Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The New York Times reports (“IRS Enlists Help…“) that the Internal Revenue Service will begin to subcontract collection of delinquent tax payments to private firms. The article states: “…the I.R.S. will turn over data on 12,500 taxpayers — each of whom owes $25,000 or less in back taxes — to three collection agencies. Larger debtors…
Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters did some research and found that a cardiology department in Elyria, Ohio received an award for quality (“Quality means exactly what?“). Why is this significant? As I noted on Saturday, this same department performed four times as many angioplasties as the rest of the country. Mr. Paduda sums up…
The New York Times last week wrote an article (“…off the charts…“) examining the use of invasive treatment for cardiac problems in Elyria, Ohio. The article says that this small city has angioplasty rates which are significantly higher than any other U.S. city. “…outside experts say such a locally dominant cardiology group could make it…
From the ArgMax website (“Your Congress at Work“), we see that the pocket lobby may have Congess in its pocket: “A spokesman for Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., confirmed Inglis voted for the Oman deal after being assured by House Majority Leader Boehner that the House would take up the CAFTA fixes. The language would implement…
Greg Mankiw’s Blog looks to online betting for the odds that McCain, Clinton, Giuliani, and Edwards will will the 2008 Presidential Election in his POTUS 2008 post. McCain has the edge, but Hilary Clinton is a close second. Using Bayes rule, however, Mankiw shows that if Edwards were to be the Democratic nominee, he would…
Why is publicly provided health care so expensive? One reason is the the fraud which is bound to occur. The New York Times reports (“Hospital Grew…“) that New Jersey’s largest health care provider–St. Barnabas Health Care System–bilked $630 million from the federal government between 1995 to 2003. Medicare pays extra cash to hospitals for the…
The adverse selection death spiral has reared its ugly head again. PacAdvantage, an insurance pooling company for 6000 small and medium sized businesses in California has closed its doors. The Sacramento Business Journal reports (“Backer pulls plug on PacAdvantage health purchasing pool“) that the three remaining insurers underwriting the plan have pulled out. Michael Holt of The…
While advances by physicians and new medical technologies often make for front page news, public health interventions have likely been the major cause of the significant health improvements throughout history. For instance, creating a system of waste disposal and maintaining clean water has greatly increased the expected longevity of urban residents. The 14th century Black…
Today was a big day for news in the healthcare industry. First, a private equity group agreed to buy HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) in a leveraged buyout deal valued at $21 billion (plus the assumption of $11.7 billion of debt). The Chicago Tribune (“HCA agrees…“) looked to Darren Lehrich of Deutche Bank for analysis: This gives…
Productivity. More output with fewer inputs. Increasing productivity is one of the few goals towards which all businesses strive. The Times of London reports (“Rankings to identify slow surgeons“) that the NHS will try to increase the productivity of surgeons in the UK. The system of âperformance indicatorsâ? will be announced this week by ministers,…