Answer: allow these doctors to practice as “Assistant Physicians.”
Commission Report: COVID response exposed “collective national incompetence.” We needed a commission to know that?
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
Texas Legislature Debating Licensing Assistant/Associate Physicians
Texas is the latest state to consider licensing assistant physicians / associate physicians to treat patients within the state. These are not to be confused with physician assistants. The former titles are medical school graduates who have not matched to a residency program. The Texas House Bill is 2556.
‘Pass-Through Billing’ Health Care Scams
Nearly three years ago I wrote about rural hospital lab scams. That’s when a shady marketing consultant working with scammers convinces struggling rural hospitals that they have a solution for precarious hospital finances. Basically, every lab test ordered by affiliated physicians is billed through a rural hospital with a more lucrative lab contract. The hospital makes money for doing nothing, while the marketing guys get a big, fat cut of the proceeds. You and I pay higher prices as a result.
Wednesday Links
- Florida had one of the nation’s least restrictive COVID responses, but its age-adjusted COVID mortality rate was 8% lower than the median state. Florida’s in-person schooling rate, which positively correlates with better test scores, was among the best in the country.
- Republicans want people who get Food Stamps and Medicaid to work.
- Senate report: Covid probably came from lab.
- Former DNI John Ratcliffe: A lab leak is the “only explanation” for Covid.
- Biden’s taxes on investment could reach 86%.
- Study: Hospital cash prices were lower than the median commercial (insurance company) negotiated rate 47 percent of the time.
- Should AI bot workers be taxed – just like humans?