Hospitals are the worst place to receive care if there are any other choices. Hospital prices are far higher than the same services available elsewhere. I often tell the story of my wife unknowingly checking on getting a CT scan at a hospital outpatient facility. She discovered that her share of the cost was going to be $2,700. That wasn’t the price; that was just her share of the cost. The price was higher. I quickly found a free-standing radiology clinic willing to do the same procedure for $403. Why was it lower? It wasn’t that one CT scanner was better than the other. It was that one was at the hospital where prices are always higher.
Category: Telemedicine
Saturday Links
- Bernie Sanders has a new Medicare for All bill.
- Immortality may not be a blessing.
- Merritt Hawkins: The average wait time for new-patient to see a doctor is 26 days.
- CMS Proposal: Telehealth to Continue Unfettered Thru 2024. (InsideHealthPolicy)
- Social Security is already very progressive: An individual in the bottom fifth of lifetime earners receives a benefit equal to about 80% of their inflation-adjusted pre-retirement earnings. A middle quintile earner receives about 50%, while the top fifth receives 32%.
- Did Obamcare reduce the Disability Rolls? No.
- David Henderson: the reparations debate has everything backwards.
- Words of wisdom from Scott Sumner: The Fed doesn’t battle inflation, it creates inflation… The inflation we’ve experienced over the past few years is almost entirely created by a highly expansionary monetary policy, which drove up nominal GDP.
Friday Links
- New Zealand adopts affirmative action for its medical waiting lists.
- Governments around the world have spent $1.34 trillion to fight climate change.
- Is virtual care the answer for Obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure in seniors?
- It’s a cocktail after cocktails: an IV drip for hangovers. (NYT)
- Hot dog eating contests: scientists have determined that the human body is capable of eating — at most — 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
- Drinking alcohol before or after intense exercise isn’t advised. (NYT)
- Mark Cuban Cost Pus Drugs to sell biosimilars ($569 v. $6,922 for Yusimry)
NYT: Veterinary Telemedicine is Growing
When Covid began to spread in 2020 veterinary clinics were closed to walk-in traffic across the country. On one occasion we took our dog Clementine to the vet and waited in the car while they examined her inside. On another occasion we pulled into the parking lot and talked to the vet on a cellphone, who sent out a vet tech to examine Clementine who was in our backseat.
Clementine is an anxious dog. She hates being separated from us, especially when she’s away from her familiar territory at home. Besides our regular vet, we also see a veterinary behaviorist who treats Clementine’s anxious behavior. She too was closed to walk-in traffic during Covid. She conducted Clementine’s annual visit over Zoom in the spring of 2020. After that first Zoom annual, she now always meets with Clementine on Zoom. I suspect the vet does that with many of her patients. Everyone is happier with the arrangement, including Clementine.