- Noah Smith’s case for Biden’s industrial policy.
- On way a hospital makes money: don’t let the patients leave: (NYT)
- A social worker spent six days inside an Acadia hospital in Florida after she tried to get her bipolar medications adjusted.
- A woman who works at a children’s hospital was held for seven days after she showed up at an Acadia facility in Indiana looking for therapy.
- And after police officers raided an Acadia hospital in Georgia, 16 patients told investigators that they had been kept there “with no excuses or valid reason.”
- Medicare is barred by law from paying for weight loss drugs just for weight loss. But Medicaid can, and federal taxpayers pay as much as half the cost. (NYT)
- The Little Sisters of the Poor fought for seven years before winning against Obamacare mandates in court.
- Lesson from both political conventions: Neither party cares whether the poor or the near poor have health insurance.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Heritage Reviews Ten Years of Obamacare
High Premiums
High Deductibles
Narrow Networks
Less Choice
Source Ed Haislmaier, Ten Health Trends, Heritage Foundation
Psych Hospitals’ Financial Incentive to Admit Patients Against Their Will
Aggressive marketing, outreach to law enforcement, outreach to emergency room doctors and hospital staff is a way to fill psych beds with referrals. Although inpatient psychiatric hospitals are sometimes needed in extreme cases, they are ripe for abuse.
George Halvorson’s Response to MedPac
The people enrolled in the Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare coverage and those millions of people have the highest health care needs in the country.
80% of the very lowest income Medicare enrollees are in MA plans.
MA plans have 40% fewer hospital admissions for congestive heart failure, and almost 80% lower amputation rates for the lowest income diabetic member.
Medicare Advantage costs 18% less than the average cost of fee-for-service Medicare at this point in time.
Source: The Heath Care Blog