To all readers,
Thanks so much for your interest this past year.
I wish you all the best for a happy and healthy New Year.
Joel
About health insurance/insurers
Medical Debt Is Being Erased in Ohio and Illinois. Is Your Town Next? “Cook County, Ill., and Toledo, Ohio, are turning to the American Rescue Plan to wipe out residents’ medical debt. Experts caution it is a short-term solution….
More local governments are likely to follow as county executives and city councils embrace a new strategy to address the high cost of health care. They are partnering with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that aims to abolish medical debt by buying it from hospitals, health systems and collections agencies at a steep discount.”
About pharma
Insulin costs will be capped in 2023, but most people with diabetes won't benefit The article highlights the fact that Republicans blocked price controls for insulin that will become for Medicare beneficiaries in the new year.
AmerisourceBergen Hit With Federal Lawsuit Over Opioid Crisis “The Justice Department has sued AmerisourceBergen Corp., alleging the large drug distributor contributed to the prescription opioid epidemic by failing to report suspicious orders to law enforcement.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said during a news conference Thursday that AmerisourceBergen could face billions of dollars in civil penalties if found liable in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia.”
For readers who are physicians, this article, published earlier this month, should be of interest:The American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN) Evidence-Based Clinical Guideline of Interventional Treatments for Low Back Pain
About the public’s health
A Study Sounds a False Alarm About America’s Emergency Rooms This Wall Street Journal Op-ed article critiques the methodology that AHRQ used to project that 250,000 deaths occurred per year due to ER errors.
See, also: No, ER misdiagnoses are not killing 250,000 per year