Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Inclusion of Women in Clinical Trials Still an Issue

I have written on women being included in clinical trials in 2019. The article I was asked to write included Clinical Trials, reviewing the issues with Essure, and also Maternal Mortality. Three issues which had much detail and information, difficult to cover it all , and could have been much longer. A Woman’s Right to […]

Pharma companies use an-all-side attack on the IRA

Pharma’s strike-from-all-sides attack on the IRA could be decided by the Supreme Court, PharmaVoice, Alexandra Pecci Pharma Voice reports Merck & Company and Bristol Myers Squibb in separate lawsuits are filing a multi-directional attack on Biden’s IRA using the first and fifth amendment as the basis for their filing. Industry lobbyists and co-litigants have joined […]

While Medicaid’s enrollment purge plows on . . .

While Medicaid’s enrollment purge plows on . . . GoozNew, Merril Gooz A few weeks ago, I critiqued the inequities that would inevitably result from a bare-bones universal insurance plan offered by two economists, which I dubbed it “Medicare-for-all lite.” There was one part of their plan that merits serious consideration: Automatic enrollment for everyone in some […]

Corporate influence in the contracting and practice of medicine

This article is about ER Dr. Ming Lin. He is calling attention to the influence of large corporations such as Envision, TeamHealth in the contracting and management practice of medicine (ERs, etc.) and the detrimental effects it has on physicians, healthcare workers, and patients. He paid the price for calling attention by losing his job. […]

COVID reminders

Now that COVID seems to be surging again, some timely reminders are in order: • keep your vaccination status current. The vaccine won’t keep you from being infected, but it will most likely keep you out of the ED and the morgue; • the outcome of COVID infection isn’t binary: death or survival. A third […]

Rethinking the Relative Value Scale Update

Rethinking the RUC, Center for American Progress, Maura Calsyn and Madeline Twome The point being made in this commentary is the purposeful inaccuracy of the RUC. Much of the time determined for treatment too large which in turn drives the patient fees charged and the prices in Medicare Advantage to which CMS adds a percentage, […]

Coronavirus special update: the annual summer wave has arrived

Coronavirus special update: the annual summer wave has arrived  – by New Deal democrat As I wrote at the beginning of this year, I would only post Coronavirus updates if there appeared to be something significant happening. And there is. There is a completely new alphabet soup of XBB subvariants that are competing with one […]

Why do physicians make so much?

According to this WaPo article, the average physician in the US earns $350K/yr. I didn’t click through to the actual data, but from the first table, I’m guessing that “average” means median, not mean. And physician income isn’t a Gaussian distribution—there’s a long right-hand tail for the specialties. Why is this? It looks to me […]