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.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
‘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?
Medscape 2023 Physician Pay Survey
Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get an appointment to see a primary care physician? It’s partly because many doctors don’t work in primary care. The push to specialize starts early in medical school. A physician told me as much. He wanted to be a primary care physician but his mentors in medical school told him he really didn’t. The truth was he wanted to see a variety of patients with a variety of different health problems, but his professors pushed him to specialize. From talking to him I got the impression that there was also a subtle coercion. It was like the professors were saying, “if you want me to mentor you then you will take my advice.” His professors considered specialties to be more challenging, more interesting, but it’s also that many specialties come with higher pay.