As of January 1st insurers and health plans are required to provide online tools to help enrollees estimate the cost of common medical services and procedures. As an aside, a future iteration of the law should also discourage medical professionals who work in hospitals or large practices controlled by private equity from only referring inside their systems without giving patients an opportunity to use the tools to shop elsewhere. I’ve never had a problem with doctors steering me to hospital-based services. Yet, I’ve heard horror stories about doctors being compensated or punish based on so-called keepage and leakage. This from Kaiser Health News:
Category: Devon Herrick
FDA: Pharmacies Can Stock Abortion Pills; Mailing Them is Also Legal, According to Justice Dept.
A few months ago, I was talking to an old colleague about the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. I was reminded of the abortion ships would anchor just off the coast of Ireland in 2001. Would something similar occur off the Southeast coast and Gulf Coast? I even wondered how states would police the U.S. Postal Service, which could deliver pills capable of resulting in abortions through the mail.
FDA: Old Age and Aging is Not a Disease
Throughout human history children often struggled to make it to age five, due to infant mortality and childhood diseases. Undoubtedly the poor bore the brunt of infant mortality. However, the rich were not immune. Scientific American recently wrote about the mummy of the first-born son of an Austrian noble, who died at age 18 months. Although well fed, he apparently died of a vitamin D deficiency about 400 years ago.
Remote Mental Health Therapy with Electronic Health Records Goes High Tech
The other day I was surfing the web when I ran across an advertisement for TherapyNotes, a mental health electronic health record (EHR) system. I was a little curious. TherapyNotes lets counselors schedule an appointment and allows their clients to book through a client portal. Counselors can meet with clients in person or remotely with secure telehealth sessions. Then TherapyNotes facilitates documenting the session with easy‑to‑use templates. Finally, TherapyNotes creates and submits insurance claims with just a few clicks.