I began my career in health care more than 30 years ago working at a hospital. For as long as I can remember there has been a nursing shortage. The reasons given for this are many, most of which are wrong. When I was a budget analyst, a senior vice president (SVP) told us nurses are caring people. He added nurses make great mothers and often quit to raise their kids. He explained that the staffing shortage was exacerbating the staffing shortage by increasing the stress levels of nurses on staff.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
Saturday Links
- Marriage is a class thing: roughly half of all births to women without four-year college degrees now happen without married fathers.
- Should doctors have to pay the insurers a fee in order to get paid what they are owed?
- Avoiding a hospital stay may improve your odds of survival.
- Intergenerational poverty: 17% of Asian children living in households with incomes below or near the poverty line were poor in adulthood, compared with 25% (Latino), 29% (White), 37% (Black), and 46% (Native American)
- Health Savings Account bills being marked up in the W & M Committee in the House.
Indiana Employer Initiative to Rein-in Hospital Prices Spreading to Other States
Former White House official Al Hubbard and employer groups began lobbying Indiana legislators to make hospital prices more transparent, and more affordable. A recent analysis by RAND found that Indiana’s hospital prices are among the top of the nation. Hoosiers are paying about three times the fees Medicare pays for the same service. The news has employers steaming.
When Sachdev, a pharmacist by training who is now 54, became CEO of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, she was shocked that her members often didn’t know what prices they were paying for surgeries or other medical services, because hospitals and insurers kept them secret.
Thursday Links
- Cosco is offering virtual checkups for $29. Third party insurance not accepted.
- Headline: Pharma would lose loyal ally if Menendez leaves Senate. If he is so loyal, why didn’t he stop the IRA bill?
- Frequently wrong, New York Times covid reporter Apoorva Mandavilli will lecture at Harvard (alongside former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot).
- The more governments intervene to protect workers, the more unemployment there is.
- Why hospital consolidation is hurting patients and what can be done about it.