The last major productivity increase in medical care was the physician’s waiting room. Back in the day house calls were common. If the doctor had to walk, drive or ride a horse to your house that was not a good use of his time. Of course, 100 years ago your doctor couldn’t help much either….
The High Cost of Poor Mental Health
There is a growing mental health crisis today. Numerous people report being depressed or anxious due to Covid and its aftermath. As the Texas mall shooting illustrates there is a lot of untreated mental illness in the United States. Indeed visits to the emergency rooms (ER) for mental health problems are on the rise. A mental health issue such as a panic attack can mimic other problems. I met a cab driver who said he went to the ER for a heart attack but it turned out to be a panic attack. Purportedly, hundreds of thousands of Medicaid patients seek treatment in emergency rooms for mental health.
Monday Links
- Data show that sizable portions of SNAP (food stamp) dollars purchase non-nutritious foods, such as sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, which can lead to poor health.
- The solution to anorexia: No one seems to know.
- Looking at three years’ worth of data, researchers found nurse-led care increases lengths of stay by 11%; raises 30-day preventable hospitalizations by 20%; and increases the cost of emergency department care by about $66 per patient and $74 million annually.
- Doctors against giving nurses more authority to practice medicine.
Saturday Links
- In just eight years, nearly 78 million Medicare beneficiaries will face an automatic 11% payment cut in their hospital insurance benefits.
- GOP bill would prohibit the use of quality-adjusted-life-year (QALY) and similar measures for health insurance coverage and payment determinations.
- Related concept: The “value of a statistical life” appears to vary by income. In essence, being wealthier equates to being more willing to buy what might make one “healthier.”
- Reason magazine investigation: woman in federal prison dies of medical neglect.