Dr. Leana Wen Talks The Things Doctors Don't Tell You

Leana S. Wen, MD, MSc, FAAEM, is an emergency physician, patient advocate, and public health leader. On January 15^th, 2015. Dr. Wen began serving as the Health Commissioner for Baltimore City in the administration of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. The Baltimore City Health Department is the oldest continuously-operating health department in the United States, formed in 1793.

Dr. Wen answers your questions about doctors, transparency and health care. For more of her bio, head to page 2. 

Do members of the military and their families have the same [transparency] issues with military doctors?

Generally not. Military doctors and other doctors who are paid salary do not have the same financial incentives to pay more to do more.

Are hospices prone to discouraging patients who want to continue to fight for their lives in a hospital setting to retain the money they are making for the patient?

Hospice programs do wonderful work to care for people at the end of life. Their incentive is to care for you, not to retain money for hospital.

Dr. Wen, when your primary care physician refer you to a specialist are they getting a kick back from the referral?

Kickbacks are not legal. You should ask your doctor exactly why you are getting a referral.

Good morning. Question – If you have a condition that worsens, should you ask for a second opinion and where should you get it from?

If you are not sure about the advice you are getting from your doctor, ask again. If the answer isn’t one you’re comfortable with, ask for a second opinion.

I’m a 20-year veteran and work for the VA. I would like to know if the doctors get paid for the affiliation and how should I do something about it or if I can do something about it?

Check out our website at www.whosmydoctor.com

Could you provide me the name of the website to review a doctor’s compensation process?

Check out www.whosmydoctor.com for more on that information.

Dr. Wen, will you face repercussions for revealing this information?

Watch my TED talk for more information on what happened when I began the website HERE. 

At BCHD, Dr Wen oversees a department of over 1,100 employees with wide-ranging responsibilities that include management of acute communicable diseases, animal control, chronic disease prevention, emergency preparedness, food service inspections, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STD), maternal-child health, school health, senior services, and youth violence issues.

Most recently, Dr. Wen has been an attending physician and Director of Patient-Centered Care in the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University. A professor of Emergency Medicine at the School of Medicine and of Health Policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, she co-directed GW’s Residency Fellowship in Health Policy, co-led a new national collaboration on health policy and social mission with Kaiser Permanente, and served as founding director of Who’s My Doctor, a campaign calling for radical transparency in medicine.

The author of the critically-acclaimed book When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests, Dr. Wen has given four popular TED and TEDMED talks on patient-centered care, public health leadership, and healthcare reform.

Read Dr. Wen’s op-ed  on why she went from the ER to the head of healthcare in Baltimore.

Dr. Wen received her medical training from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School. A Rhodes Scholar, she studied public health and health policy at the University of Oxford, and worked as a community organizer in Los Angeles and St. Louis.

Follow@DrLeanaWen.

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