Happy Anniversary, If I Do Say So Myself

Posted on May 15, 2008
Filed Under General Rationing Issues |

They said it couldn’t be done.

They said, “An entire blog devoted to covert healthcare rationing? Ha!” They said, “Perhaps you’ll come up with a posting or two, but an entire blog? Why, you’ll run out of things to say inside of a week.” They said, “Covert rationing indeed!”

So today, on the First Anniversary of the Covert Rationing Blog, DrRich asks Them, “Who’s laughing now?”

Of course, because covert rationing is the lifeblood of the American healthcare system, the glue that holds the whole thing together, it is actually child’s play to come up with topics to write about. So DrRich does not feel as if he has accomplished any great feat here (despite having shown Them to be wrong! wrong! wrong!), any more than anyone should feel superior who has merely taken up the task to write down the obvious. If any accolades are to come his way, it ought to be for no more than his plodding persistence.

The real accolades ought to go to his fellow medical bloggers (many of the best of whom are listed in the column to the right), who have inspired and supported DrRich over this past year (and indeed, who are often quoted here), and who are doing a real service to American society. Few journalists in the mainstream media “get” what’s really going on nearly as well as these people do.

During the past year DrRich has attempted to interpret many aspects of American healthcare through the prism of covert rationing. Accordingly, both for readers who have been with him through the whole journey, and for those who have only recently found this blog, DrRich would like to take this opportunity to point to the posts which have generated the most interest, surprise or commentary. All of them illustrate the pervasive, destructive, wasteful, and enervating influence of covert rationing on the healthcare system and on American society - which (aside from keeping DrRich off the streets) is the real purpose of this blog.

Why patients should review their health records

Gag Clauses are obsolete for a reason

Medical home invasion

Pay for Performance and covert rationing (Part 2 here)

Why healthcare inflation is not explained by waste and inefficiency

A modest proposal for controlling drug prices

Let’s you sue Medicare

E&M guidelines and patient care

Physician Report cards and the designated driver

The transcendant importance of retainer medicine

Capitation and ratting on patients

How to invest in the new Medicare audits

Primary care - time to reboot

Never events? Never mind

On crying doctors

Is guideline tyranny causing guideline anarchy? (Part 2 here)

Covert rationing makes malpractice reform a bad idea

Comments

7 Responses to “Happy Anniversary, If I Do Say So Myself”

  1. James Gaulte on May 15th, 2008 4:03 pm

    Happy Anniversary.
    Often when I feel I have pretty much said all I can think of to say, I will read your latest essay and and think of a way to steal your thoughts and work it into my blog.

  2. DrRich on May 15th, 2008 6:15 pm

    Thanks, Dr. G.

    As you know, it goes both ways.

    Rich

  3. L-E on May 16th, 2008 2:30 pm

    Thank you for your expert commentary on topics that I have often suffered insomnia over, having burnt out as a coder at a medical center (due mainly to fear of “fraudulent billing” situations such as the one that landed you in court) and ended up working on healthcare-related government contracts (where I found out I should have been even more worried as a coder than I had been). I’m focusing on transitioning to another field of employment so I rarely get to talk to people who share my perspective on the medical field. Yet I’m haunted by it. I waiver between trying to explain my reaction to news items such as John Edwards’ campaigning in regard to the liver transplant issue to people who are very naïve about current medical realities and trying to keep my energy directed to my new career direction. I discovered your blog a few days ago and am very grateful for it. Thanks again, and congratulations on your Blogiversary!

  4. The Happy Hospitalist on May 16th, 2008 2:31 pm

    keep up the great work

    Happy

  5. DrRich on May 16th, 2008 5:04 pm

    L-E,

    It is indeed very difficult, once having gazed into the dripping maw of the Beast, to simply go about business as if all is well, or to listen to Barack and John give their respective “solutions” to rapt and worshipful audiences (well, at least in B’s case) as if either of them actually had a clue. I recommend not trying to explain what you have seen to the blissfully naive, but just keep your head down and develop your new career, and leave the medical coding to those who won’t look past the checkmarks to see the Darkness that lies there.

    Rich

  6. DrRich on May 16th, 2008 5:05 pm

    Happy,

    Thanks very much, and you do the same.

    Rich

  7. Catron on May 17th, 2008 7:04 am

    Congrats ———- Dave

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