- Health Execs behaving badly.
- The increase in mortality among middle-aged, non-Hispanic whites is almost entirely driven by the bottom 10% of the education distribution.
- University of Rochester study: the main arguments against telemedicine are all wrong.
- Why can’t the media tell the truth about climate change?
- Study: The overall use of the twenty-three “low-value” medical services across all fifty-one states amounted to $3.7 billion over 10 years. At less than 1/10 of 1% of overall spending, not clear why we should be worried.
- Federal advisory group recommends that all Americans 19 to 64 be screened for “anxiety.”
- No diversity here: Women who get “long Covid” outnumber men by as much as four to one.
Category: News and Events
FDA: Americans are Fat Because They Can’t Read Nutrition Facts Labels
See the guy in the stock photo above? He has a weight problem because he doesn’t know how to read the Nutrition Facts labels on foods. Seriously, it’s not his fault. It’s those sneaky food companies who falsely claim a supersized burger and fries are healthy foods.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposes to do something about deceptive food product labels. The FDA just announced a proposed rule (and labels) that outline the criteria that meets nutritional guidelines allowing companies to claim their products are healthy.
Texas Hospitals Thrive While Saddling Patients with High Medical Bills and Debt
Kaiser Health News and the Urban Institute looked at areas with high medical debt and compared them to hospitals’ profit margins. It profiled the North Texas region surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth.
Of the nation’s 20 most populous counties, none has a higher concentration of medical debt than Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth. Second is Dallas County, credit bureau data shows.
Does a lot of medical debt indicate that a Urban Institute are struggling to pay their medical bills and the local hospitals are struggling as a result? That was not the case according to the analysis.
Tuesday Links
- Sen Ron Wyden: Health insurers are running so-called ghost networks, in which providers are listed in networks but don’t actually offer care. Why is he surprised?
- New CMS rule would make it easier for ineligible people to continue receiving benefits and reduce safeguards to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.
- Nonprofit hospital chain sucks out profits, while leaving a poor, minority community without essential services.
- Study: More than 80% of people sampled in Greece report witnessing informal (off the books) payments for health care and the number is also high elsewhere in Europe. (Health Affairs, gated) Unfortunately the authors call rationing by price “corruption,” whereas rationing by waiting is apparently a civic duty.