The regulatory and political landscape of health care has changed quite a bit over the past few years—from the formation of accountable care organizations, to the arrival of Obamacare, to the increasing loss of control we physicians are experiencing when prescribing medications. Not to mention, many of us are fully committed to EHR this year by government regulation.
April 9, 2014, became a rather interesting day when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the 2012 Medicare payment information for 800,000 health care providers. Did this release create transparency or set fertile ground for a witch hunt? I think time will tell. Later this fall, we may see a repeat pattern, as the Sunshine Act highlights the financial relationships between doctors and industry.
In this edition of MillennialEYE, we’ll tackle these issues with insight from our peers in ophthalmology as well as health care policy experts. Does it appear there will be increasing scrutiny of how we provide care? Most likely. However, being ever the optimist, I still believe that the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship will survive these changing times.
