The PMD Critical List: Lefties Lose Out

This week’s list of must-read stories looks at whether lefties earn less, whether New York physicians ought to earn less, and whether the GOP-controlled Congress will cancel a scheduled pay increase for doctors who see Medicaid patients.

• Harvard Economist: Lefties Earn Less than Righties (CBS Boston)

Only about 1 in 8 births are to left-handed folks. Good thing it’s so few. Seems they make less income, tending to work in manual labor dominated fields. They’re less intelligent. And there’s more bad news.

• Big Bucks For NYC’s Hospital Doctor Bosses (New York Post)

Certain physicians are racking up very good numbers when it comes to getting high pay. Some seem to think it’s too much (clearing $4 million annually). It’s a complex business and market rates prevail, say others.

• GOP May Thwart Obamacare's Huge Pay Raise for Doctors (Forbes)

If the new US Congress fails to extend an ACA law, PCPs who treat Medicaid patients could see big pay reductions—some north of 60%. The pay hike is steered toward upping poor patients’ access to doctors.

• Survey: Best- and Worst-Run States (USA Today)

A recent national survey finds that about 45% of physicians plan to sell their practice in the next decade. If you’re going to hang up the stethoscope or relocate, it could pay to plot out a good location.

• Dr. Jonas Salk: A Medical Miracle Worker (Physicians News)

It was a long research breakthrough that probably caused more relief and excitement than any other modern medical development. The polio vaccine, which Dr. Salk first tested on his own children, turns 60 this year.

• Report: Joan Rivers’ Doctors Could Have Saved Her (Fox News)

When an 81-year-old patient goes in for a medical procedure, there shouldn’t be any guarantees. But it seems that the physicians working on the comedian may have been jokers themselves.

• UK Has Fewer Doctors than Almost Every EU Country (The Telegraph)

Looking to practice medicine and live abroad? You might want to plant your doctor stakes in Great Britain. But an “acute shortage” of physicians in a nation ranked as having the “best healthcare system in the world?”

• Bill Cassidy: Another Physician in the US Senate (AP)

The GOP sweep of Congress was completed last weekend when the State of Louisiana elected a doctor to the Senate. The veteran MD says he plans to fight President Obama’s “job-killing” agenda in DC.

• Are Patient Reviews Valuable to Physicians? (mHealthNews)

If a doctor wants to up his/her “consumer friendly” rating, then they need to better consider this burgeoning field and “figure out how to balance subjective and objective data.”