TelaDoc, the largest telehealth firm in the United States, saw its stock price nosedive by more than 60% in the past month. TelaDoc’s stock price is down 78% from its high last year. This is significant considering health care experts predicted telemedicine would get a huge boost from Covid and telehealth visits become mainstream. What’s behind the stock slide? Was it profit-taking by early investors or has the public’s interest in telehealth waned? By the way, TelaDoc was founded in Dallas in 2002 and funded my early policy work on telemedicine 15 years ago under different leadership.
Author: Devon Herrick
Covid Forced Nurses’ Salaries Higher; Hospitals Hated It
It is common for hospitals to use nurse staffing agencies, sometimes called “rent-a-nurse” to fill shifts when needed. The downside is temp agency nurses costs more per hour than staff nurses who are hospital employees. During times when nurses are in short supply, as was the case with Covid, nurses are in such high demand they can safely work for staffing agencies knowing they will have plenty of work and higher pay.
Is Mosquito Control a Public Good? (Medicaid Expansion is Definitely Not!)
California became the home to the Aedes aegypti mosquito about a decade ago. Since then, it can be found from the Mexican border all the way to the northern California border with Oregon. It’s been found in 200 cities spread across 22 California counties. Its arrival was not welcome, however.
Medicare Drug Plan Spending Growth to Double
A report published in Health Affairs estimates that Medicare Part D spending will rapidly increase in the coming years. The reasons are both good news and bad news. Basically, new drugs in the pipeline and an increasing array of specialty drugs will drive spending growth. From 2009 to 2018 spending on Medicare Part D drugs increased about…