Healthcare is central to our daily lives and policymakers in Washington, DC have an enormous influence and control over this vital aspect of society. Yet despite this, most people cannot see what goes on behind the scenes of health policy circles in our Nation’s capital. There is no shortage of organizations with ideas and opinions, but, what most people don’t realize is that most of those opinions and ideas come from a process in which good policies often fall by the wayside, trumped by politics. It is in this very notion where the idea for Neurosurgery Blog was born. Here at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) we believe it’s imperative to always give an honest take on key health policy discussions — whether it’s good, bad, or just plain ugly — even if, in some cases, it makes us unpopular or ruffles a few political feathers.
The mission of Neurosurgery Blog is not only to investigate how healthcare policy affects healthcare practice and to illustrate that the art and science of neurosurgery encompasses much more than brain surgery, but it’s also to get people talking about healthcare in an open and honest way. So we invite you to sit back, relax, enjoy (hopefully) reading our posts and leave behind your own opinions as we talk about topics like the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), medical liability reform, and the big bad SGR (see video from our friends at the Texas Medical Association — although it’s a year old we still find it relevant as physicians are still in the same boat this year facing a 27 percent payment cut).
