State Societies and Hospital-Employed Orthopaedists

Gregory S. McDowell, MD

Gregory S. McDowell, MD Hospital employment of orthopaedists may have some significant implications for orthopaedic state societies. The first inklings of the impact of hospital employment on state societies came during the Board of Councilors’ (BOC) 2008 fall meeting, when Thomas C. Barber, MD, and Matthew S.

Who Will Finance State Healthcare Insurance Exchanges?

Jordan C. Apfeld, BA; Vasanth Sathiyakumar, BA; A. Alex Jahangir, MD; Manish K. Sethi, MD

In state capitols across the United States, a battle has recently raged about the development of healthcare insurance exchanges and who should build them: the state or the federal government. The implementation of these exchanges will dramatically influence the American healthcare landscape in the coming years. This article briefly reviews the concept of the healthcare insurance exchange and examines the pros and cons of state versus federal creation and administration.

Best Care at Lower Cost

Julie Balch Samora, MD, PhD, MPH; David B. Bumpass, MD

A review of the 2012 report from the Institute of Medicine Julie Balch Samora, MD, PhD, MPH, and David B. Bumpass, MD More than a decade after the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, underperformance, inefficiency, and exorbitant costs continue in the U.S. healthcare system.

Beware the RAC

Menachem M. Meller, MD

The rack, popularized by Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor, was a device of orthopaedic torture. In it, the victim’s ankles were fastened at one end and his wrists at the other. The inquisitor could then twist a ratchet, pulling the ankles distally and the wrist proximally, thereby dismembering the victim. The modern orthopaedic torture device—less gruesome but pain-inflicting nonetheless—is the RAC: Recovery Audit Contractor.

Last-Minute Deal Averts Fiscal Cliff

Madeleine Lovette

On Jan. 2, 2013, President Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act (H.R. 8) into law to avert the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ facing the nation as a result of the expiration of the 2010 Tax Relief Act and the enactment of the 2011 Budget Control Act. The President signed the bill after Congress reached an 11th-hour deal late on New Year’s Eve and quickly passed the legislation through both chambers.