On September 30 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, Relyvrio, a drug to slow the progression of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The approval was controversial. The FDA usually requires at least two clinical trials but will on occasion accept one trial if the trial was robust and the data provides persuasive evidence…
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
Monday Links
CBO: competition and price transparency are the best ways to lower private sector health care costs. Nurse fired for refusing to admit she’s a racist. (WSJ) Against hormone therapy for children. When the dangers of one type of drug addiction become widely known, teenagers switch to another addictive drug. (NYT) Why did McKinsey get into the addiction…
Texas Hospitals Thrive While Saddling Patients with High Medical Bills and Debt
Kaiser Health News and the Urban Institute looked at areas with high medical debt and compared them to hospitals’ profit margins. It profiled the North Texas region surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth.
Of the nation’s 20 most populous counties, none has a higher concentration of medical debt than Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth. Second is Dallas County, credit bureau data shows.
Does a lot of medical debt indicate that a Urban Institute are struggling to pay their medical bills and the local hospitals are struggling as a result? That was not the case according to the analysis.
Doctors: Friends Don’t Let Friends Ride Bicycles Stoned
From 2019 to 2020 more than 11,000 patients were treated in hospital emergency rooms for bicycle accidents while high on methamphetamine, marijuana or opioids. Some were also drunk or had been drinking alcohol.
The most common drugs found were methamphetamine (36%); marijuana (32%); and opioids (19%). Nearly a quarter of injured bikers had also been drinking alcohol, the study found.
Researchers speculate that some of the crash victims may have suffered fatal injuries.