Outpatient Vascular Care: Good, bad or ugly?
BY ANISH KOKA
Filling in the holes of recent stories in the New York Times, and Propublica on the outpatient care of patients with peripheral arterial disease
Most have gotten used to egregiously bad coverage of current events that fills the pages of today’s New York Times, but even by their now very low standards a recent telling of a story about peripheral artery disease was very bad.
The scintillating allegation by Katie Thomas, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Robert Gebeloff is that “medical device makers are bankrolling doctors to perform artery clearing procedures that can lead to amputations...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 24, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Anish Koka Medical Devices Outpatient vascular care Source Type: blogs
No, the Poor Don ’ t Always Have to Be With Us
BY KIM BELLARD
OK, for you amateur (or professional) epidemiologists among us: what are the leading causes of death in the U.S.? Let’s see, most of us would probably cite heart disease and cancer. After that, we might guess smoking, obesity, or, in recent years, COVID. But a new study has a surprising contender: poverty.
It’s the kind of thing you might expect to find in developing countries, not in the world’s leading economy, the most prosperous country in the world. But amidst all that prosperity, the U.S. has the highest rates of poverty among developed countries, which accounts in no small part ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 18, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Anti-Poverty Medicine Kim Bellard TANF Source Type: blogs
The Republican Study Committee Budget on the Key Drivers of Spending and Debt
Romina BocciaThe House and Senate both have budget committees. And yet, neither chamber has released a budget this year. Against this backdrop, it’s refreshing to see the Republican Study Committee (RSC) continue its nearly 30‐year tradition of producing an alternative conservative budget proposal. Titled “Protecting America ’s Economic Security, ” the RSC under chairman Kevin Hern (R‑OK) and Budget and Spending Task Force chairman Ben Cline (R‑VA) proposes to balance the federal budget, cut taxes, slash red tape, and boost work.The growth in the federal debt is directly tied to increases in spending for...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 16, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Romina Boccia Source Type: blogs
The National Health Service (NHS) in England to roll-out nine online cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT) for adults with anxiety or depression
Online depression therapy given go-ahead in England (BBC News):
Nine online talking-therapy treatments for anxiety or depression have been given the green light to be used by the NHS in England.
… The new digital therapies are delivered via a website or an app and use cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).
They provide an alternative way of accessing support, which may be more convenient for some, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says. They could also free up resources and help reduce the wait for care.…
Mark Chapman from NICE said: “One of our priorities is to get the best care to peop...
Source: SharpBrains - June 14, 2023 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation anxiety-disorders Beating the Blues CBT methods cognitive behavioural therapy Deprexis iCT-PTSD iCT-SAD National Institute for Health and Care Excellence NHS NHS Talking Therapies online Source Type: blogs
Trump Earns a Failing Grade in Civics (K-12) in North Carolina.
BY Mike Magee MD
Events over the past year clearly have confirmed that we are a “work in progress” even as we stubbornly affirm our good intentions to create a society committed to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
With the Dobbs’ decision, our Supreme Court has unleashed long-abandoned regressive state laws designed to reinforce selective patriarchy and undermine the stability and confidence of America’s women and families. As a result, our nation’s health professionals, and the patients they care for, potentially find themselves “on the wrong side of the law.”
It calls to mind ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 13, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Non-Health Donald Trump Mike Magee North Carolina Republican Supreme Court Source Type: blogs
Taxpayer Funding for Religious Schools?
This article appeared onSubstack on June 13, 2023The state of Oklahoma hasrecently approved a charter for the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, whose curriculum will include religious teaching. Taxpayers will fund the school, so a battle will ensue over whether such funding is desirable or constitutional.Economic reasoning suggests three possible justifications for government support of education.First, one person ’s education might benefit society more broadly. Economic productivity might be higher, for example, if everyone has mastered “the three Rs.” Some individuals, however, might ignore this ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 13, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey Miron Source Type: blogs
What ’s in the Republican Economic Tax Package?
Adam N. MichelWays and Means Committee Republicans recently introduced theAmerican Families and Jobs Act, an economic tax package that addresses significant ongoing tax increases on domestic investment built into the 2017Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Most of the Republicans ’ major proposed changes in theAmericanFamilies and Jobs Act expire after 2025, worsening current tax uncertainty and obscuring the necessary reforms ’ fiscal cost.Other than permanence, theAmerican Families and Jobs Act could be significantly improved by adding Universal Savings Accounts for family savings flexibility and neutral cost recovery for current...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 12, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Adam N. Michel Source Type: blogs
MA for Tomorrow: Moving Beyond the Status Quo to Advance Concrete Policy Changes for the Future of Medicare Advantage
BY CECI CONNOLLY AND MICHAEL BAGEL
Medicare Advantage (MA) has passed the tipping point, delivering coverage and care to more than half of the senior population in the US. The Congressional Budget Office projects more than 60 percent of people 65 years and older will be in the program by 2030. As enrollment soars and interest in value-based health care grows, it is imperative policymakers modernize the program that is expected to cost $7.5 trillion over the next decade.
