George Texs blog

Christian Espinoza, director de operaciones de una red de clínicas de tratamiento del sur de California, comenzó recientemente a emplear un nuevo asistente poderoso: un algoritmo de inteligencia artificial (IA) que puede realizar exámenes de la vista con imágenes tomadas por una cámara retinal. Realiza diagnósticos rápidos, sin la presencia de un médico. Sus clínicas, Tarzana Treatment Centers, son de las primeras en adoptar un sistema de IA que promete expandir drásticamente la detección de retinopatía diabética, la principal causa de ceguera entre adultos en edad laboral y una amenaza para muchos de los cerca de 38 millones de estadounidenses con diabetes. “Ha sido una bendición para nosotros”, dijo Espinoza, citando los beneficios de un examen rápido y fácil que puede realizarse con poco entrenamiento y que brinda resultados inmediatos. Y a sus pacientes también les gusta. Joseph Smith, quien tiene diabetes tipo 2, recordó la engorrosa tarea de tomar el autobús hasta el ...

Emergency room doctors say insurers are increasingly declining to cover costly air-ambulance rides for critically ill patients, claiming they aren’t medically necessary. And the National Association of EMS Physicians says the No Surprises Act, enacted in 2022, is partly to blame. The law protects patients from many out-of-network medical bills by requiring insurers and providers to haggle over fair payment. But insurers can sidestep the law if they determine care is “not medically necessary” — and insurers themselves get to decide what that means. In the fall of 2022, Sara England of Salinas, Calif., learned about this firsthand when ER doctors at a hospital in her town had her 3-month-old, Amari, transferred by air to the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center for what turned out to be an RSV infection. Her insurer, Cigna , determined the baby’s plane ride wasn’t necessary because his medical records didn’t show a ground ambulance would “impede timely and ...

Birmingham-Southern College will close on May 31 after a nearly 18-month fight to keep the liberal arts school open. BSC’s Board of Trustees voted to shut the school down after legislative leaders told them that a bill to extend the private school a $30 million loan was unlikely to pass the Alabama House of Representatives. “This is a tragic day for the College, our students, our employees, and our alumni,” said Board Chair Rev. Keith D. Thompson in a statement. “But it is also a terrible day for Birmingham, for the neighborhoods who have surrounded our campus for more than 100 years, and for Alabama.” BSC faced declining enrollment and poor finances stemming from overbuilding, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. It had sought a bridge loan from the Legislature to continue operations. The school said in a statement that it is making arrangements to maximize credit transfers for students. “We are putting students first, and we will do everything we can to help t...

Pinellas County Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie gave a brief presentation about a controversial vacation rental bill when he went before a group of mayors, vice mayors and other elected officials in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday. He was immediately challenged by Redington Beach Mayor David Will, who said the legislation removes the ability of residents in his city to have any discussion about how to regulate short-term vacation rentals. “The actual voice of the residents to go to their townhall, and have a discussion — pros, cons, whatever — to shape their community, to force that direction, has been removed,” he said. “So to me, whatever their position is, having that discussion is incredibly important.” But DiCeglie pushed back immediately. “I’m not really sure I understand where this bill, Senate bill 280, removes anybody’s voice,” DiCeglie said. “So I’m not sure that I fully understand how this bill or any other preemption takes away the voice of the people to elect the...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg outlined Wednesday the immediate and longer-term priorities the Biden administration is pursuing in the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore that left six presumed dead. While many questions remained roughly 36 hours after a massive cargo ship struck the bridge and  caused the deadly collapse , Buttigieg at a White House press briefing reiterated President Joe Biden’s  pledge a day earlier  for the federal government to fund the full cost of rebuilding the bridge. The U.S. Coast Guard is also leading efforts to clear debris from the site to reopen operations at the busy Port of Baltimore, Vice Admiral Peter Gautier, the deputy commandant for operations for the Coast Guard, said at the briefing. “It’s just too soon to say” exactly how much money or time will be needed to rebuild the bridge or open the port, Buttigieg told reporters. “Rebuilding will not be quick or easy or cheap,” Buttigieg said. “But we...

Nonprofit hospitals created largely to serve the poor are adding concierge physician practices, charging patients annual membership fees of $2,000 or more for easier access to their doctors. It’s a trend that began decades ago with physician practices. Thousands of doctors have shifted to the concierge model, in which they can increase their income while decreasing their patient load. Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, University Hospitals in the Cleveland area, and Baptist Health in Miami are among the large hospital systems offering concierge physician services. The fees, which can exceed $4,000 a year, are in addition to copayments, deductibles, and other charges not paid by patients’ insurance plans. Critics of concierge medicine say the practice exacerbates primary care shortages, ensuring access only for the affluent, while driving up health care costs. But for tax-exempt hospitals, the financial benefits can be twofold. Concierge fees prov...

