Letter From The Editor

Did you know that men with diabetes often have low free testosterone levels? If they are obese, this risk increases: about 50% of obese men with diabetes have low levels. Other factors influence levels also and in part two of our Homerun Slides series on Diabetes and Testosterone, we examine these concepts in …

Every week our publisher and production editor give me a deadline to have my "Letter from the Editor" to them. It seems no matter how early I get started, I barely get it to them in time. This delay in doing my part causes all of us extra stress. However …

Typically this clinical letter focuses on articles related to patient disasters averted, medical slides and clinical texts. However I am going to make an exception this week and share information from Novo Nordisk on the approval process for two new insulins. These ultra long insulins had a good chance of …

This past week I got a call from a friend and Weight Watchers instructor who had gotten her labs done and found out that her LDL was slightly elevated. Her physician wanted her to start on Atorvastatin. She had been handed the prescription and the nurse told her to call …

This past Sunday I was on a 50 mile Sunday Bike Ride with about 30 others. We were riding along at about 24 mph when the sprint started near Redington Beach. Immediately a group of eight of us pulled away in our race to the bridge. Our speed was up …

One of our sources has been in touch with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and found that new, lower Medicare prices  will go into effect this July in a major expansion of the DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program. The CMS Office of the Actuary estimates that the program …

Hypertension can be an expensive disease and how poor a job we do managing it in older patients can increase managed care costs. This week’s Homerun Slides series, Hypertension in the Medicare Population, Part 1 of 2, provides you with the information to talk to your colleagues about the future of …

Each week there is something new about how we can improve patient care by improving transitions for patients between healthcare units. A recent Medicare initiative aimed at smoothing transitions of care through community-based interventions successfully lowered 30-day readmission rates and all-cause hospitalization rates among beneficiaries, according to a study. Medicare quality …

This week our Homerun Slides have a dual value to everyone who subscribes to Diabetes In Control. As we know there has been a shift in how we are expected to provide healthcare and for the first time in history we are being graded on how good a job we do …

We have spent many an hour helping you learn about the new ways that reimbursement will be changing to reward providers that provide the best care. This applies to hospitals as well. Healthgrades, a healthcare quality reporting group, has released a list of 262 hospitals that represent the nation’s elite …