Today, employed physicians and independent physicians alike feel powerless. Hospital-employed doctors feel like cogs in a machine, and community doctors are increasingly threatened by forces beyond their control. Physician-led healthcare reform would give them back a large measure of control and pride in their work. The Medicare for All debate has mostly focused on how the U.S. should finance healthcare. This book, directed to physicians, healthcare administrators, health policy experts, politicians, and consumers, explains why the U.S. healthcare delivery system must be restructured to lower costs--and how to do it. Unless we can get doctors to change how they practice, Medicare for All will struggle with the same cost pressures that have made our system the most expensive in the world. The biggest problems of physicians--both employed and independent--are a loss of professional autonomy, overwhelming administrative requirements, and the conflict between business and patient care imperatives. From the Foreword "With this manual, leaders of health systems and medical groups can achieve these goals and align their physicians, management, care teams, payers, and patients to deliver exceptional care that will improve quality while lowering costs, resulting in better care, better patient experience, and more affordable health care." This book, at this critical time, offers a comprehensive argument in favor of physician-led reform. Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Medicare for All Lives Chapter 2 - Obamacare: A Work in Progress Chapter 3 - Industry Consolidation on Steriods Chapter 4 - Primary Care on The Ropes Chapter 5 - Waste Not, Want Not Chapter 6 - Population Health Management Chapter 7 - Addressing Social Determinants of Health Chapter 8 - Physician-led Healthcare Reform Chapter 9 - Building the New Delivery System Chapter 10 - Taking Advantage of Health IT Chapter 11 - The Payoff Chapter 12 - Drugs and the Technology Challenge Final Thoughts

Praise for Partners in Health "The combination of visionary leadership, knowledge, and superb timing makes this book a winner. Health care is evolving toward collaboration and integration, and this book is essential reading for anyone wishing to change the relationships between hospitals and physicians." Donald W. Fisher, PhD, president and CEO, the American Medical Group Association "This book is a must-read for anyone committed to a high-performance health system. It spells out the practical steps that will move us toward an accessible, coordinated, patient-centered system of care. Its recommendations for payment and regulatory reform underscore the urgency of comprehensive health reform if the current misaligned incentives are to be changed to support those on the frontlines in providing the best care with prudent stewardship of resources." Karen Davis, PhD, president, The Commonwealth Fund "Closer physician-hospital integration would lead to higher quality care at lower cost. Partners in Health is a masterful guide to past integration efforts, current models of success, and thoughtful recommendations for future progress." Victor R. Fuchs, PhD, Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor Emeritus, Stanford University "The working relationship of hospitals and physicians must be restructured for the United States to achieve more efficient, accountable care. But addressing our urgent challenges can't wait for all hospitals and physicians to join highly structured systems. Thankfully, the authors offer steps that all the major stakeholders can take today to spur new models and start the flywheel of trust spinning at new speeds." Richard Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association "Transitioning U.S. health care from fragmentation to integration, in the context of a more rational payment system, is sure to be a long and tortuous journey. Partners in Health is a kind of Fodor's Guide to the voyage. No one committed to health reform should travel without it." Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief, Health Affairs

This book not only provides a review of how the healthcare system operates, but also arms physician leaders with actionable information to reform the healthcare economy and satisfy their own motivations for entering the field of medicine.

Stop! You have found it! This is the one. Your search for the answer to Healthcare Reform is over. This book is the one to read. Why? It is unique, concise, an easy read, informative, educational, and not bogged down by extra bulky text that only serves to thicken the book and confuse the reader. It doesn't waste your time with meaningless or superficial material. This book is written by a Board-Certified Physician specializing in Internal Medicine with many years of experience, an impeccable record, an analytical mind, and a lot of common sense. Instead of wasting time discussing the secondary and peripheral features of the chaotic ways of the Healthcare system, this "Insider" strips away the "nonsense" and simply educates the reader about the few "core issues" that are the REAL causes of the Healthcare mess. Only an insider of this caliber knows the "real deal". His insight is astounding. This quick read gets right to the point. After you are done reading this book, you are guaranteed to know all you need to know to understand the problem. It really is quite simple. You will be amazed! This book discusses the vital issues that you need and want to know. Will you be able to continue seeing a REAL physician or will the Primary Care Physician become extinct? How did our Healthcare delivery system evolve to such disarray? Who are the actual culprits behind the determination of what really goes on? Where do the Lawyers and Insurance companies fit into this equation? You'll be surprised! How much control over your healthcare treatment does your Primary Care Provider really have? What is going on behind the scenes? What should the public's role and responsibility be to help society get out of the mess?

The first book to address the fundamental nexus that binds poverty and income inequality to soaring health care utilization and spending, Poverty and the Myths of Health Care Reform is a must-read for medical professionals, public health scholars, politicians, and anyone concerned with the heavy burden of inequality on the health of Americans.

Meaningful healthcare reform requires understanding of our complex healthcare system. This book was written to help clarify the difficult and poorly understood issues and problems of American healthcare. Its purpose is to help us move forward on the many difficult decisions that should be made to improve our healthcare system. Our unique combination of public-private funding and free-market capitalism system has been a major source of medical care advancements over the last half-century. The entrepreneurial spirit of risk takers who have invested billions of dollars to push forward innovative ideas and products has been key to its success. We should not lose that driving force for medical advancements and our economy. Our American healthcare system needs reform. We should fix it rationally with a scalpel, not destroy it with a meat cleaver. To optimize and appropriately guide that reform, we should first understand and concentrate on the real problems. Primarily we should fix our healthcare system by decreasing its administrative complexity and inefficiencies. The Affordable Care Act should be modified significantly to make it more acceptable as part of our national effort for more meaningful reform. Rational solutions through political compromises are not easy to find in our highly polarized political environment. It will be a long uphill climb, but it is a challenge that we must meet for our uniquely American healthcare system to survive.

Healthcare in the US is rapidly changing. The changes that are occurring as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare” will forever modify the way in which doctors and patients interact.This book is a collection of essays that initially are a heartfelt description of the author's passion for patient care and an exploration of the “art” of healing. These essays then go on to explore healthcare reform in the US and how the proposed (and ongoing) changes in the healthcare system are likely to impact the practice of medicine and ultimately affect the doctor-patient relationship. The essays explore ethical concerns and leave us wondering just how medicine will be practiced in the future.