Naturopathic Medicine, Prescribing Rights & The Hard Road to a Better Health Care System

Last year, Hawaii naturopaths won a major victory when the state legislature expanded their independent prescribing authority. No sooner had the ink dried then the Hawaii Medical Assocation, with blessings from the AMA, sought to repeal the new law. The opposition is troubling given the dire shortage of primary care MDs in Hawaii and many other states. [ ...Login to Read More]

Primary Care Gains, While Specialists Feel Recession’s Bite

While it’s hardly a boom time, primary care groups showed slight to significant gains in total revenue during the first year of the recession, while most specialist groups showed losses. [ ...Read More]

New Survey Shows Physicians Groups Prefer Medicare to Privates

Doctors may not exactly love Medicare, but a new survey shows they prefer it to the big private insurance plans when it comes to matters like payer communications, contract negotiation, payment processing, and overall satisfaction. [ ...Login to Read More]

Heal Thy Practice 2010: Platforms for Preventive Health Care

For too many physicians, primary care practice feels like a shoe that just doesn’t fit. Like bewitched sisters in the children’s story, Cinderella, they’re cutting off parts of their feet in order to fit the shoes they believe they must wear.

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Corporate Wellness Programs Help Employees But Leave Doctors in the Dark

The nation’s big corporations are going to great lengths to get employees to exercise, lose weight, eat better and quit smoking. But all-too-often these corporate wellness programs don’t engage employees' physicians.

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From "Clinical Facility" to "Garden of Healing": Creating a Healing Environment for Your Patients

The specific treatment a doctor gives is only a small part of the total clinical experience. The key to creating an effective healing experience is to create a vision that reaches below the surface of conscious awareness, where 95% of what we take in is processed. To give patients a nurturing, healing experience, we need to create nurturing, compassionate, empowering input that touches people on many different levels.

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Institute of Medicine's Summit on Integrative Medicine: Revolution! Reform! Reimbursement?

Revolution and reform were major themes at the Institute of Medicine's historic Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Public Health. But it's another "R" word reimbursement that will determine what a reformed, integrated system will really deliver. IOM delegates called for a radical shift toward prevention and "wellness" but no one is sure how that transformation will be financed.

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Natural Medicine & Healthcare Reform: Taking Our Places, Raising Our Voices

Health policy experts are concerned that health care reform efforts could be stymied by a severe lack of primary care doctors. The problem could be attenuated if those presiding over reform would allow the thousands of licensed or license-eligible naturopaths and other holistic non-MD practitioners help to shape and then participate in a reformed health care system.

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Exercise Centers Are a Good "Fit" For Primary Care Clinics

A growing number of primary care doctors are discovering that clinic-based exercise centers are a good "fit" for their patients' physical health, and for their own fiscal health. A turnkey model called Integrative Health Network (iH3) is enabling more doctors to bring exercise medicine into their practices and to people who might never set foot in a commercial fitness club.

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Heal Thy Practice: Business Strategies That Put the Health Back in Healthcare

Holistic Primary Care's upcoming "Heal Thy Practice: Transforming Primary Care" conference (June 5-7, 2009, Westin La Paloma, Tucson) will create a much-needed forum to empower primary care doctors who want to practice prevention-focused, patient-centered primary care. With the burden of chronic disease higher than ever, costs spiraling out of control, and the health care system on the verge of collapse, the need has never been greater!

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