Welcome Back!

Good morning!  Hope you all had a great few days while I was out in California.  I must say that the most fun about my job is that a bunch of our fundraising comes along with great music and great friends.  Flight to Mars was fabulous, as always.  For me, the real treat was an acoustic set Mike played at a CCFA fundraiser on Saturday night with Jack Irons and Jakob Dylan -- I will never forget that! 

Alas, though, I had to come home.  Emily was happy to see me, and I slept pretty well around the clock yesterday, so I guess I have no excuse now and it's back to the grind.

There are a few news items worth mentioning this morning -- I couldn't figure out how to post links on my iPad, so I may be a couple of days late on some of these, but these stories are timeless.

A new kind of primary care medicine -- no insurance, but primary care direct.  This is an off-shoot of concierge practices, in which doctors provide special care, including house calls, to the wealthy.  Under primary care direct, you pay a flat rate for unlimited primary care visits.  This is not insurance, and it only covers primary care.  But for relatively healthy people, it's an interesting new model.

43 Catholic groups have sued the Obama Administration for requiring that their employees have access to contraceptives, even if they don't have to pay for it. 

A government panel recommends against PSA blood tests for prostate cancer.   They say it does more harm than good, causing us to treat problems before they need treatment. 

A tale of aggressive debt collection in and by a hospital.  So wrong.

The courageous woman who is blogging about her experience undergoing a bone marrow transplant for leukemia is finally out of the hospital -- but her ordeal is not over.  She's now at a halfway house called Hope Lodge -- and she is filled with hope, as I am filled with admiration for her.

Dr. Pauline Chen's latest essay is about teaching people about organ donation as they wait in line at the DMV.  Are you an organ donor? 

A serious malady -- fixed with yogurt and corn starch?  Yup.  In this case, the diagnosis was the key -- a rare form of glycogen storage disorder. 

A treasure trove of data may help us understand health care utilization better.  Perhaps this will help us adjust spending.

That'll do it for today -- a mini-blog.  I have a lot to get done.  So have a great day.  Jennifer