In the past year, the Federal Trade Commission has been studying how drug pricing works. In July, it published an interim staff report on the role of pharmacy benefit managers. Last week the FTC published a second report on how the biggest three PBMs control prices.
Doctors are leaving New Mexico. Hospitals essential to small, rural counties (and that is most of them in the state, including Sierra County), find it difficult to stay in the black. The Searchlight New Mexico reporter Ed Williams thinks the cause is malpractice insurance. His analysis has started a controversy.
The Citizen republishes here Ben Neary’s article from the New Mexico Wildlife Federation’s website. There will be a follow up from Steve Morgan and Nichole Trushell on behalf of the Percha Creek Association, the other successful claimants in this litigation.
ProPublica investigates more health care problems. It details how UnitedHealth uses its statistical data to find mental health patients to deny payment for care, sometimes forcing therapists and doctors to withdraw care. It’s all part of “saving money,” “efficiency,” responsible sounding terms in corporate PR speak for "profit" and "greed."
In this long-term investigation of Lincare, the largest supplier of oxygen equipment in the country, Pro-Publica shows how government regulation of the healthcare industry has been unable to prevent the growth of a new business model that lives by scamming.
The New Mexico Gas Company, the natural gas company which services Truth or Consequences, has asked the state's Public Regulatory Commission for permission to be sold. If the sale is approved, it will transfer ownership from a Canadian energy company to an American equity firm.
Continuing the series of articles on the healthcare system, I offer a link to an article in Pro Publica which investigates the largest of companies which health insurers hire to examine and deny medical procedures. Evicare claims to the insurance companies that it will provide a 3 to 1 return.
This reprint of Michael Benanav's article in Searthlight New Mexico describes not just the electronic protection of your vote but all the ways in which the state secures the legitimacy of the elections. Re-publication is done through a Creative Commons licence.
I look some more at the ballot and am astounded at how naive I am about elections in a democracy. Take a look at the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections.
Have you looked at the ballot yet? I just did today, and I don't understand it. This happens every time I read a ballot. It's not at all like sitting in a meeting and discussing an issue with the others and voting on it. The ballot is insanely opaque.
Two weeks ago, The Conversation published a summary of Vice-President Harris's and former President Trump's past actions and policies during their political careers in regard to healthcare in the nation. The article is by Dr. Zachary W. Schultz of Auburn University, a specialist in the history of healthcare.
My cousin, a nephrologist, says that commodification of medicine has turned American doctors into contractual slaves, indentured servants. Thinking about this, I realized that not many of us actually understand what commodification means and why it is harmful for healthcare as a system. This is my explanation.