Amputations We spend $8 billion dollars a year on amputations, and the average amputation costs over $100,000… [R]oughly twenty percent of diabetic patients will develop ulcers on their legs and feet, and … twenty percent of those ulcers currently turn into amputations… The current pattern for all Medicare patients is for 20% of those ulcers…
Category: Medicare
Friday Links
- Last year CMS received 41,136 complaints about the marketing of Medicare Advantage plans. (WSJ, gated)
- Do breaks from surgery improve the performance of orthopedic surgeons? Yes. HT: Tyler
- Can a dead person fly? Not before the TSA pats her down.
- CDC’s latest message: You don’t have to do anything about COVID, except please go get your booster urgently.
- A summary of Fauci flip flops. (NYT, gated)
Friday Links
- 100% of large health insurers cover telemedicine for mental health and other behavioral health problems. (gated)
- However, more therapists are refusing to accept private insurance. (WSJ)
- Israeli study: Paxlovid (for Covid) lowered hospitalization rates in 65-year-olds and older by about 75%, but people ages 40-64 who took the drug shortly after infection saw little to no benefit.
- Kaiser: Most Medicare beneficiaries will soon get their coverage through Medicare Advantage.
- A liberal critiques Biden: He needs advisers who think like economists. A good read if you are an Yglesias subscriber.
Stat News: Medicare’s Bundled Payment Initiative for Joint Replacement a Rigged Game
The price Medicare pays for joint replacement had hardy changed in two decades when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began an experimental program to pay bundled payments for a full 90-day episode of care. The program was designed to save Medicare money while rewarding surgeons who keep costs down and penalizing those whose costs are higher.
Surgeons whose patients cost Medicare less than the lump sum over 90 days get a portion of their savings as a reward. Surgeons who don’t save Medicare money face penalties large enough to bankrupt them.