- In March … a surgical assistant in Dallas earned $50,456 through arbitration for a prostate removal operation. The surgeon, who accepted the patient’s insurance, earned $1,843. (NYT)
- “The surgery done 700,000 times per year is no better than a placebo surgery.”
- Drug economics: the marginal cost of one more pill is almost zero; but the marginal cost of treatments based on the sequencing of your individual genome can be quite high.
- “The general pattern … research points to is that many people don’t use the time they save using AI to do less; they use the time to take on new tasks.” (The Atlantic)
- This hospital has opted out of Medicare, charges market prices in its ER and turns patients away if they can’t pay. (Statnews)
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
The wrong prescription for drug affordability
This week the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is scheduled to consider the Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act. Despite its name, the act would do nothing to actually lower prescription drug prices or improve drug patents.
Health Insurance Affects Hospital Length of Stay
When I worked at an urban hospital many years ago, we had a saying for the people who presented to the emergency room with violent injuries. We called them the “knife and gun club.” They represented people whose lifestyle was more dangerous than yours or mine. They rarely had health insurance and created sizable uncollectable debts. A Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health News analysis found that one-quarter of gunshot victims were uninsured, at least in Florida. Furthermore, uninsured gunshot victims have hospital stays that were shorter than those covered by some type of health insurance.
Tuesday Links – 30 June 2026
- It’s illegal for farmers to plant their own seeds.
- 27 GOP health reforms nobody is talking about.
- A classic experiment: the Defense Department rescinds the mandate for flu shots; more trainees get the flu.
- Why did the FDA spend 20 years blocking a safe, effective sunscreen?
- The evolution of patient rights.
- “For six services …. provided during inpatient hospital stays, the average ratio of the highest to the lowest negotiated rates was just over 9 to 1.”