Aa
Now it is homicide
Will it ever end with Michael Jackson? It is the 29th of August and he still isnt buried. They are saying it was homicide because of all the drugs in his system. Didnt he ask for the drugs? wasnt he paying this so called doctor to live at his home so he would be available at any time to give him drugs? I dont mean to offend anyone but this is getting so old. There have been other famous people who passed and got little or no new coverage. I for one am sick of hearing about it, bury the poor man and move on....
Seven Ways to Reduce Unnecessary Medical Costs -- Right Now!
George D. Lundberg, MD
Published: 08/24/2009
I believe that there are still many ethical and professional American physicians and many intelligent American patients who are capable of, in an alliance of patients and physicians, doing "the right things." Their combined clout is being underestimated in the current debate on healthcare reform.
Efforts to control costs in the US healthcare system date from at least 1932. With few exceptions, they have failed. Healthcare reform, 2009 politics-style, is again in trouble over cost control. It will really be a shame if we once again fail to cover the uninsured because of hang-ups over costs.
Physician decisions drive most expenditures in the US healthcare system. In this system, costs will never be controlled until most physicians are no longer paid fees for specific services. The lure of economic incentives to provide care that is unnecessary, unproven, or even known to be ineffective encourages many physicians to make the lucrative choice. Hospitals and especially academic medical centers are also motivated to profit from many expensive procedures. Alternative payment forms used in integrated multispecialty delivery systems, such as those at Geisinger, Mayo, and Kaiser Permanente, are far more efficient and effective.
Fee-for-service incentives are a key reason why at least 30% of the $2.5 trillion expended annually for US healthcare is unnecessary. Eliminating that waste could save $750 billion annually, with no harm to patient outcomes.
Currently, several House and Senate bills include various proposals to lower costs. But they are tepid at best and in danger of being bought out by special interests at worst.
So what can we in the United States do right now to begin to cut healthcare costs?
An alliance of informed patients and physicians can widely apply recently learned comparative effectiveness science to big-ticket items, saving vast sums while improving quality of care.
1. Intensive medical therapy should be substituted for coronary artery bypass grafting (currently around 500,000 procedures annually) for many patients with established coronary artery disease, saving many billions of dollars annually.
2. The same for invasive angioplasty and stenting (currently around 1 million procedures per year), saving tens of billions of dollars annually.
3. Nonindicated prostate-specific antigen screening for prostate cancer should be stopped. Radical surgery as the usual treatment for most cases of prostate cancer should also cease because it causes more harm than good. Billions saved here.
4. Screening mammography should be stopped in women younger than 50 who have no clinical indication and sharply curtailed for those over 50, because it now seems to lead to at least as much harm as good. More billions saved.
5. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans are impressive art forms and can be useful clinically. However, their use to guide therapeutic decisions is unnecessary much of the time. Such expensive diagnostic tests should not be paid for on a case-by-case basis but could be bundled together with other diagnostic tests by some capitated or packaged method that is use-neutral. More billions saved.
6. . We must stop paying huge sums to clinical oncologists and their institutions for administering chemotherapeutic false hope, along with real suffering from adverse effects, to patients with widespread metastatic cancer. More billions saved.
7. Death, which comes to us all, should be as dignified and free from pain and suffering as possible. We should stop paying physicians and institutions to prolong dying with false hope, bravado, and intensive therapy that only adds to their profit margin. Such behavior is almost unthinkable and yet is commonplace. More billions saved.
Why might many physicians, their patients, and their institutions suddenly now change these established behaviors? Patriotism, recognition of new science, stewardship, and the economic survival of the America we love. No legislation is necessary to effect these huge savings. Physicians, patients, and their institutions need only take a good, hard look in the mirror and then follow the medical science that most benefits patients and the public health at lowest cost. Academic medical centers should take the lead, rather than continuing to teach new doctors to "take the money and run."
Physicians can reaffirm their professionalism with sound ethical behavior and without undue concern for meeting revenue needs. The interests of the patients and the public must again supersede the self-interest of the learned professional.
George Lundberg, MD
Dr. Lundberg is president and board chair of The Lundberg Institute.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/707769?src=mp&spon=17&uac=39980BG
George D. Lundberg, MD
Published: 08/24/2009
I believe that there are still many ethical and professional American physicians and many intelligent American patients who are capable of, in an alliance of patients and physicians, doing "the right things." Their combined clout is being underestimated in the current debate on healthcare reform.
Efforts to control costs in the US healthcare system date from at least 1932. With few exceptions, they have failed. Healthcare reform, 2009 politics-style, is again in trouble over cost control. It will really be a shame if we once again fail to cover the uninsured because of hang-ups over costs.
Physician decisions drive most expenditures in the US healthcare system. In this system, costs will never be controlled until most physicians are no longer paid fees for specific services. The lure of economic incentives to provide care that is unnecessary, unproven, or even known to be ineffective encourages many physicians to make the lucrative choice. Hospitals and especially academic medical centers are also motivated to profit from many expensive procedures. Alternative payment forms used in integrated multispecialty delivery systems, such as those at Geisinger, Mayo, and Kaiser Permanente, are far more efficient and effective.
Fee-for-service incentives are a key reason why at least 30% of the $2.5 trillion expended annually for US healthcare is unnecessary. Eliminating that waste could save $750 billion annually, with no harm to patient outcomes.
Currently, several House and Senate bills include various proposals to lower costs. But they are tepid at best and in danger of being bought out by special interests at worst.
So what can we in the United States do right now to begin to cut healthcare costs?
An alliance of informed patients and physicians can widely apply recently learned comparative effectiveness science to big-ticket items, saving vast sums while improving quality of care.
1. Intensive medical therapy should be substituted for coronary artery bypass grafting (currently around 500,000 procedures annually) for many patients with established coronary artery disease, saving many billions of dollars annually.
