SondraK, Lympian Slayer The state’s ambitious plan to shake up how providers are paid could have a hidden price for patients: Controlling Massachusetts’ soaring medical costs, many health care leaders believe, may require residents to give up their nearly unlimited freedom to go to any hospital and specialist they want.
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“You can’t reap these savings without limiting patients’ choices in some way,’’ said Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “It’s a huge issue, it’s huge.’’ Dr. James Mongan, president of Partners HealthCare, a Beth Israel Deaconess competitor, agreed that it wouldn’t “work without some restriction on choice.’’A
state commissionDEATH PANEL recommended in July that insurers largely scrap the current fee-for-service system - in which insurers pay doctors, hospitals, and other providers a negotiated fee for each procedure and visit - and instead pay providers a per-patient annual fee to cover all of the patient’s medical care.This new system of
“global payments’’RATIONING would discourage overuse of expensive medical services, force providers to live within a budget, and improve coordination of care for patients, supporters argue..........
DougM (commissarophobe) In fact I’m pretty sure this doesn’t even work in porn.
The criminal complaint alleges Laack stole a bag of beef jerky and a lighter at a convenience store Thursday afternoon. Police went to her home.
[...]
Police entered and tried to calm her down. With her children present, the complaint said, she stripped to her underwear and told the officers they couldn’t arrest her because she would be naked.
So, y’know, go ahead and scratch that plan off the list.
apotheosis, unrepentant milkaholic North Korea fired five short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, a news report said, even as South Korea proposed working-level talks with its communist neighbor.
PAY ATTENTION, NORKS! WAR IS OVER!
When children leave Cox Farms and other pumpkin patches across the nation this fall, they may go home with a gourd instead of the traditional orange pumpkin.
That’s because Cox Farms, which hosts one of the Washington area’s largest fall festivals this month, is looking at a pumpkin shortage.
Cox Farms marketing manager Bob Richard said a rainy spring in some parts of the country has led to a dearth of the little pumpkins that children carry home from the patch.
Sure thing. Go ahead and try to distract us with ridiculous stories about the weather and how plants don’t like rain. I’m sure some of the stupid city folk will buy it.
The rest of us know who’s guilty, and we’re making our plans accordingly.
Audience members listen to and smell “Green Aria,” described by its writer and director Stewart Matthew as a “scent opera” at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain.
The Society of Environmental Journalists spent much of their conference in Madison, Wisconsin questioning why mainstream journalism was dying.
Then they answered their own question when they decided it was their role to protect Al Gore from An Inconvenient Question.
Phelim McAleer, the director of Not Evil Just Wrong, asked Al Gore about the British Court Case which found his documentary An Inconvenient Truth had nine significant errors.
McAleer said that given his documentary is being shown in schools – does he accept the errors and has he done anything to correct them?.........
really, it was all a mix-up over the word “caucasian”
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand won the backing of fellow politicians on Sunday against calls for his resignation for having written about paying young male prostitutes in Thailand.
Government spokesman Luc Chatel, Immigration Minister Eric Besson and Left Party founder Jean-Luc Melenchon spoke out in support of the nephew of former President Francois Mitterrand, who has threatened legal action to protect his reputation.
[...]
Revelations that Mitterrand made in a 2005 book re-surfaced when he strongly defended Roman Polanski, who was arrested in Switzerland last month and faces extradition to the United States for having had sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Well, turds of a feather, or something like that. Interestingly, whereas public outcry against celebrities is simply turned aside and sneered at by their contemporaries, outcry against politicians is something not to be tolerated.
Melenchon told Europe 1 on Sunday that the continuing attacks on Mitterrand were “unacceptable” and criticized those who would “cast stones” at the minister.
...sound familiar?
When Utako Sakai was changing the background music in her beauty parlor recently, she did not opt for the classical piano pieces she usually chose.
A CD of President Barack Obama’s inaugural speech has sold a half million copies in Japan, leading publishers to flood the market with over a dozen language-learning titles centered on his oratory.
Instead, she picked her favorite CD: “President Obama’s Inaugural Address,” released by Asahi Press, a Japanese publisher of language books. She says the speech lifts her spirits and helps her to learn English all at once.“All our customers love it,” said Ms. Sakai, who is based in Ayase City, in Kanagawa Prefecture, outside Tokyo.
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Since the sales took off, he has received postcards from readers saying they had been touched by Mr. Obama’s speeches, but “those same people have said they were moved even though they didn’t understand English well,” he said. “Some even said the only phrase they caught was, ‘Yes, we can.’ They said they were in tears nonetheless.”
Looks like German publishers have been taking French lessons.
A German book publisher has canceled a novel about Islamic “honor killings,” fearing that the book would offend the Muslim community and put him in danger. Critics of the decision call it a cowardly move, but others say the publisher is simply being responsible.
via Holger Awakens
So what all did I miss ( here and everywhere else ) while I was away?
....I watched about 10 minutes of the news and had about 10 minutes worth of Internet time the whole week I was gone........
Feel free to compensate me. I had to wade through this.
So ends David Thompson’s latest foray into a choice fever swamp of weapons-grade crazy, in which we learn, among other things, that all heterosexual intercourse (including the use of what the school lunch industry refers to as “meat substitutes") is rape.
Now, before linking this, I will warn you...there are no photos, but some of the discussion is probably a little, um...frank for the workplace. Or Sunday School. But it’s worth reading if only to reinforce the understanding that there are people - and I use that word loosely - out there who can say things like
I believe male infanticide to be a better option than the current circumstances. I think it’s better than what we’ve got.
...without a trace of irony.
Also, that putting anything whatsoever in your hoo-ha means you’re a slave of the patriarchy.
Anyway, clicky to give David some love for braving the nutters on a slow Sunday afternoon.
