The No Surprises Act, a federal law that went into effect in January 2021, outlaws surprise medical bills of the type that occurred when patients were treated by an out-of-network physician at a facility in their health plan. Furthermore, in his first term President Trump issued an executive order requiring hospitals to post prices. The problem is that hospitals are finding new ways to spring surprise medical bills on patients.
Category: Affordable Care Act
Sunday Links
- Cato: “We estimate that the [Inflation Reduction Act] will cost more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years and between $2 trillion and $4 trillion by 2050.”
- Despite a bumpy start, hospital price transparency requirements are having an effect: a movement toward price convergence.
- How health insurers use AI to deny health care claims.
- MAGA opportunity: McKinsey estimates the global market for “consumer wellness” products at $1.8 trillion—making it roughly twice the size of the pharmaceutical industry
Friday Links
- How Medicare Advantage works: “The plans look for unhealthy people who likely have been poorly served by the fee-for-service system. These people both have big payment multipliers attached to them and offer lots of opportunity for improving care and lowering costs.”
- How to reform the NIH.
- Covid lockdowns had almost no affect on the top students, but was devastating for those at the bottom.
- Cato’s suggestions for DOGE.
- The money donated to restore Notre Dame could instead have saved 47,500 lives from death by malaria – and maybe twice that number.
Friday Links
- Tim Cook thinks Apple health apps could save your life.
- Cato video on Pain Management: Federal and local drug task forces have arrested doctors whom they accuse of overprescribing opioids. This has led to a situation where many physicians either undertreat pain or choose to abandon their long-term pain patients.
- Biden pushes out over $100 billion in clean energy grants as term comes to an end.
- Minnesota study: Commercial payers and Medicare Part D plans—and patients—fund 85% of 340B revenues in Minnesota. Hospitals reap 77% of the benefits.
- Flu Shots Increase Susceptibility to Common Cold.
- With over 120 million Americans suffering from inadequately treated hypertension or diabetes and a never-ending shortage of primary care practitioners, now is the time to expand access to OTC drugs.