2. The same for invasive angioplasty and stenting (currently around 1 million procedures per year), saving tens of billions of dollars annually.
3. Nonindicated prostate-specific antigen screening for prostate cancer should be stopped. Radical surgery as the usual treatment for most cases of prostate cancer should also cease because it causes more harm than good. Billions saved here.
4. Screening mammography should be stopped in women younger than 50 who have no clinical indication and sharply curtailed for those over 50, because it now seems to lead to at least as much harm as good. More billions saved.
5. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans are impressive art forms and can be useful clinically. However, their use to guide therapeutic decisions is unnecessary much of the time. Such expensive diagnostic tests should not be paid for on a case-by-case basis but could be bundled together with other diagnostic tests by some capitated or packaged method that is use-neutral. More billions saved.
6. . We must stop paying huge sums to clinical oncologists and their institutions for administering chemotherapeutic false hope, along with real suffering from adverse effects, to patients with widespread metastatic cancer. More billions saved.
7. Death, which comes to us all, should be as dignified and free from pain and suffering as possible. We should stop paying physicians and institutions to prolong dying with false hope, bravado, and intensive therapy that only adds to their profit margin. Such behavior is almost unthinkable and yet is commonplace. More billions saved.
Why might many physicians, their patients, and their institutions suddenly now change these established behaviors? Patriotism, recognition of new science, stewardship, and the economic survival of the America we love. No legislation is necessary to effect these huge savings. Physicians, patients, and their institutions need only take a good, hard look in the mirror and then follow the medical science that most benefits patients and the public health at lowest cost. Academic medical centers should take the lead, rather than continuing to teach new doctors to "take the money and run."
Physicians can reaffirm their professionalism with sound ethical behavior and without undue concern for meeting revenue needs. The interests of the patients and the public must again supersede the self-interest of the learned professional.
George Lundberg, MD
Dr. Lundberg is president and board chair of The Lundberg Institute.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/707769?src=mp&spon=17&uac=39980BG
Doctor's at some point need to be held liable for their actions. Michael's plastic surgeon's should be ashamed. They need to say "no", if it seems the surgery is inappropriate. All these doctor's see are dollar signs. His on-call doctor did as Michael requested but he's a doctor and if he felt like he was giving too much, he should've said no and walked out.
I agree.... I am sick of continued news about Michael Jackson. How can it be murder when I am sure Michael requested these drugs.
And I have watched enough tv to know these things....afterall, I was the biggest Starsky and Hutch fan and no I am not talking about the movie....
I said: "Murder is a lesser degree of homicide as it doesn't involve an intention to kill."
I meant to say: "Manslaughter" is a lesser degree of homicide as it doesn't involve an intention to kill.
Sorry about that.
Mike
I meant to say: "Manslaughter" is a lesser degree of homicide as it doesn't involve an intention to kill.
Sorry about that.
Mike
Negligent...that's the word...thanks.
Frankly, the road that Michael was on, it was going to happen one way or another. At least it wasn't in the bathroom with his drawers down like Elvis. They both would look for the crookedest people so they could get the drugs they wanted.
Frankly, the road that Michael was on, it was going to happen one way or another. At least it wasn't in the bathroom with his drawers down like Elvis. They both would look for the crookedest people so they could get the drugs they wanted.
Blanket's pretty dark, though, in his skin, hair and eyes. It's hard to say. He almost looks more like Michael than any of the rest of them but I guess none of them are related, except the two oldest who have the same mother.
That doctor needs to be held accountable and have his license taken away. What he did was incomprehensible. As a doctor, he should have known better than administer such a dangerous amount of sedatives, one being an anesthetic, which should only be used in a hospital setting for surgery! This is what happens when greed takes over. Money talks. And now a life has been lost because he let money matter more than a life. What a tragedy.
That doctor needs to be held accountable and have his license taken away. What he did was incomprehensible. As a doctor, he should have known better than administer such a dangerous amount of sedatives, one being an anesthetic, which should only be used in a hospital setting for surgery! This is what happens when greed takes over. Money talks. And now a life has been lost because he let money matter more than a life. What a tragedy.
It may be media rubbish but the story is circulating that Macaulay Caulkin is the child, Blankets Father.
Homicide includes manslaughter.
Homicide is the killing of a person by the act or the negligence of another person.
Generally first degree murder involves premeditation and malice.
And second degree murder isn't much different except that there may not be the deliberation or premeditation.
Murder is a lesser degree of homicide as it doesn't involve an intention to kill. The death is frequently the result of negligence or recklessness. Take vehicular homicide as an example.
It would appear in the Jackson case that there probably wasn't an intent to kill. The doctor was likely negligent or reckless.
SO IT IS HOMICIDE - just a lesser degree than murder.
Mike.
Homicide is the killing of a person by the act or the negligence of another person.
Generally first degree murder involves premeditation and malice.
And second degree murder isn't much different except that there may not be the deliberation or premeditation.
Murder is a lesser degree of homicide as it doesn't involve an intention to kill. The death is frequently the result of negligence or recklessness. Take vehicular homicide as an example.
It would appear in the Jackson case that there probably wasn't an intent to kill. The doctor was likely negligent or reckless.
SO IT IS HOMICIDE - just a lesser degree than murder.
Mike.
I agree, bury the poor man!!!
I was thinking it should not be considered homicide...Manslaughter certainly. That sleeping drug that the dr was given is not for use outside of a hospital...if something goes wrong, they would have more stuff available to revive him. And it states right on the bottle not to use it outside of a hospital setting. It needs to be administered by an annethesiologist (spelling?) A regular dr is not trained to use it.
They need to let him go....He needs to be laid to rest.
They need to let him go....He needs to be laid to rest.
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