Memorial Day news

As I do every year, I take today to highlight some health care news related to the military and our veterans. VA disability claims backlog grows. “The Department of Veterans Affairs anticipates that its claims backlog, defined as those older than 125 days, will grow ‘potentially up to 400,000’ in the next year, largely the…

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Consumer perceptions of oncology trial endpoints. Rural upbringing increasing likelihood MDs move to rural areas. Pain in the US. Cost sharing, prior authorization, and specialty drug utilization. Drug affordability panel?

Friday Links

AI in the operating room. Estimated annual Medicare spending on Alzheimer’s drug. On remote work: “The Power of Proximity to Coworkers” Price vs. cost. Issues with publicly available price data. On the definition of a timely diagnosis: “Our health care system assumes the diagnostic journey begins when the patient is first seen by a clinician…However,…

Kaiser to buy Geisinger?

Yes, this appears to be the case. Medscape reports: In one of the largest healthcare deals to date, Kaiser Permanente is acquiring Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health and investing $5 billion to fold it into a new nonprofit subsidiary called Risant Health, which is set to purchase additional medical groups in coming years.While regulators still must review…

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Three parent baby? Area Deprivation Index only reflects median home price?  Organ on a chip? Using the “uptrend effect” to increase rates of exercise.  Cognitive activity at work and the risk of dementia

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Impact of retirement on health. JAMA articles on physician use of AI (1, 2, 3) Is the COVID-19 emergency over? What EHR reforms are needed? Pharma vs. PBM: patients lose out?

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The future of nursing homes. FDA and digital health technologies. Explaining corporate America’s aggressive investment in primary care Full vs. partial choice set design in DCEs. VC funding slow-down for biotech.

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Khan Academy and GPT-4. ClinicalTrials.gov vs. PubMed. Judge rules on coverage of preventative care. Health insurance mandates and marriage. Medicaid-for-all back on the table?

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Threats to Medicare’s new drug negotiation power Drugs likely to be involved in Medicare price negotiation. Future of the US vaccine programs. Will GPT automate your job out of existence?  Drone delivery of medical supplies (and other things) explained.