The Energy and Courage to Try New Things: My Memories of STFM Conferences Over the Years

Posted on April 12, 2017 by | 1 comment

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John Frey, MD

I have been attending STFM meetings since 1972, when I went to my first meeting as a resident, and have missed only three since that time. Those first meetings are all a jumble in my memory but mostly I remember feeling as if, somehow, I had found sanctuary, at least for a few days each year. Everyone was busy with the work of starting a career without a roadmap, making it up as we went along and comparing notes at the annual meeting. I suppose I had the idea that STFM meetings would have “the answers” but as one of my early residents said, it took me a few years to realize that there were no “answers”, just more questions and that was as it should be.  I would go home with my head full of possibilities. Fortunately, that feeling has never left me.

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Resilient Faculty, Resilient Residents

Posted on April 10, 2017 by | 1 comment

Kathleen Rowland, MD, MS

Change is here, and more is coming. In medicine, we often perceive change, especially external change from hospital systems or payers, to be a threat. We feel a loss of control, which can lead to anger, resentment, and burnout.1 A survey of 3,000 US physicians done by a staffing company found that 58% of physicians who left medicine in 2013 reported doing so because they didn’t want to practice in an era of health care reform. This is more than stated they left because of economic factors such as malpractice insurance or reimbursement concerns (50%).2 The changes we face can feel overwhelming, and we have to take measures to make the changes less daunting.  

Being resilient does not mean that we become pushovers. The goal of teaching resilience to change is to increase the sense that we are able to react to, triage, and adapt to changes while maintaining the core of who we are: physician teachers and healers. We can fight unwinnable battles or choose good ones. We can hold out on changing until the demand to do so is punitive, or we can adopt the change at a comfortable pace.  We often do not choose the changes we face, but can choose the way we respond. As we restore that independence, we can reduce our risk of burnout and increase our satisfaction with practice.  

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Posted in Education, Faculty Development, Residency

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Pre-Existing Conditions and the Potential Cost of Repeal and Replace on the Medically Underserved

Posted on March 30, 2017 by | Leave a comment
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Michael Castellarin, MD

In March of 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became the most significant change to the US healthcare system in almost half a century. This January, health care reform again entered the national conversation as discussions to repeal and replace the ACA ensue. One of the most influential provisions of the ACA was the pre-existing conditions clause which led to a ban on medical underwriting, thus providing health insurance coverage for a multitude of people previously ineligible unless covered by an employer.

As a family medicine intern training at an urban federally qualified health center (FQHC), I care for the medically underserved; a population defined by their complex health care needs and lack of financial resources which, prior to the ACA, left this group particularly vulnerable to medical underwriting. As health care policy shifts once again, the importance of pre-existing condition coverage must be realized and must be protected, particularly for those less fortunate.

Prior to the passage of the ACA, the practice of medical underwriting was commonplace in the individual health insurance market. Common ailments such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity left patients uninsurable. Those insured through an employer avoided underwriting but oftentimes those in medically underserved populations were forced to shop for health insurance on the individual market because of unemployment or low wage employment without employer-sponsored insurance.

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