End State Renal Disease (ESRD) is the only disease condition that is covered by Medicare regardless of patients’ age. This benefit was passed in 1972. One result of Section 299I of Public Law 92-603 is that Medicare pays for two-third of dialysis patients, down from 87% in 2004. When your kidney function falls by 85% to 90% your kidneys can no longer keep you alive. According to the National Kidney Foundation, the average life expectancy on dialysis is 5 to 10 years, but many people live much longer when their dialysis is tailored to their needs. This often does not happen due to the United States’ mostly one-size-fits-all approach to dialysis, which is not ideal.
Author: Devon Herrick
How Much Charity Care Should Nonprofit Hospitals Provide?
I began my career in health care working as an accountant for a nonprofit hospital. One of our senior finance executives did a case study of how much the heath care system saved compared to a for-profit system that had to pay taxes. I don’t recall all the details, but it was in the neighborhood of $100 million dollars in 1990. About that same time the accounting managers were told we could no longer write off bad debts to charity care. Charity care had to be granted to deserving patients; we weren’t allowed to decide after not getting paid that care must have been charity.
Universal Coverage Will Not Cure Health Inequity
The United States spends about twice as much per capita on health care as other high-income countries. Yet our health outcomes are not as good, on average. It’s not that all Americans are in poor health, it’s that some Americans are in poor health and pulling down the average. As I’ve said before, health is correlated with wealth and education. Wealthier is healthier.
The FDA Hinders the Progress of Regenerative Medicine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sometimes gets lost in a bureaucratic maze of confusion and red tape that deprives patients of beneficial therapies. Innovative products sometimes fall within a gray area and become overly regulated. One of the FDA’s latest targets is regenerative medicine.
An article titled, An MBA in Regulatory Confusion, talks about Florida-based Regenative Labs. The firm manufactures products made from umbilical cords (donated by mothers after a C-section, according to the company website). English physician and anatomist Thomas Wharton first described his namesake umbilical cord jelly in 1656, although he had no way of knowing it is rich in stem cells and regenerative healing properties.