Healthcare: the battle for survival

By Dr. Stephanie McGann, DMD FAGD, Columnist, The Times As the end of a very unusual year comes to a close I have been looking at what changes this has brought to the small business community.  Like many independent dental practices I am a small businesswoman.  My industry is a bit different however than many other small businesses, in that we have no mechanism to raise our fees when the costs of...

Angry that your hospital is closing? Blame health insurers

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa There is widespread anger and frustration over this week’s announcement that Tower Health would close Jennersville and Brandywine hospitals — without doubt, that anger is completely deserved. While Tower Health deserves a healthy amount of the blame — the company’s mismanagement and clear dishonesty with local elected officials trying to save...

Maybe I’m paranoid, but it seems like local Congress members are out to get me

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times By nature, I’m not really a paranoid guy, but it is starting to look like U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, U.S. Reps. Ryan Costello (R-6), Pat Meehan (R-7) and Lloyd Smucker (R-16) have it out personally for me and my family. Okay maybe not personally — I’ve had cordial, even friendly relationships with some of them, and certainly interesting and insightful interviews...

The crossroads of hate and politics

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times In this very special edition of Politics As Unusual — a few days early to allow for copious time sitting by the pool and ingesting adult beverages — we’re going to take a look at how politics drives behavior (and the other way around), bad endorsements, chaos, dirty money and more! First, if you’ve been on the Web, watched TV or been exposed to virtually any...

Letter: thanks Pitts for recommending Healthcare.gov

To The Editor, Thank you, Congressman Pitts, for recommending HealthCare.gov! Our Congressman Joe Pitts has been an outspoken critic of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and so I was wondering what he would advise a constituent who did not have health insurance. So I emailed him through his website and asked this question: ‘I do not have health insurance and I want to get it. I do not want...

Obamacare – what patients are asking

When patients ask, I answer and share them with you By Dr. Stephanie McGann, DMD, FAGD, Columnist, The Times As a practicing dentist I have a ringside seat to the healthcare industry.  I get asked a lot of questions about the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare – and I thought I would share some of these questions and my take on them. Since this law is so flawed should we just ditch it and start over?...