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

Value-based payment has produced little value. It needs a time-out

Kip Sullivan sent this article to me a while back and it was posted. I am starting to see more activity on Value-based-care as an alternative to Fee For Service. The question arises as to how does one measure value received from the care under this regime. It is difficult to measure the value and […]

The U.S. Needs to Reimagine Its Pharma Supply Chain

I agree with the author’s reasoning for domestic supply manufacturing. I have battled the issues with pharma, medical supply, and also food manufacturing. Batches are problematic as well as the USDA and FDA labeling requirements. You wait for approvals. As of August 2019, 28 percent of the manufacturing facilities producing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs – […]

The Relative Value Scale Update Committee is secretly setting physician prices

I should have plaque on the wall of some hospitals stating I was there and we (the hospital) made out like bandits. Some of the procedures and meds they do and give me are not in your average Tylenol category. Not much I can do about it. Merril at GoozNews posted this exposé on how […]

Most Medicaid enrollees were unaware states can drop People “Now”

Fred Dobbs had a comment “a poll from KFF” on the Open Thread which led to this article. Read it, rewrote much of it, and posted it. More on the economics on healthcare. What is not being said here is what are the costs to the nation of no healthcare. Here we are just reporting […]

Laboratory Benefit Managers on the Horizon?

I read through this short report on Laboratory Benefit Managers which included commentary on Pharmacy Benefit Managers. My overall opinion is they are middlemen and as such they add cost to the delivery of healthcare. The explanation does provide insight. The Time is Now for Laboratory Benefit Management, Managed Heathcare Executive, April 2022. PBMs Explained […]

Tracking States Implementing Medicaid’s Postpartum Coverage Extension

As taken from an earlier post on a woman’ healthcare. There are quite a few issues which can arise while a woman gives birth which I detailed in the 2019 post. Having good healthcare insurance is a big factor in having safe deliveries before, during, and after a birth. The first line of this section […]

The expanding role of Medicaid in US health care

Mostly taken from “The expanding role of Medicaid in US health care: A research roundup, journalistsresource.org, Kerry Dooley Young. May 2023.” I have added commentary to this report. I do have another report on Medicaid which I have to deep dive to make shorter sense of it. This report includes information going back to Obama’s […]

Another Legal Challenge of the ACA Coming Out of Texas and the Fifth District

Cost-Free Preventive Care Under the ACA Faces Legal Challenge, JAMA | JAMA Network, Gregory Curfman, MD; Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo. The same federal Jackass judge in Texas who struck down the entire ACA (2018) has risen again. In this particular instance, he is taking aim at a core protection of the ACA or Cost-free preventive care. These […]

Piercing the myth: How privatizers got their mitts on Medicare

Piercing the myth: How privatizers got their mitts on Medicare, The Stand, Kip Sullivan Insurance companies decried Medicare’s fee-for-service model. But then Congress let them replace it with something much worse. (May 4, 2023) — Congress enacted Medicare in 1965 as a fee-for-service system because the insurance industry did not want to insure the elderly […]

Insurance Carriers Are About To Rebate Another $1.1 Billion To Policyholders Thanks To The ACA

My old Michigan standby on the PPACA. If there was something I needed to know, I could always count on Charles knowing the answer. I believe some of the state and federal politicians also relied on Charles for information. What is also kind of cool is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issuing a directive on Medicaid […]