Volume 54, Number 4Fall 2003
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SCMA NEWS
New Hope for Increasing Medicare Payments
“SCMA is simply asking for an equitable distribution of Medicare funds. In fact, equitable distribution is what the GPCI calculation is intended to achieve.”
By an Sonander, MD
FEATURE ARTICLES
What is an equitable health system?
Editorial: An Equitable Carol
“As I crawled into bed, the lights began to flicker, and I heard the clanking of chains. I gasped as I saw the shimmering image of a ghost whose heavy chains hid a handsome Armani suit. ‘I am the ghost of an HMO CEO,’ he boomed.”
By Heather Furnas, MD
Delivering Hospital Care to the Uninsured
“Sonoma Medicine invited the CEOs of every Sonoma County hospital or hospital system to submit brief articles describing what methods they use to deliver care to uninsured and underinsured patients.”
By Barbara Bamberg, Dale Iversen, Michael Cohill,
Bob Schultz, MD, and David Ameen
Facility Costs for the Uninsured
“There are great differences in charges for surgical procedures, X-rays, and laboratory tests at hospitals and other health facilities in Sonoma County.”
By Paul R. Miller, MD
A Trustworthy Profession
“[Our] reputation needs to be cherished and preserved, for it is the wellspring of the trust that patients place in their physicians and is essential to any fair and equitable health system.”
By Brien A. Seeley, MD
DEPARTMENTS
Local Frontiers: Protecting Fetal Neurons
“It is hardly news that drugs and alcohol are harmful to fetuses. What is new and important is research about the subtler processes of fetal exposure and the impact of appropriate interventions.”
By Katherine Foster, MD
Local Frontiers: Endovenous Laser Therapy for Varicose Veins
“Endovenous laser therapy uses laser energy to obliterate the highest point of venous reflux and to close down the incompetent GSV.”
By Walter Tom, MD
SCMA News: The Foster Children’s Gift Program Turns 50
“When the approximately 1,500 presents, stockings, stuffed animals, and bicycles are all in one place, they become an inspiring and heartening array of generosity.”
By Karen Hanahan
Current Books: Lives Under Glass
“Dr. Murray ultimately decided that he had become so uncertain of the purpose of his work that he had to write fiction to figure it out. a few short notes on tropical butterflies, his first book, is a collection of short stories.”
By Stephen A. Meffert, MD
