Writing Sabbatical
I am currently on sabbatical (and enjoying some hiking in the Appalachian Mountains). Blog posts will resume in September!
Similar Posts
Paying for "Patient Satisfaction" Harms Hospitals That Care for Poor People
ByadminAll else equal, it would be wonderful if hospitals had an incentive to provide high quality care. It does not seem fair to pay the same amount of money to a hospital that does a great job of caring for its pneumonia patients and one that does a lousy job. For the most part, however,…
Marketplace Coverage of Our Recent Study
ByadminOne of my favorite radio shows, Marketplace, did a story on our recent study, in which we showed that physicians sometimes miss out on opportunities to help patients lower their out-of-pocket expenses. The piece features a medical student who’s been working with me on this project, Wynn Hunter, who is making his first national public…
Surge in Hospital Job Growth
ByadminRecently, I showed some data illustrating the rapid growth in healthcare jobs in the United States, compared to jobs in other parts of the economy. Here’s a picture, courtesy of Dan Diamond, showing that this growth has not been steady. Instead, the growth of hospital jobs in the US stalled for a while, before taking…
Want to Reduce Opiate Overdoses? Legalize Medical Marijuana
ByadminI have written about medical marijuana before, relaying research findings showing that the legalization of medical marijuana is associated with a reduction in use of pain medications. Here’s another piece of evidence leading to a similar conclusion, from a study by the research team of Bradford and Bradford out of the University of Georgia. (Athens,…
Physician (and Pharma, and Insurance Executive) Pay: Doing Too Well by Doing Good
ByadminShutterstock American physicians deserve to be paid well for their work. As a physician, myself, I know what it takes to become a doctor in the U.S. Four years of late nights in the college library in hopes of achieving a GPA commensurate with medical school admission; then four years of medical school, which makes…
Making Money by Getting an MRI?
ByadminUsually it costs money to get an MRI. But sometimes, in order to save money, insurance companies pay patients to seek less expensive medical care providers. Here is an excellent news report on the topic from The News & Observer: North Carolina’s largest health insurer is proposing a solution to control runaway health care costs:…