When JAMA points out the greed in health care, you know we have a problem. “The grip of financial self-interest in US health care is becoming a stranglehold, with dangerous and pervasive consequences. No sector of US health care is immune from the immoderate pursuit of profit.”
Category Archive: Article Summary
Private equity firms see considerable profits in healthcare, often at the expense of patients and families. Profit is a crucial driving focus of many businesses. Although private equity investment in health care could lead to improvement by injecting needed capital, a pressing concern is that many private equity firms often operate on the model of buying and quickly selling for a substantial profit within three years.
Healthcare is the problem of our country, and if we don’t fix it, it will break the bank, our health, or both. It deserves the world’s best and brightest minds working on fixing it. But how we go about fixing healthcare matters. The strategic common denominator across big tech ventures into healthcare is that they are not primarily solving what healthcare needs. They are mainly solving how to make money with their respective core business, not helping customers.
Another scandal involving Medicare Advantage made headlines this week. Progressive U.S. lawmakers and advocates renewed calls to abolish the private health insurance program that a recent Senate report said is “running amok” with “fraudsters and scam artists.”
(CBS News)Employers are using a new strategy to deal with the high cost of drugs prescribed to treat conditions such as arthritis, psoriasis, cancer, and hemophilia. They are tapping into dollars provided through programs they have previously criticized: patient financial assistance initiatives set up by drugmakers, which some benefit managers have complained encourage patients to stay on expensive brand-name drugs when less expensive options might be available. Patients are, of course, caught in the middle.
ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative condition that affects chewing, talking, and walking, progresses to paralysis, and culminates in respiratory failure, typically within three to five years. An estimated 30,000 Americans live with ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease. On Sept. 29, the Food and Drug Administration approved Relyvrio from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals. It’s the first ALS medication to be approved in five years and only one of three currently prescribed to patients to slow the progression of the disease, but should it have been approved?
93% of respondents had an in-person visit at their most recent primary care physician (PCP) appointment, and 44% preferred in-person visits with all providers. In the last year, however, nearly half (45%) of adults surveyed used telehealth at least once, with younger adults between the ages of 18 to 34 much more likely (61%) to have used telehealth.
The body is a brilliant machine designed to be strong and resilient. It heals wounds and fends off sickness. It provides T cells, which patrol the body to recognize and destroy abnormalities and invaders. Most of the time, the system self-regulates without us even being aware of its work. But sometimes, the system glitches: Cancer happens.