During her ER visit, all [Pell] received was the ice pack and the bandage. That’s it. She wasn’t treated in any other way. Doctors made no diagnosis. And she made sure that no one touched her before she knew if they were in network or not.
Pell received a bill for $5,751.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
How to Get Doctors Working in Rural America
People who live in rural areas often have a hard time finding physicians who will treat them. Nearly 80% of rural areas are designated ‘medically underserved’ according to Washington Post. In Van Horn, Texas, for example, there is one physician for a community of 11,000 square miles.
Covid-Chasing Travel Nurse Bubble Burst but Not Going Away
The Wall Street Journal had an article about the falling use of travel nurses. At the peak of the pandemic nurses willing to travel from one hot spot to another could sometimes earn as much as $10,000 per week.
Hospitals across the U.S. have had to dig deep to treat patients during the Covid-19 pandemic as some of the most lucrative parts of their business, elective surgeries, were constantly postponed. The flip side of that has been a bonanza for the companies that helped them keep staffing levels adequate as well as for the brave and flexible people who filled those positions.
By contrast, nurses who stayed in their regular jobs often found themselves working mandatory overtime in understaffed hospitals filled to the brim with Covid patients. When they complained about too many hours, low wages and a lack of personal protection equipment their complaints were often dismissed.
Tuesday Links
- Jeffrey Singer: More on Monkeypox Deja Vu
- Having bombs explode around you when you are young affects your mental health later on. Why do researchers conduct studies like this? Nothing else to do?
- Is anyone truly resistant to Covid?
- Court: drug companies can’t help Medicare enrollees pay what their insurance doesn’t cover either with copay coupons or through charities. (paywall)
- The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that extending Obamacare subsidies would cost about $45 billion next year and $495 billion over a decade. (WSJ)