Rather than taking the standard Washington posture of declaring victory or defending the status quo, our provider-aligned, nonprofit member pla...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 12, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Ceci Connolly MA for Tomorrow Medicare Advantage Michael Bagel Source Type: blogs
Hit by Scandal, Petro Can Still Ruin Colombia
Daniel RaisbeckLess than a year ago, I wrote of the almost certain regret that awaited the prosperous, urban, multiple ‐degree‐holding types who voted for Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s Chavista president. They thought they had supported a Nordic‐style social democrat—failing to notice that they had helped to elect a tropical socialist who, given his past as a guerrilla group member and Hugo Chávez supporter, was also a potential autocrat.Caveat emptor (or rathersuffragator) indeed. But I never thought that voter’s remorse would set in so quickly. Or so extremely.According to poll data from June 1...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 11, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel Raisbeck Source Type: blogs
Medicare Is Not Taxing or Coercing Merck, Just Reducing Its Government Subsidies
Michael F. CannonPharmaceutical giant Merck issuing Medicare, claiming new drug ‐pricing reforms that Congress enacted in last year’sInflation Reduction Act coerce the company into selling its wares to the program at below ‐market prices. In theWall Street Journal,attorney Daniel Troyopines that the new rules violate the First and Fifth Amendments. Big, if true.What ’s really happening here is that Merck is making tons of money off the taxpayers and wants to keep the gravy train rolling. So the company is offering whatever bad arguments it can to prevent any reductions in its Medicare subsidies.First, a few...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 9, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Michael F. Cannon Source Type: blogs
The Role of Automation in Alleviating Staffing Shortages
The following is a guest article by Eric Demers, CEO at Madaket Health
The recent CWH Advisors’ 2022 Patient Pay study unearthed some troubling trends in the administration of RCM. The dearth of healthcare professionals impacting the entire healthcare industry is only adding fuel to the fire. 63% of respondents indicated that they were experiencing RCM staffing shortages, contributing to slower revenue cycles and affecting both patients and payers.
With a steady decrease in overall healthcare workers, the staffing shortages in revenue cycle departments are dire. A recent survey by Elsevier Health predicts that up to 75...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - June 8, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Administration Ambulatory Health IT Company Healthcare IT Revenue Cycle Management Administrative Burden CWH Advisors Data Management Platform DMP Elsevier Health Eric Demers Healthcare Automation Madaket Health No Surprises Act Source Type: blogs
Charting Some of Industrial Policy ’s Opportunity Costs
Adam N. Michel andScott LincicomeIn the last few years, Congress has authorized as much as $2.1 trillion in domestic subsidies for preferred industries such as steel, semiconductors, and electric vehicles —a flood of taxpayer cash that supporters havecheered for boosting U.S. manufacturing and the economy more broadly. As Cato scholarsandothers havelongcautioned, however, a proper assessment of industrial policies’ efficacy requires considering far more than a simple correlation between new government spending and new private investments, jobs, and products. Among the necessary considerations is the spending’s opp...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 8, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Adam N. Michel, Scott Lincicome Source Type: blogs
New Evidence That Prescribing Psychologists Can Save Lives
Jeffrey A. SingerRemoving barriers to prescribing psychologists (RxPs) saves patients the inconvenience and added expense of seeing a psychiatrist or other health care practitioner that states license to prescribe psychiatric medications. Such practitioners include family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants—even general surgeons like me. Now comes a study showing that it also saves lives.InEffects of Giving Psychologists Prescriptive Authority: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in the United States, researchers publishing in the journalHealth Policy used data from the National Vital Statistics Sys...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 7, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
A New Underground Market in E ‑Cigarettes Will Soon Begin Flourishing in Australia
Jeffrey A. SingerWriting in the Australian journalThe Quadranta year and a half ago, I criticized the Australian government ’s plan to prohibit residents from purchasing e‑cigarettes without first getting a state‐licensed health care practitioner’s permission slip (aka, a prescription). I wrote:It makes no sense to require medical permission slips for consenting adults to ingest nicotine via e ‑cigarettes when doing so through combustible tobacco requires no such official nod. It makes even less sense when substances of equal or greater addictive potential are legally available without a prescription. ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 5, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Domestic Benefits from Foreign Tax Havens
Adam N. MichelForeign investment in low ‐tax countries complements U.S. production and expands global investment.Low ‐tax countries are often derided for either attracting illusory corporate profits without changing true investment behavior or for attracting international investment to the detriment of usually higher‐tax countries. However, research consistently finds that when multinational businesses i nvest abroad, they also increase investment at home.For example, Mihir Desai, C. Fritz Foley, and James Hinesfind that“one dollar of additional foreign capital spending is associated with 3.5 dollars of ad...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 31, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Adam N. Michel Source Type: blogs
