Healthcare Update Satellite — 11-04-2013

See more medical news from around the web on my other blog at DrWhiteCoat.com 72 year old Connecticut patient awarded $9.3 million after being hospitalized for UTI, then given overdose of Lovenox. She developed intra-abdominal bleeding and required several surgeries and blood transfusions to correct the problem. She also developed a large abscess at the site of a central line insertion. Attorneys for the patient say that it was “an understatement” to say that the standard of care was violated. One of the ideas behind providing more patients with “insurance” (not with “health care,” mind you) is that the insured patients will be less likely to use the emergency department. Untrue. When few doctors take the patients’ insurance, often the patients’ only option is to go to the emergency department. In addition, the emergency department is free for Medicaid patients. The Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon was quoted in the article. I’ve argued with Michael Cannon about his opinions in the past, but this time he is right on the mark when he says “Nobody spends (other people’s) money as carefully as they do their own.” In other words, with no skin in the game, patients have no incentive to limit spending. The policymakers in Washington have no idea about the economics and incentives of this perverse system they are creating. October 2013 study in Pediatrics shows that 10% of 14-20 year old ED patients at the University of Michigan admit to nonprescription opi...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs