Healthcare

Maintaining Tissue Sample Quality Might Reduce Medical Errors

Maintaining Tissue Sample Quality Might Reduce Medical Errors

"You might not suspect that the success of the emerging field of precision medicine depends heavily on the couriers who push carts down hospital halls."

"But samples taken during surgery may end up in poor shape by the time they get to the pathology lab โ€” and that has serious implications for patients as well as for scientists who want to use that material to develop personalized tests and treatments that are safer and more effective."

Are Republicans paying for tax cuts with reductions in Medicare, Medicaid?

Are Republicans paying for tax cuts with reductions in Medicare, Medicaid?

"Schumer said, "The Republicans are proposing to pay for their giant tax cut to the rich by gutting Medicare and Medicaid."

"He has a point that the tax proposal includes significant tax cuts and that the Senate Republicansโ€™ budget proposal reduces projected spending levels for Medicare and Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years.

"However, Schumer has overstated the linkage between the proposed tax and spending cuts. In addition, his decision to highlight Medicare and Medicaid cuts with the vivid word "gutting" leaves the impression that such reductions are a drastic reshaping and are likelier to occur than they actually are."

"We rate his statement Half True."

Medicare Cuts

I was reading about how the federal tax bill would cut Medicare. That is disconcerting, as this is a vital health program for many seniors in our country. I hate being told things by political pundits but having no data or evidence to back up there views.

So I was curious what a cut to Medicare really mean for both today’s seniors and generations to come, including myself in another 30 years?ย First off, a cut to Medicare does not mean a reduction in benefits or higher co-pays for consumers. It’s a cut payments to physicians and hospitals. Your doctor gets the hair cut, and depending on how you view these cuts, it might reduce access to care. Or it might not. Certainly doctor and hospital lobbyists would protest any cut to their fat. As the AARP explains:

The Senate tax proposal would add $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years. Under PAYGO, if this bill were to become law, the government would have to lop off $150 billion in spending every year for 10 years.

Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps and other social safety net programs are exempt from the PAYGO law, which went into effect in 2010. But Medicare and other programs โ€” such as federal student loans, agricultural subsidies and the operations of the Customs and Border Patrol โ€” are not exempt.

The law caps how much the government can trim from Medicare at 4 percent. Thatโ€™s $25 billion the first year, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The annual amount could increase in subsequent years depending on the size of the deficit and Medicareโ€™s budget.

The $25 billion reduction would affect the payments that doctors, hospitals and other health care providers receive for treating Medicare patients. Individual benefits would not change and neither would premiums, deductibles or copays. But with so much less money going to providers, the cuts could have major impacts on patient access to health care โ€” such as fewer physicians accepting Medicare patients.

Source:ย https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-2017/senate-tax-medicare-cuts-fd.html

So cuts to Medicare could affect seniors, by denying them access to new doctors who might decide not to take new Medicare patients. It’s not clear though if doctors are actively dropping Medicare patients.ย  This 2015 article from Kaiser foundation looks at how many doctors currently accept Medicare patients.

The vast majority of non-pediatric primary care physicians (93 percent) say they accept Medicareโ€”comparable to the share accepting private insurance (94 percent) (Figure 1). A majority of primary care physicians also say they are also taking new Medicare patients (72 percent), but this share is somewhat lower than the share of primary care physicians accepting new privately insured patients (80 percent).

Source:ย https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/primary-care-physicians-accepting-medicare-a-snapshot/

While doctors often have high malpractice insurance costs, not to mention all the costs of education debt, mostย doctors in America live fairly well off.ย Other medical professionals not as well, but their employers usually aren’t struggling for cash. Many medical facilities and doctors probably could survive on lower Medicare payments, but they would have to trim fat from their businesses. But would they? Or would they focus more on private insurance business or those who paid with cash?ย Maybe. But seniors need the most medical care, so it seems unlikely they would leave the government money on the table, even if it was reduced levels from years past.

Unneeded Treatment And Overpriced Services Fuel Health Care Waste

Unneeded Treatment And Overpriced Services Fuel Health Care Waste

Rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in all sectors of the economy including government, healthcare and education should be everybody's top priority.

"Wasteful use of medical care has "become so normalized that I don't think people in the system see it," said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, a Boston think tank focused on making health care more effective, affordable and just. "We need more serious studies of what these practices are."

"Experts estimate the U.S. health care system wastes $765 billion annually โ€” about a quarter of all the money that is spent. Of that, an estimated $210 billion goes to unnecessary or needlessly expensive care, according to a 2012 report by the National Academy of Medicine."

Why Is Triclosan in Toothpaste?

Why Is Triclosan in Toothpaste?

"Triclosan, an antibacterial ingredient recently banned by the Food and Drug Administration in some products but currently allowed in toothpaste, appears to accumulate on toothbrushes and can be released in the mouth, according to a study published this week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology."

"The FDA began prohibiting the sale of soaps and body washes that contain one or more of 19 antibacterialsโ€”including triclosanโ€”last month because manufacturers havenโ€™t proved that theyโ€™re safe for long-term daily use and more effective than regular soap and water for controlling certain infections. But because toothpaste is not included in the ban, triclosan can still be found in Colgate Total toothpastes (the only toothpaste line in the U.S. that contains the substance). Triclosan is also permitted in a slew of other items, including cosmetics, athletic clothing, and cleaning products."