Happy Mother’s Day
I want to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers of the world. In particular, I would like to thank Bonnie Shafrin and Lillian Paley for all the love they have given me over the years.
Better Health Care
When economists talk of improved healthcare, they are generally speaking of technological improvement or increased efficiency in the production of medical care. When most people talk about better healthcare, “better healthcare” means more medical services for free. The Angry Economist rants regarding the ‘something-for-nothing’ attitude of the general public. The very existance of that phrase…
RVU costing
RVU costing sets physicians’ fees by employing various accounting procedures to determine the relative worth of each service they provide. An article by Mark Berlin in Healthcare Financial Management (1997) details how the RVU costing system works. First let us examine the four types of cost accounting group practices traditionally use. Job Order Costing. This…
Crony Capitalism
Recently, we have seen a shift towards the left in Latin America. Socialistic presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia (who just nationalized Bolivia’s national gas industry) and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela both enjoy much popular support. Brazilian president Lula Da Silva has a background as a union leader and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina also rose to…
Failure of Medical Malpractice Law: Part II
Recently, I wrote a post regarding the inefficiency of the Medical Malpractice system. Both Brennan, Sox and Burstin (1996) and Studdert, Mello and Brennan (2004) found that not only were there many frivolous suits brought to court, but even more prevalent was the phenomenon that individuals who suffered negligent care did not sue (only 3%…
Computerized Drug Ordering Reduces Chemotherapy Errors
Here’s one for The Healthcare IT Guy… MedPage Today reports that “Computerized Drug Ordering Reduces Chemotherapy Errors.” Some excerpts: Using the system reduced the likelihood that a child would get the wrong daily chemotherapy dose by 74%, and virtually eliminated the risk of dose calculation errors, wrote Christopher U. Lehmann, M.D., of Johns Hopkins, and…
Dentist Shortage in Britain
British teeth are not famed for their beauty. There are countless jokes about British teeth on television and at comedy clubs. Even in Mexico, protruding, discolored and generally unfortunate teeth are known as “dientes de ingles.” A serious shortage of dentists in England, however, is causing this stereotype to become reality. The New York…
Health Wonk Review
The May 4th Health Wonk Review has been posted on Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters site.
Healthcare Stats
The Healthy Policy blog has two posts (one for the insured and one for the uninsured) which offer a compendium of statistics of these two groups. Some interesting statistics: The number of employers providing health insurance has dropped 9% in five years; from 69% in 2000 to 60% in 2005. The average insured person already…
Nature versus Nuture: Elite Sports Athletes and Physician Training
Michael Jordan. Pele. Sandy Koufax. William Henderson. How do the greatest athletes in the world become so great? Do they have an innate ability or are they simply hard workers? Certainly, it is a combination of both. Nevertheless Anders Ericsson, a psychology professor at Florida State University, claims that talent is over-rated; hard work is…