September 15, 2014 Recent News
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Recently there has been stories on the low amount of healthcare spending. That is about to change. The Washington Post reports that healthcare spending is poised to increase by 5.7% annually for the next decade. This is over 1% higher than the GDP in the same time frame. This means healthcare will be up to 19.3% of the GDP. The driver is Obamacare's generous coverage requirements and more boomers entering Medicare. Next year will be less due to less money to Medicare Advantage and Medicaid.
The New York Times reports that more companies, up to 1/2 of the large employers are offering high deductible plans. some of the employers only offer these HSA plans. This allows the employee to shop for the most cost efficient provider of the services needed.
Kaiser Health News reports that soon people are going to receive notices that their health insurance policy has been canceled. These are the plans that some states allowed patients to keep after the president said you could keep the plan you like and then lied. The plans may be kept for until 2017 if the insurers and states allow it. Top
A Tufts neurosurgeon made a "cognitive bias" error and it cost the patient her life. The wrong medication was sent to the OR by the pharmacy and was injected into the patient's spine. The medication was labeled "not for intrathecal use" but this was not seen or perceived by the surgeon. It is not uncommon for medical people to see what they expect not what is actually there. They also are now becoming "blind" to electronic health records as all know copy paste makes them non-useful. Even dumber was Tufts response denying a mistake was made when the surgeon told them postoperatively that the error had occurred. This led to the filing of a suit and a quick offer of compensation to the family by the hospital. The hospital is attempting to correct the problem by now requiring the surgeon to write the specific meds he/she requires for the surgery.
Kaiser Health News reports that if a patient goes to an out of network emergency room the patient will be hit with higher charges. Obamacare says that the patient can not be charged more for out of network copays or coinsurance. However, if the patient is admitted to the hospital they may be hit with high charges that they are responsible for. Some states permit balance billing and the amount owed may be even larger in those states. There is not a law that requires the hospital to tell the patient they are in an out of network facility. Top
The hospital contracted physicians at California Tenet Hospitals may be free agents soon. Tenet has notified the hospital based anesthesiologists, hospitalists and anesthesiologists that they will probably get rid of their contracts and hire national companies to do the services at their California facilities. The impotent California Medical Association has said this is disconcerting. Almost sounds like Obama with ISIS. This also may be a ploy to force the hospital based physicians to renegotiate their contracts.
In the "I hope it did not take too long to do the survey" category, JAMA reports that doctors say EMRs waste their time. In a survey by the American College of Physicians doctors stated they used about 48 minutes a day on entering information on a stupid computer. Trainees had a much shorter time per day entering but the reason is unknown. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this
article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the
time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers
should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the
information presented.