- Why did virtually every country in the world respond to Covid in the same way – using tactics we now know to be wrong?
- Also, from David Friedman: it’s not clear that the costs of global warming outweigh the benefits.
- Five medical breakthroughs in 2024. HT: Tyler
- U of Chicago study: “The dominant change in the tax and transfer system over the past fifty years has been an increase in transfers to the bottom [of the income distribution].” Note: this period covers all the Republican tax bills plus welfare reform.
- Patients with lower socioeconomic status wait longer for health care.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Hospital Electronic Pharmacy Systems are a Source of Medical Errors
Hospital pharmacies are highly automated. When a hospital-based physician orders a drug, it is entered into the pharmacy system and the medication loaded into the cart. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. It’s does always work right, according to a new study.
A (Slightly) Sympathetic Look at Health Insurers
Insurers are blamed for strategies to avoid paying too much for health care, while the providers of health care don’t suffer as much hate. The reality is: we’re all guilty. We all have perverse incentives to overconsume, price gouge or refuse to pay. The goal of health reform should be to align all three party’s incentives to better work together.
Monday Links
- Direct primary care for Medicaid.
- Senators demand release of NIH study on transgender care.
- Preauthorization denials: they are twice as high in Medicaid as they are in Medicare Advantage.
- Study: hospital upcoding in 2019 (relative to 2011 coding practices) was associated with $14.6 billion in hospital payments, including $5.8 billion from private health plans, $4.6 billion from Medicare, and $1.8 billion from Medicaid.
- Relative to employer small-group plans, Marketplace plans paid 6.9% lower doctor fees, 13.3% lower hospital fees, and were 26.3% lower outpatient prices.