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Amazon has made news by purchasing One Medical for $3.9 Billion.. One Medical started as a small company in the San Francisco area that would provide primary care cheaply by membership using both virtual and real time visits. It then blossomed nationally and eventually went public. Amazon is paying a huge premium per share for the company that has never been profitable. Amazon already has a pharmacy business and a business that companies may offer their employees healthcare.
Dr. Sharon Malone, the wife of former Attorney general Eric Holder, left the OB practice at Foxhall OBGYN Associates where she was both an owner and an employee but retained the patient information. She then turned the information over to her new for profit telehealth startup and used the information to send unsolicited emails to Foxhall patients. This is a real HIPAA no-no. Malone also tweeted a message regarding the Dobbs decision which a patient noted to the Washington Examiner was hypocritical. Malone then acted as most holier than thou's do by saying "Haters hate" She should be ashamed of herself and be fined by the HIPAA police.
Alena Wicker is going to medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. So what. She is 13 years old. She is very bright obviously and does seem by her answers to questions to have some maturity. How much is to be determined.
Medscape has an article regarding potential legal problems for physicians in the post Dobbs era trying to advise patients regarding self-managed abortion. This is mainly the abortion medications. This is against the law in Nevada, Oklahoma and South Carolina only. Physicians should know that there is no law regarding counseling about the safest way to terminate a pregnancy. Advise is a different thing. this may be against the law in those states. The more general the discussion the more it will be considered free speech. If there is a problem post self managed abortion one does not have to state in the record that the problem is caused by an abortion just that the problem exists.
The WSJ has a major article on the way that non-profit hospitals are fleecing the system by not doing their share of charity work. They wrote off only 2.3% of their revenue on financial aid where the for-profits wrote off 3.4%. Some of the major hospital systems wrote off the least, many well under 1%. The systems say they do a lot for community needs but that usually benefits the system. They continue to use the old saw that they are treating Medicaid patients so that counts toward charity care. Not really. Some non-profits are now being challenged by their locale to pay taxes and rightly so.
Some of Kaiser's mental health therapists want to go back to their former treatment facilities, the prisons. They say the culture at Kaiser is so bad that they feel they can make more of an impact in the prison system. At Kaiser they are seeing patients on a six weeks basis not the usual one week. They are really short staffed and Kaiser will not pay more to get more therapists. They do not seem to value their workers.
The Indiana Attorney General is looking into claims regarding Dr. Bernard, the OB that performed the abortion on the 10 year old rape victim. The problem is that the accusations against the physicians are form people who have had no contact with the physician and are only after her because of her political beliefs. Top
There is finally a new certification society to take away the nonsense that the American Board of Medical Specialties was doing. The national Board of Physicians and Surgeons is now certified for boarding and recertifying physicians. It is almost 75% cheaper and much less hassle but still does the work. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the information presented.