- Public-health communication around monkeypox has been an orgy of euphemism and wokespeak, misleading and baffling if you don’t understand what isn’t being said.
- Kids going crazy: “Between 2016 and 2020, there were significant increases in children’s diagnosed anxiety and depression.”
- Financial therapy integrates financial and emotional wellness. But is it health care?
- Birx: pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna are to blame for thousands of deaths because their refusal to pursue a “compassionate use authorization” for the COVID-19 vaccines led to a delay which directly impacted nursing home residents.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
During a Nursing Shortage Nurses Abandon Hospitals
Physicians have long dabbled in cosmetic medicine to boost their incomes. It is interesting to note that their cosmetic practices are competitive with transparent pricing, while their therapeutic areas of practice is bureaucratic with opaque prices. As a result of competition, cosmetic surgery prices have risen about equal to consumer inflation, which is one-third the rate of medical inflation.
Who Benefits from Drug Rebates? Mostly Health Plans (Not Consumers)
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) have been in the news lately. PBMs manage drug benefits for insurers, self-insured employer health plans, Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare Part D. Recently executives from the three largest PBMs were hauled before Congress to discuss their business models. One reason for scrutiny is that the three largest PBMs control about 80% of the market.
Monday Links
- Yglesias: Everything you want to know about combatting monkeypox, and then some.
- Monkeypox: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?
- Paxlovid rebound: when a person (like President Biden) tests positive for the coronavirus again even after initially testing negative following a round of treatment with the antiviral is more common than you think.
- CBO: Drug pricing bill will Lead to higher launch prices for new drugs.
- View this article for more information.
- CBO: Drug pricing bill will lead to 60 fewer drugs over the next three decades.
- Do hospital patients need their own in-house advocate? Covid issues