En enero, Susanne Gilliam, de 67 años, estaba yendo a recoger el correo afuera de su casa cuando se cayó al resbalar sobre una capa de hielo negro. Sintió una punzada de dolor en la rodilla y el tobillo de la pierna izquierda. Después de llamar a su marido por teléfono, logró regresar a su casa con dificultad. Y así comenzó el vaivén interminable que tantas personas enfrentan cuando tienen que navegar el desorganizado sistema de salud de Estados Unidos. El cirujano ortopédico de Gilliam, que la había tratado antes por problemas en la misma rodilla, la vio esa tarde pero le aclaró: “Yo no me ocupo de tobillos”. La derivó a un especialista en tobillos que ordenó nuevas radiografías y una resonancia magnética. Gilliam pidió hacerse las pruebas en un hospital cerca de su casa en Sudbury, Massachusetts, que le resultaba más conveniente. Pero cuando llamó para pedir una cita, el hospital no tenía la orden del doctor, que finalmente llegó después de varias llamadas más. Coordina...

Una mañana de hace casi 10 años Karla Adkins se miró en el espejo retrovisor de su auto y advirtió que el blanco de sus ojos se había vuelto amarillo. En ese entonces tenía 36 y trabajaba como médica de enlace para un sistema hospitalario de la costa de Carolina del Sur ayudando a fortalecer los vínculos entre los médicos. Desde sus 20 años, había estado luchando en secreto contra el consumo excesivo de alcohol, convencida de que la ayudaba a calmar sus ansiedades. Adkins comprendió que ese color amarillento de sus ojos era producto de la ictericia. Aun así, no imaginó que fuera posible que le diagnosticaran una enfermedad hepática relacionada con el abuso de alcohol. “Sinceramente, mi mayor temor era que alguien me dijera que no podía volver a beber”, contó Adkins, que hoy vive en Pawleys Island, una ciudad costera a unas 30 millas al sur de Myrtle Beach. Pero la bebida ya había afectado su salud y, menos de 48 horas después de su descubrimiento en el espejo retrovisor, ...

Cuando estaba en noveno grado, Fiona Lu cayó en una depresión. Tenía problemas para adaptarse a su nueva escuela en Orange County, California, y se sentía tan aislada y agotada que lloraba todas las mañanas. Lu quería recibir ayuda, pero su plan de Medi-Cal no cubría la terapia a menos que tuviera el permiso de uno de sus padres o tutores. Su madre, inmigrante china y madre soltera, trabajaba muchas horas para mantener a Fiona, a su hermano y a su abuela. Encontrar tiempo para explicarle a su madre en qué consistía la terapia y por qué la necesitaba le parecía una tarea imposible. “No me la imaginaba firmando todos esos formularios y luego yendo a terapia conmigo”, dijo Lu, que ahora tiene 18 años y estudia primer año en la UCLA. “En las culturas inmigrantes existe esta idea de que tener problemas de salud mental y recibir tratamiento es un fenómeno de las culturas occidentales”. En su último año de secundaria, Lu convirtió su experiencia en activismo. Hizo campaña para cam...

The Florida Supreme Court released two blockbuster rulings on abortion rights on Monday — one that within a few weeks will allow a ban on the procedure after six weeks’ gestation to take effect, and another allowing the voters to decide in November whether to amend the Florida Constitution to protect access to the procedure. In the first ruling, the court voted to overrule its 1989 precedent holding that the Florida Constitution’s Privacy Clause protects the right to abortion. That protection was among the strongest for the procedure in the country, going beyond what the U.S. Supreme Court allowed in its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The court’s majority noted that the six-week ban, which the Legislature adopted last year, was contingent on one of four things happening: that the court overturned its privacy protection for abortion; that it uphold the ban the Legislature imposed in 2022 after 15-weeks’ gestation; that a state constitutional amendment clarify that the Privacy Clause d...

TOPEKA — The Marion County Record has filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against local authorities who planned and carried out  the raid last year of the newspaper office and publishers’ home , accusing the “co-conspirators” of seeking revenge for unfavorable news coverage through falsified and invalid search warrants. According to  a 127-page complaint  filed Monday, former Mayor David Mayfield ordered the takedown of the newspaper and a political rival after identifying journalists as “the real villains in America.” The lawsuit claims defendants violated the First Amendment freedom of the press, the Fourth Amendment prohibition on warrantless searches, and federal and state laws that protect journalists — and their sources — from police raids. The lawsuit doesn’t specify the damages being sought for those claims. “The last thing we want is to bankrupt the city or county, but we have a duty to democracy and to countless news organizations and citizens nationwide to chal...