Category: Health Economics & Costs

Thursday Links

Posted on by John C. Goodman

The New York Times: “Generative A.I. Can Add $4.4 Trillion in Value to Global Economy, Study Says,”

Bloomberg:   “Biggest Losers of AI Boom Are Knowledge Workers, McKinsey Says.”

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Some Medicare Hospice Care Firms Are Better than Others

Posted on by Devon Herrick

We have written about Medicare hospice care several times in the past. John Goodman wrote about a new Medicare pilot program where the same health plans that manage seniors’ medical care will also manage their hospice benefits near end-of-life. I wrote about how Medicare hospice care is growing by leaps and bounds, which is attracting scammers who enroll ineligible patients (not likely to die in six months) and gouge taxpayers for care that is inappropriate.

The New York Times published an article on the difference in hospice care provided by nonprofit versus for-profit organizations. Purportedly, nonprofit organizations are a better value.

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Covid Grifters: Covid Relief Fraud Much Worse than Initially Thought

Posted on by Devon Herrick

Covid-19 relief aid was the greatest opportunity for graft in the nation’s history. The Associated Press called it The Great Grift, saying:

Fraudsters used the Social Security numbers of dead people and federal prisoners to get unemployment checks. Cheaters collected those benefits in multiple states. And federal loan applicants weren’t cross-checked against a Treasury Department database that would have raised red flags about sketchy borrowers.

Criminals and gangs grabbed the money. But so did a U.S. soldier in Georgia, the pastors of a defunct church in Texas, a former state lawmaker in Missouri and a roofing contractor in Montana.

All of it led to the greatest grift in U.S. history, with thieves plundering billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid intended to combat the worst pandemic in a century and to stabilize an economy in free fall.

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The Downside of Wildfires

Posted on by John C. Goodman

Matt Yglesias writes:

There’s extensive evidence that the fine particulate matter that’s floating in the air on high pollution days impairs cognitive abilities. On high-pollution days, investors make worse trading decisions, baseball umpires blow more calls, chess players make more blunders, and British MPs speak at a lower grade level. This is also true of work that’s normally thought of as less-skilled — we see lower efficiency at pear-packing factories on high-pollution days. Prolonged exposure to pollution increases the risks of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

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