Texas is the latest state to consider licensing assistant physicians / associate physicians to treat patients within the state. These are not to be confused with physician assistants. The former titles are medical school graduates who have not matched to a residency program. The Texas House Bill is 2556.
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
Saturday Links
- Patriotic Millionaires call for a 90% top income tax rate, but refuse to pay that much themselves.
- Studies are finally coming out about the adverse effects of COVID vaccines.
- Study: Screen time and suicide among kids are connected.
- White House plans to provide free covid vaccinations to the uninsured.
- Moderna and IBM to make new vaccines using quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
- Study: Although Medicaid pays for contraception, age-adjusted rates of most or moderately effective contraceptive use among Medicaid beneficiaries vary almost fourfold across US counties and rates of long-lasting, reversible contraception (e.g., IUD) vary nearly tenfold.
‘Pass-Through Billing’ Health Care Scams
Nearly three years ago I wrote about rural hospital lab scams. That’s when a shady marketing consultant working with scammers convinces struggling rural hospitals that they have a solution for precarious hospital finances. Basically, every lab test ordered by affiliated physicians is billed through a rural hospital with a more lucrative lab contract. The hospital makes money for doing nothing, while the marketing guys get a big, fat cut of the proceeds. You and I pay higher prices as a result.
Friday Links
Is your Covid vaccination status a private matter? Has the government been tracking people who are unvaccinated? 73% of U.S. adults who are unvaccinated say they would not get a shot with an updated Covid formula either. How the party bases are changing: In the recent mayor’s race, Chicago’s high-income, elite neighborhoods voted for more…