It should come as no surprise that state attorneys general are on the lookout for other targets for lawsuits. It appears social media is the new one. More than two-thirds of states are suing Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. There are also suits against TikTok. Supposedly, social media is addictive (like cigarettes and opioids) and bad for youngsters’ mental health…
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
Tuesday Links
- Florida doctor accused of fatally removing the wrong organ from a patient has license suspended.
- The average chief executive in a publicly traded health care company earned $11 million. The median was $4.1 million. (StatNews)
- Nonprofit hospitals avoided paying $37.4 billion in taxes in 2021.
- The penalty for not signing up for Medicare drug coverage: Those not enrolling in a Part D or Medicare Advantage plan or entering these programs after they are initially offered at age 65 pay an additional monthly “drug coverage premium” penalty equal to the monthly cost of the plan in perpetuity. That is a big financial stick!
Can AI Combat Health Care Fraud?
How much fraud is there in health care? It’s hard to say with any accuracy. Consider this: how much fraud would be in any consumer market where the consumer only pays 10% of the cost, while third-party providers pay 90% of the cost? There would be a lot!
Monday Links
- Free covid tests are back.
- Governments at all levels spend nearly $2 trillion annually to fight poverty (not counting payments related to COVID-19). Stretching back to 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson first declared his War on Poverty, anti‐poverty spending has totaled more than $30 trillion.
- Tyler Cowen: It is estimated that about 40% of Americans are obese. If the government paid for those drugs for everyone who might benefit from them, it could cost more than $1 trillion annually, almost as much as the US spends on Medicare each year, (Bloomberg)
- Study: 60-year-old rural men can now expect to live two years less than their urban counterparts – a gap that’s nearly tripled from two decades ago.
- Study: Both moderate and light drinkers experience more cancer deaths than occasional drinkers.