Tag Archives: Healthcare

The US economy appears to be emerging from the recent recession (pace the Fed interest rate decisions). There’s a general consensus that that recession was largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent supply chain disruptions. What lessons might be learned on how to maximally blunt the impact of future pandemics while minimizing negative economic consequences?Here’s a cross-sectional analysis including all 50 US states plus the District of...

by r.j. sigmund  FLiRT variants no one seems to be talking about it, but Covid is worse than ever, even if it’s not as deadly . . . among the CDC’s “early indicators“, “test positivity”, or the percentage of tests for Covid that were positive, rose to 16.3% during the week ending July 27th, up from 14.3% the prior week, and up from 3.4% nine weeks ago . . . test positivity is now the highest it’s been in 2 1/2 years . . . at the same time,...

Here’s Where VP Pick Tim Walz Stands on Healthcare Issues, MedPage Today Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate. Here’s a look at Walz’s track record on healthcare. I am not going to call Kamala a Democrat although we all know she is of that political lean. I believe Kamala will represent all people including Republicans. Sixty-year-old Tim Walz was first elected Governor of Minnesota in...

The advent of CAR-T and CRISPR technologies are set to revolutionize cancer and genetic disease therapies, respectively. But with great hope comes great costs. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 100,000 people in the US have sickle cell disease, making it the most prevalent inherited blood disorder. Remarkably, the new gene therapies offer very promising early efficacy: exa-cel and lovo-cel demonstrated 93.5%...

Adding where Joel paused . . . Can you reduce your risk of dementia? – Angry Bear, Joel Eissenberg Replacing red meat cuts dementia risk by 20%, CNN, by Sandee LaMotte Dementia risk rose by 14% when people ate about 1 ounce of processed red meat a day — the equivalent of slightly less than two 3-ounce servings a week — compared with people who only ate about three servings a month, a preliminary new study found. The risk for dementia dropped...

On 1 July, I retired from my 37-year faculty gig. Among other things, this meant shifting from private insurance to Medicare. I haven’t yet used my Medicare coverage, but my wife, who retired two years ago as a faculty at a different university, has had no difficulties with her transition to Medicare. So far.The Medicare Conversion Factor (the multiplier used to calculate payment rates for each service or procedure) for 2025 will be the lowest since...

More on Pharmacy Benefit Managers and their influence on costs In case you forgot who the PBMs are? The FTC said in its interim report, the “increasing vertical integration and concentration enables the six largest PBMs to manage nearly 95 percent of all prescriptions filled in the United States.” Those six are Caremark Rx, LLC; Express Scripts, Inc.; OptumRx, Inc.; Humana Pharmacy Solutions, Inc.; Prime Therapeutics LLC; and MedImpact...

I am a veteran and like other veterans we try to use the VA. Recently I have been conversing (emails) with Steve Early and explaining to him I was finally taken in by the VA. And why? I spent over 2+ years of time at Camp Lejeune while going back and forth to Cuba for 4.5 months each time. So, I qualify under the recent Pact Act. I and others were showering in tainted water and drinking it. I have a blood disorder in which my platelets disappear and...

I believe most people will ignore this headline. They will do so because it is not as obvious to them as smoke from a fire or smog in the cities. They begin to notice (still not see) the impact of it when they are coughing, sneezing, breathing is labored, etc. At that point, it is a matter of time with your health. Particulate pollution Is Worse Then We Knew and Is Damaging ‘Every Organ in the Body’ by Lloyd Alter Carbon Upfront! Recent...

Dementia is becoming a growing societal burden throughout the world, especially in the industrialized world where increase longevity results in larger numbers of people experiencing dementia. So far, advances in medical treatments to mitigate this burden have been modest, at best.There are known genetic risk factors for Alzheimers and frontotemporal lobe dementia. I’ve had my genome sequenced and I have none of the currently recognized variants...