Tag Archives: Healthcare

New Medicaid Rule Adds Fuel to The Fire of Commercial Hospital Price Inflation, Health Affairs Opinion Piece Hospital services prices grew faster than any other sector of the US economy. To address the underpayment of hospitals by Medicaid, the federal government issued a regulation correcting the underpayment of hospitals. However, the issue of higher prices and Medicaid paying more to correct the underpayment does not fit in the opinion of The...

Two in five Americans have outstanding health care bills, according to the Kaiser Foundation. Those with payments overdue are more likely to be uninsured, low-income, and either Black or Hispanic. What’s more, the total amount of outstanding medical debt in the United States is much bigger than people think. ~~~~~~~ Most states have not yet enacted laws preventing the accrual of medical debt, but many have implemented protections for people who...

The university where I was on faculty for 37 years has one of ten NIH-funded vaccine testing and evaluation units in the US. I vividly recall attending a presentation by the clinical director of our vaccine center in January of 2020 on the then-new SARS-CoV-2 virus. By the summer, our vaccine center became a clinical trial site for the Moderna mRNA vaccine. I immediately enrolled, even though I knew I had a 50% chance of being in the placebo arm (in...

Biden-Harris Admin awards $100 Million to navigators to help Americans sign up for healthcare coverage by Charles Gaba ACA Signups ~~~~~~~ The Biden-Harris Administration today continued its historic investment in health care coverage and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by awarding a new round of $100 million to organizations vital to helping underserved communities, consumers, and small businesses find and enroll in quality, affordable...

There are dangers involved in the manufacture of some medical supplies. Most companies will take adequate protection of the process to manufacture. At times the safety measures do become outdated as the manufacturing process changes due to new product. Then it becomes a matter of cost to improve safety measures. The article states ethylene oxide usage was in 2003. I believe I can vouch for its usage back to the mid-seventies. As the story...

Medicare Advantage Plans are funded by Traditional Medicare which is slowly being depleted. Much of what MA does which proves to be so costly is due to MA up coding of its patients. It is estimated this will cost an ~$88 billion in 2024. This is up from $80 billion in 2023. Studies have found evidence of upcoding and favorable selection of patients are driving significant overpayments to MA plans. MedPAC also said the program’s quality bonus...

What is the issue(s) here is larger hospitals such as “Bon Secours (48 hospitals) has been slashing services” at its facility in a poorer, predominantly Black part of Richmond. At the same time, it is ‘investing in the city’s wealthier, white neighborhoods.’” By maintaining the Richmond hospital, it keeps access to the 340B program, provides drugs to the hospital in the wealthy section, and goes around the 340B rules. 340B hospitals are also...

The Arizona secretary of state’s office recently certified 577,971 signatures which is far above the number required to put the question of Abortion before voters. PHOENIX (AP) — Voters in Arizona will be able to decide in November whether they want to protect the right to an abortion in their state constitution. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 200-word summary that abortion advocates used to collect signatures for a ballot...

The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic effect on the US economy that was mitigated by the rapid development and deployment of COVID vaccines. I was a subject in the Moderna Phase III clinical trial of their RNA vaccine, and eventually have had six injections.The well-established benefit of COVID vaccination is that it will keep you out of the ED and the morgue. But what about “long COVID,” the post-acute sequelae of COVID infection that can last for...

Increasing profits far above actual costs. Think Medicare Advantage as compared to Medicare. Over the past 20 years, the prices of hospital services have grown faster than any other sector of the US economy. Unfortunately, the federal government recently issued a regulation intending to address underpayment of hospitals by Medicaid. However, the new rule could push hospital prices higher for 66 percent of the US population who have commercial...