The FDA used to have a laboratory located at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2014, they moved it to consolidate with other FDA facilities nearby. Because these are reasonably careful and conscientious people, they conducted a formal clean-up before they moved, and during that process they found 327 vials of unclaimed samples of viruses “inside cardboard boxes stored in the back left corner of an FDA laboratory’s cold storage room.” Six of them contained smallpox, one contained Russian spring-summer viral encephalitis (the subject of previous lab accidents), and nine had labels that couldn’t be read.
Category: News and Events
When Hospitals Misquote Prices They’re Not Held Accountable
I often write about how the U.S. health care industry is predicated on maximizing revenue against third party payers, primarily employer plans. Health insurers negotiate prices with providers but about half of people in private health insurance are covered by self-insured employer plans. That means an insurer is often managing the plan but not taking on any risk. Some benefits brokers have told me insurers frequently profit off third-party claims due to spread pricing. That is, charging the employer plan slightly more for a procedure than what the insurer paid the provider. That is problematic because the party negotiating the prices (insurers) profits every time they spend (someone else’s) money. That is not a very strong incentive to hold prices down, or steer enrollees to the cheapest options.
Wednesday Links
- A congressional bill to codify Roe: abortion rights groups can’t stand it.
- Life expectancy declined in every state in 2020.
- State with the longest life expectancy: Hawaii.
- Sometimes it’s better to forget your health insurance and pay cash.
- Electric shock therapy that seems to work.
- More on the idea that if you grow up poor it pays to have rich friends.
- WSJ editors slam Fauci.
Are Eyeglasses Held Hostage to Enrich Optometrists?
About the time I reached 40-years of age many of my peers began having trouble with their arms being too short or the print on newspapers being too small. Often it was both. I didn’t have the same problem but about 10 years ago I realized I couldn’t read highway signs that were blocks ahead. I went to an optometrist for an eye exam and he wrote me a prescription for eyeglasses. In the past 10 years I’ve seen an optometrist four times and each time the prescription had not changed.
Here’s the deal. If I break a pair of glasses that worked perfectly and it’s been more than a year since my eye exam, I am required to get an eye exam in order to replace my glasses. This happened to me once when my glasses fell between my car seat and broke when I adjusted the seat. Although my optometrist told me he didn’t expect my vision would change for 10 years, the law still requires me to have a valid prescription even if I’m only needing an extra pair of glasses. It varies by state. Some states allow prescriptions to be valid for longer than a year.