Policy & Legislation – Page 162 – The Goodman Institute Health Blog

How to Market an OTC Breathalyzer (that doesn’t work)

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Devon Herrick

Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban is in the news lately for his drug company startup, Cost Plus Drugs. Over the years Cuban was also on a show called Shark Tank, where would-be inventors and small business owners pitched their business ideas, competing for an investment.

While being interviewed for the “Full Send” podcast Mr. Cuban revealed his “worst” investment that he made on Shark Tank. An entrepreneur named Charles Yim appeared on the show to demonstrate his Breathometer, a smartphone breathalyzer app he claimed could test blood alcohol levels accurately.

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Thursday Links

Posted on July 21, 2022July 25, 2022 by John C. Goodman

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The Downside of Telemedicine: Tele-Fraud

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Devon Herrick

The Justice Department announced criminal charges in a $1.2 billion telemedicine fraud scheme committed by numerous individuals across the United States. In some cases the owners of clinical labs are accused of paying kickbacks to marketers, who in turn paid bribes to telemedicine companies in return for physician orders.

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Concentrated Health Care Markets

Posted on July 20, 2022 by John C. Goodman

Michael Cannon at Cato writes:

By 2017, in most markets, a single hospital system had more than a 50 percent market share of discharges. In 2016, markets for specialist physicians exhibited what federal antitrust authorities consider a high degree of concentration in 65 percent of metropolitan areas. Markets for primary‐care physicians exhibited high concentration in 39 percent of metropolitan areas…. In 2016, 57 percent of health insurance markets exhibited high concentration; in 2018, 75 percent did.

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