Per the Urban Institute, as of April 2023, there were about 18 million ineligible people enrolled in Medicaid. The approximate annual cost of ineligible enrollees: $100 billion or more.
[That’s about $1,000 for every household in America.]
Category: COVID-19 and Public Health
WSJ: Hospitals Try to Improve their Poor Image
It’s hard to imagine enjoying a hospital stay, however hospitals are trying to improve the patient experience. Back when I worked for a hospital the executives would bristle when someone joked that the daily room charge in a hospital cost 10 times the daily room charge in a nice hotel. The ratio is probably closer to 30 times now. Despite the massive price increase, hospitals still don’t excel at hospitality.
CDC: Paid Sick Leave Would Reduce Foodborne Illness Outbreaks (Probably Not)
I met a doctor years ago who told me he didn’t like to eat in restaurants due to fears of catching foodborne pathogens. He worked in a community health setting and frequently treated food service workers with infectious diseases. He thought too many of his food service patients were fairly lackadaisical about taking their medications and too often worked when they should call-in sick. Apparently he was on to something. A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found one of the causes of foodborne outbreaks at restaurants are food service workers handling food while they are ill.
AMA: Don’t Let Pharmacists Initiate Care for Covid Patients
Have you called your primary care provider lately asking for an appointment? If so it was probably farther away than you had hoped. The national average wait to see a physician is 26 days. Once you see your doctor he or she is probably cordial but somewhat hurried. The average doctor-patient encounter lasts from 10 to 15 minutes, but that figure is probably skewed by Medicare patients who require longer appointments than average. There is a significant shortage of physicians.