Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
How do efficiently is care provided for patients at Veteran Affairs’ hospitals as compared to private hospitals? This is not an easy question to answer as the composition of patients differs between these hospitals. Even among dually-eligible individuals–those with both VA and commercial insurance–individuals treated at VA hospitals are generally more severely ill. To better…
As I do every year on Memorial Day, I like to review recent news articles surrounding health care for veterans. Corruption: On the negative side, we have news of a former VA employee stealing HIV medication. A former pharmacy procurement technician was sentenced today to 57 months in prison for stealing prescription HIV medications from…
This question is difficult to answer. In many countries with government provided health care, wait times are long. For the Veterans Affairs (VA) beneficiaries, this does not seem to be much of an issue according to a Penn et al. (2019) study covering wait times between 2014 and 2019: Although wait times in the VA…
Reducing Medicare and Medicaid spending is not only America’s number one health care goal, it should also be its top overall budget priority. Finding ways to cut Medicare costs is vital. Although the CBO projects that Medicare and Medicaid spending will top $850 billion in 2011, we should not forget about another federal health care…
In the past, I have commented on an article by Phillip Longman describing the quality of care at the VA. Mr. Longman recently wrote a book titled The Best Care Anywhere. The book claims that “the long-maligned Veterans Health Administration has become the highest-quality healthcare provider in the United States.” Gooznews interviews Mr. Longman. Below are some…