial burdens, until the epidemic of opioid overdoses ends.

Access isn’t just a question of overcoming the hurdle of being seen by a provider, but being seen by someone with the level of expertise required for the best clinical outcome.

Don’t be fooled. When mergers occur, patients and physicians lose; executives at the top are the only ones who truly win.

It stands to reason that the best way to deal with unaffordable healthcare isn’t to take a second mortgage out on the house, but to make healthcare more affordable.

For the White House to meet its goals on stopping the nation’s opioid crisis, there are some practical steps to put in place first.

It’s time for physicians to re-read the Hippocratic Oath and Oath of Maimonides to ensure the future of medicine.

Why should hospitals get a special tax exemption when other healthcare entities that offer more affordable care, like physician offices and independent labs, don't?