Volume IV, Issue 19

May 8, 2017
House Passes Revised AHCA 
WH
Kyle Cheney, John Bresnahan and Rachael Bade reporting for Politico on 5/4/17:

The House <U.S. House of Representatives> passed legislation Thursday to repeal and replace Obamacare, as Republicans came closer than ever to realizing their seven-year pledge to overturn the Democratic law and remake health insurance for millions of Americans.

The plan, the American Health Care Act, was approved mostly along partisan lines, 217-213, with just one vote to spare. No Democrats backed the bill, and a slew of Republicans opposed it as well.

WIM
According to the article's authors:

The vote is a major victory for President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan after months of false starts and intraparty dissension.

... But the bill's passage is far from assured in a skeptical Senate. The only guarantee so far is the seismic political impact. For House Republicans, it's the fulfillment of a seven-year promise to back a bill gutting the 2010 health law. For Democrats, it's a chance to harness surging energy of Obamacare defenders to oust Republican lawmakers from office.
Medical marijuana implementation in Florida is about to spark  
WH
Janelle Irwin, in a May 4, 2017 SFBJ post, reports:

Florida House of Representatives members voted near unanimously Tuesday to approve implementation rules for medical marijuana < House Bill 1397>, after weeks of back and forth negotiations among members of both the House and the Senate.

WIM
According to Ms. Irwin:

The vote is a huge step toward implementing Amendment 2, which voters overwhelmingly approved in November. The issue heads now to the Senate where lawmakers will decide whether to approve the House version of the bill or head back to the negotiating table. This is the final week of the legislative session.

...The approved version of Rodrigues' < Rep. Ray Rodrigues-R-Estero > bill is a compromise that adds 10 new license holders by July 2018 and then four more for every 100,000 patients in the marketplace.
What is the right way to deliver bad news?
WH
Andrea Eisenberg, MD, in a 5.2.17 KevinMD post, reflects on the dilemma faced by many doctors on an all too frequent basis:

Is there a right way to give bad news? When I get a patient's pathology report of breast cancer on a Friday afternoon, should I wait until Monday to call her to let her have one more weekend cancer "free?" What if I do call and I'm transferred to voicemail? Do I leave a message to call me back? The office may be closed when she returns the call. Then she is left to ruminate over the weekend.

When I get the pathology results from a surgery, and it shows cancer, do I wait until their post op visit to tell them in person or call right away? If I tell my staff to make her appointment sooner, won't she guess it is because I have bad news?

WIM
While not able to answer the question posed, Dr. Eisenberg delivers a thoughtful and moving analysis of the human side of medicine. She confesses:

These are not rare scenarios; these issues come up all the time. After so many years in practice, you would think I would have this down. But I don't; every time it is difficult. Every time it's heart-wrenching. Every time I envision how they will take the news, wondering who they have to support them, and how to best tell them.

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Florida Health Industry Week in Review is published every Monday by
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Each Monday morning we share the top healthcare headlines of the previous week and summarize
What Happened (WH) and
Why It Matters (WIM).

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