- Over half the new jobs in January’s report are in government or health care.
- Smoking is worse than you’ve been told. Long lasting effects after you quit.
- What happens when doctors become hospital employees? Medicare patients’ use of non-hospital sources for chemotherapy declined by 14% from 2015 to 2021, and chemotherapy performed in hospitals increased by 21%. More than half of Medicare chemotherapy patients now receive their treatments in hospitals, where the prices are higher.
- How health insurance eats into wages. Premiums for a family made up about 8% of employees’ compensation in 1988. If they stayed at that level for the next 32 years, a typical family would have earned an additional $8,774 in 2019. The cumulative value of lost earnings tops $125,000.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Thursday Links
- About one third of older adults reported being socially isolated in 2023, while nearly 40% reported a lack of companionship.
- Pfizer spent $14 million on its “Here’s to Science” commercial during the Super Bowl. Was it worth it?
- The Biden administration pressured Amazon to delist or downgrade books that disagreed with the White House.
- Heartland/Rasmussen survey in December revealed that roughly one in five mail-in voters admitted to potentially fraudulent actions in the presidential election.
- Kaiser to Oakland workers: Because of crime threat, stay inside for work and lunch.
Throwing Good Money after Bad
The goal of [the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation] (CMMI) is to identify demonstration models that aim to improve quality of care OR reduce spending. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may expand models nationwide if the Secretary determines that either criterion is met.
Source: House Budget Committee
Medicare Fraud is too Easy (and Widespread)
Late last summer Pamela Ludwig, owner of a Franklin, Tennessee firm that goes by the name Pretty in Pink Boutique, began receiving calls from angry Medicare enrollees across the country. The seniors were mad that their Medicare accounts had been charged for urinary catheters they did not need, nor had received. About the same time 1,300 miles away in El Paso, Texas Erika Tavarez too began receiving angry emails and then a visit from the FBI. She had recently sold a durable medical equipment business, also called Pretty in Pink, that provided prothesis for breast cancer survivors.