Hits & Misses – 2008/11/26
Just How Much Racial Bias Is There? A previous study found that doctors who scored higher on a racial bias test were less prone to give clot-busting drugs to black patients rather than white patients. Follow up: the "biased" doctors actually treated patients more equally. [link]
Should We Medicate Healthy Patients? Part II. "This study does not indicate that we should be putting statins in the drinking water or fortifying cereal with statins." [link]
Employers as Doctors Update. About 29% of big employers had or were planning to install on-site health clinics in 2008….Pitney Bowes says that for every $1 it spends on its clinics, it saves $1 in health-care costs and gains an additional $1 in increased productivity. [link]
Not if You Have an HSA. Because Pitney Bowes waived employees' co-pays on certain prescription drugs, the company says its cost of treating diabetic workers is down 14% and costs are down 17% for asthmatics. [link] Federal law precludes this option for Health Savings Account plans.
Thanks for your last “miss.” This is the single biggest obstacle to HSA adoptions and this is the only blog site — or for that matter, the only Web site — that seems to be aware of the problem.
Employers and insurers need to be free to lower and raise deductibles where better incentives make sense.
John, is your third item a “hit” or a “miss”? See previous post on doctor angst. Employers are able to do what doctors cannot do — practice medicine.
No wonder doctors want to quit.