- Is there anything wrong with using AI apps to decide on pre authorization denials for patients?
- Space has a garbage problem: There are 34,260 objects tracked in orbit, and just 25% of them are working satellites.
- Spending on the elderly is baked in – seniors get their benefits no matter what Congress does. But most programs for children require reauthorization – and spending gets stalled by the congressional stop gap funding process.
- A California hospital billed $10.2 billion in gross charges in the last quarter. But 86% of this amount disappeared after discounts to the payers were applied.
- A libertarian is elected president in Argentina. John Fund: “A century ago Argentina was one of the six wealthiest countries in the world. Now it ranks 66th, below Mexico and just above Russia.”
Category: Policy & Legislation
What Is a Drug? Philosopher Struggles but the FDA Has its Own Definition
Drugs are the most efficient of all medical therapies, representing only about 8.8% of national health expenditures. By contrast, at $864.6 billion in 2021, Americans spent more than twice as much on physician care and 3.5 times as much on hospital care. Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are especially economical, most of which were once prescription drugs. OTC drugs represent between 1% and 2% of medical spending.
Friday Links
- How wasteful is traditional Medicare? Every dollar Medicare spent on monitoring spending generated $24–$29 in government savings.
- Drug approval times around the world.
- The new Ai Pin sounds intriguing. But what will it do for health care?
- Who needs a doctor’s office, if you can get care from a kiosk in a shopping mall?
Long-Term Care is a Growing Problem (that has no easy solution)
Long-term care is expensive. By expensive, I mean break-the-bank expensive. As people begin to live longer, they don’t always live well longer. Medical science can keep people alive long after they are no longer able to function. The lack of affordable long-term care is a problem that has no easy solution.