Courage to Heal - Softcover

Bernstein, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0932653855 ISBN 13: 9780932653857

Publisher: Sunbelt Publications, 2007

Synopsis

Set in a world of iron lungs, the Great Depression, and a World War, Courage to Heal is based on the true story of a young surgeon who, along with the twentieth century's boldest industrialist, changed the face of American medicine forever. History is brought to vivid life in this novel of an intransigent physician, his fight to provide health care to all, and his undying love for a beautiful nurse who marries the man determined to defeat him.

At the height of the Great Depression, Doctor Sidney Garfield saw the thousands of men involved in building the Los Angeles Aqueduct as an opportunity to provide quality affordable health care for workers. He built Contractors General Hospital: a 12-bed hospital in the middle of the Mojave Desert, six miles from the tiny town of Desert Center, California, and began treating sick and injured workers.

With the start of WWII, the need for health care for shipworkers was even greater. Working with industrialist Henry Kaiser, Garfield created the first true health care system in the Richmond shipyards, then opened a hospital in Oakland, still the headquarters of what is now Kaiser Permanente. When WWII was over, the doctor s private war began, when the AMA tried to shut down Kaiser (calling it socialist ) and take away his medical license. Through it all, Garfield persisted in his vision of affordable health care. Kaiser Permanente is the largest HMO in the U.S., serving over 8 million people.

About this title

From the Author

Born out of the challenge of providing Americans medical care during the Great Depression and World War II, Sidney Garfield's model, Kaiser Permanente, is now the nation's largest nonprofit health plan, serving 8.2 million members in 10 states, and employing over 136,000 people and 11,000 physicians. Garfield was responsible for changing the face of American medicine, helping to make it more affordable and improving the quality of care by encouraging early detection and treatment of illness. The system that he and Henry Kaiser started, a nonprofit plan of health care, now known as a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) devotes all revenues to patient care rather than shareholder profit, helping to make health care accessible and affordable to more Americans.

Our predominant fee-for-service model of health care encourages doctors to do more of everything: more visits, more tests, more hospitalizations, more surgery. The sicker you are, the more business they get. Not a penny goes for preventive care. On the other hand, HMO's are prepaid and are motivated to keep you healthy. They do everything they can to encourage you to come in for mammograms, diabetes testing, colonoscopy, vaccinations, weight loss programs, no smoking classes, and the list goes on. The less sickness, the less cost.

But there's more to it. Not all HMO's are created equally. There are two models of HMO care: for-profit and non-profit.

In the for-profit heath plan, when fewer services are delivered, the profit margin increases so there is more money to distribute to the shareholders and staff. In other words, an outside bean counter, not a doctor, manages costs instead of managing the quality of care.

A non-profit HMO health plan, like Kaiser Permanente, reinvests all revenues back into quality patient care rather than out to shareholder profit or huge CEO salaries. Its incentive is to keep you healthy, by actually preventing illness like heart disease and cancer, because healthier people require less costly care. In other words, all efforts to contain costs are not done for the profit of the doctors or administrators--they are done solely to provide quality health care at a price you can afford. It's no surprise that a Consumer Reports study of 20,000 people showed that patient satisfaction rates were much higher in non-profit HMO's.

Most physicians want nothing else other than to keep you healthy. But no matter how dedicated we are to the Hippocratic Oath, no matter how much we want to be Good Samaritans, in the end, to keep our practices going, doctors have to bill. Fee-for-service doctors employ office staff to "code" their fees in a manner that maximizes their reimbursement. If a doctor owns expensive equipment, e.g. MRI's, endoscopy suites, minor OR's, they need to use them to recoup their investment. Every week, I receive three or more letters in the mail to take a "coding course" to help "increase my income." As I throw them away, I breathe a sigh of relief that in my practice, I don't have to play this fee-for-service game. All of my decisions on care are based on what's best for the patient. We're on the same team. That's why I've looked forward to going to work every day for the last 25 years.

As my seventeen-year-old son would say: "Dad, it's a no-brainer." We should pay doctors for keeping us healthy. To put it simply and to quote Cecil Cutting, "Fee-for-service medicine is a `sick plan' while managed care is a `health plan.'"

As the numbers of the uninsured (45 million Americans, one in five Californians) spiral out of control, I believe that Sidney Garfield's model of competing non-profit HMOs may be the best solution to our nation's health crisis. Trust me, I'm a doctor.

From the Back Cover

A riveting insider's account of the obstacles these two men faced, and the sacrifices and risks required to realize their shared vision of providing affordable, non-profit health care. Dr. Bernstein's sense of drama and pacing, and his own parallel compassion and idealism shine through to make this a compelling read Susan Vreeland, bestselling author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue and Luncheon of the Boating Party

Set in a world of iron lungs, the Great Depression, and a World War, Courage to Heal is based on the true story of a young surgeon who joined forces with the twentieth century's boldest industrialist to change the face of American medicine. Brought to vivid life is the intransigent physician, his fight to provide health care to all, and his love for a beautiful nurse who marries the man determined to defeat him.

At the height of the Great Depression, Doctor Sidney Garfield saw the thousands of men involved in building the Los Angeles Aqueduct as an opportunity to provide quality affordable health care for workers. He built a 12-bed hospital in the middle of the Mojave Desert, six miles from the tiny town of Desert Center, California, and began treating sick and injured workers.

During WWII, the need was even greater. Working with industrialist Henry Kaiser, Garfield created the first true health care system for shipyard workers in Richmond, then opened a hospital in Oakland. When the War was over, the doctor's private war began; the AMA tried to shut his medical group down, calling it "socialist," and threatened to take away his medical license. Through it all, Garfield fought for affordable health care, eventually co-founding Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit HMO.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Paul Bernstein, MD, is a practicing Head and Neck Surgeon, Chair of the Head and Neck Division of the American Cancer Society, and founder of the Kaiser Permanente Historical Society. His novels have won awards at the San Diego Book Awards and the Asilomar Writers' Conference, and Dr. Bernstein has appeared as a medical expert on Good Morning America.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sunbelt Publications
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0932653855
• ISBN 13: 9780932653857
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 229