- Transparency: Hospitals still don’t want you to know how much you are going to have to pay. CMS has issued nearly 500 warning notices and over 230 requests for corrective action. The penalty for non-compliance in 2022 is up to $5,500 per day (more than $2 million a year).
- Hospitals still don’t want you to know what you are going to be charged: Nearly 500 get a warning from CMS.
- Study: 57 percent of nurses felt “exhausted” over the past two weeks, 43 percent felt “burned out,” and just 20 percent said they felt valued.
- Light pollution: one-third of the people in the world can’t see the Milky Way. (NYT)
- Not following the science. The most rigorous and comprehensive study to date: masks don’t work. CDC tells schools to require them anyway.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
Can Congress Solve the Health Care Workforce Shortage?
Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist from Vermont, is now chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The HELP committee has more power than any other health committee in Congress. In a hearing that took place on Friday, February 17 the committee discussed the growing shortage of skilled workers in health care. Kaiser Health News reported on the hearing.
How Much Waste in Health Care?
A recent analysis from the Peterson Foundation found that the U.S. is spending over $1,000 per person on administrative costs, “five times more than the average of other wealthy countries and more than we spend on preventive or long-term healthcare.”
A piece by Dr. Robert Kocher published in 2013 in the Harvard Business Review found that over 22 years (1990– 2012), there was a 75% increase in the number of workers in our nation’s health system, but the overwhelming majority (95%) were in non-doctor positions. In fact, for every one doctor there were sixteen non-doctor workers, and 10 of those were “purely administrative and management staff, receptionists and information clerks, and office clerks.” The sheer size of the administrative arm of American health care had become daunting.
More Americans Delay Care Due to Cost
It’s no mystery that Americans are paying a bigger share of their medical bills out-of-pocket these days. Health plan deductibles have about doubled in the past two decades. My 2023 health plan deductible is nearly $9,000. Some family plans have combined deductibles of $15,000. High deductibles are causing more Americans to delay medical care according to The New York Times.