What can your doctor do?

The New England Journal of Medicine published yesterday an article by Elliott Fisher, M.D., M.P.H. et al. outlining the steps physicians can take at all levels of health care provision to encourage and aid in health care reform. The four levels described are defining aims, handling design of care processes, the effective working of health care organizations, and the support of legal, payment, regulatory, and environmental environment around health care. Fisher explains how doctors can be advocates for change, and the article outlines the challenges faced by health care reform (doctrine differences in congress about how to structure health care insurance and financing of this insurance). The article describes the conflict that even though there are commitments by key players (the American Medical Association, for example) in health care reform, there is aversion from these important entities to the proposed 1.5% decrease in annual spending growth. For the full article, click here.