A decade ago a friend had some medical tests done at a hospital outpatient clinic. It was something simple, an X-ray and a blood or urine test. The hospital business office assured her that the care would be covered by her health plan. Months later a debt collector called demanding more than $700 for an outstanding medical bill. My friend had no recollection of having ever received a bill. The debt collector said he worked for the hospital, but when asked for a copy of the bill he could not provide one.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Experts: More Dogs are on Prozac, but that Says More about their Owners’ Mental Health than the Dogs’
The apparent mental health crisis in pets parallels a human one. Veterinary psychiatrists said the evidence is anecdotal but the increase in mood stabilizers mirrors the increase in humans and there are other parallels. However, it appears to be something of a chicken and egg dilemma. It’s not clear if pets are more depressed or if their owners just know more about the drugs available.
Brookings: Out-of-Network Doctors Winning Arbitration Cases 75% of the Time, Boosting Fees
The No Surprises Act has a dispute resolution mechanism to decide compensation for physicians who treat patients with whom they have no network affiliation. After treating insured patients, physicians and other providers bill health insurers, who pay, decline to pay or pay a reduced fee. If a physician believes the fees paid are too low, they have the option of taking the case to an independent dispute resolution (IDR) board for a fee.
Saturday Links
- Landmark 15-year transgender study: Around one-in-10 children expressed “gender non-contentedness” to varying degrees. But by age 25, just one-in-25 (4 percent) said they “often” or “sometimes” were discontent with their gender.
- Illegal immigrants are leaving hospitals with billions in unpaid hospital bills.
- Was your operation performed by a doctor? Or by a medical student in training? And how do you really know?
- Only half of all adults are married. And that’s not good, because “Marriage predicts happiness better than education, work and money.” (NYT)
- NEJM in the 1930s: “When it did address Nazi ‘medical’ practices, the Journal enthusiastically praised German forced sterilization and the restrictive alcohol policies of the Hitler Youth.”
- More on why the 2017 tax cut was a good idea.