Unless you’ve been living under a rock you have probably seen television shows where doctors revived a patient whose heart had stopped. If you’re old enough, you probably even know people who have suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. My grandfather had one, but I know of numerous others. Something they all have in common is they’re all dead. About 85 to 90 percent of people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest do not survive, because they don’t get help in time.
Category: Direct Primary Care
Why a Telephone Consult is Billed as a Hospital Visit
I have often told the story about the time my wife unknowingly tried to schedule a CT scan at a nearby hospital outpatient department. As luck would have it, prior authorization is all that saved us from a huge bill, of which her share was going to be $2,700. I quickly found a free-standing radiology clinic that had a contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Texas for $403. Oddly enough, BCBS was willing to approve a scan at either facility. Nobody called her to explain the huge mistake she was about to make by getting a diagnostic scan at a hospital-owned facility. Here is the thing: Health insurers, Medicare and Medicaid pay hospitals higher prices for the same services that are available elsewhere for a fraction of the cost. Neither do payers alert patients that cheaper alternatives exist.
Equal Occupational Fatality Day
“Equal Pay Day” calculates how much longer women must work going into this year, to earn what men earned last year, on the average. It occurred on March 14 this year, and was highlighted in Washington, D.C. with the usual liberal fanfare.
Naturally, the calculation ignores the fact that men and women work in very different occupations.
To demonstrate how much that matters, American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Perry has calculated how many more years women would have to work in their selected occupations before they achieve the same death rate that men endured last year.
FTC Wants to Ban Noncompete Employment Agreements
I know a doctor who relocated to a small town after being recruited to join a new practice. He sold his house, bought a new one and uprooted his family for a move 150 miles away. It turned out that it was not a lucrative move. His schedule was quickly filled with Medicare patients, most of whom required 30-minute visits due to multiple chronic conditions. He remarked that his pediatrician colleague could see two or three privately insured patients during the time it took him to see one (lower paying) Medicare patient. His income fell far below expectations and he decided to get out.