- California had the worst job growth of any state.
- How Medicare pays providers: for the fiscal year that began on October 1, the new rule for hospital inpatient care is just short of 800 pages, with three columns of text for most of the published pages. The physician fee schedule and skilled nursing facilities rules for 2024 run 1227 and 147 pages, respectively.
- Other things equal, 3 psychological traits (competitiveness, risk tolerance, and confidence) lead to higher incomes.
- The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review determined that a cost-effective price for the newly approved gene therapy Lenmeldy is between $2.3M and $3.9M. Orchard Therapeutics, will be asking $4.25M.
- Why is colon cancer rising among young adults, but falling for seniors?
Category: Cost of Healthcare
WSJ: Why is it Such a Pain to see a Doctor?
I haven’t been to the doctor in several years because it’s such a hassle. All that time I’ve had health insurance that I have not used. The reason is because my old doctor retired (as did the previous one) and it’s too big a hassle to find a new one. The Wall Street Journal wrote about what a pain seeing a doctor has become.
Wednesday Links – 27 March 2024
- Contrary to the AMA and the CDC, there is no maternal mortality crisis. The authors found that the maternal mortality rate remained essentially flat between 1999 and 2002 (10.2 per 100,000 live births) and 2018 and 2021 (10.4). This would put the U.S. on par with other developed countries.
- Biden to lower the hammer on short-terms health insurance plans any day now.
- There were 17,597 dog bite liability claims filed across the country in 2022, with payouts totaling more than $1 billion.
- Average life expectancy has declined because a lot of young people are dying early (e.g., drug overdoses); among people who make it to old age, life expectancy is longer than ever.
Is Universal Dental Coverage the Next Obamacare Expansion?
Public health advocates have long considered dental care a neglected area of medicine, with dentistry in a silo of its own. Obamacare was intended to provide universal health coverage and boost access to medical care. However, it did not expand dental coverage beyond what was included in Medicaid expansion. Dental insurance must be purchased separate from health insurance for most people.