Medicare and the Doc Fix: Healthcare Triage News

We've got a permanent doc fix. It's all about the sustainable growth rate. Confused? We'll help. This is Healthcare Triage News.

For those of you who want to read more, here's a nice summary at Vox:

John Green — Executive Producer
Stan Muller — Director, Producer
Aaron Carroll — Writer
Mark Olsen — Graphics

Medicare and the Doc Fix: Healthcare Triage News

27 thoughts on “Medicare and the Doc Fix: Healthcare Triage News

  1. That doesn’t sound permanent to me. The formula may work for a while. But the formula sunsets in 2025. Costs will still rise between 2019 and 2025. I think we’ll start seeing Doc fixes again some where between 2019 and 2025. And we’ll definitely need to revisit the question in 2025. I know, a political eternity, but not an actual eternity.

  2. I’m terribly confused … this was about a law in the U.S.?  Our Congress … accomplished something useful?  I’m kind of speechless.

    • +avoisin  No not really. They agreed to kill the SGR and continue paying doctors huge sums of money. Which will increase the deficit and lead to our children to pay for their grandparents’ expenses.

    • +monkey314159 Except it isn’t really? Do you even do any research at all before piling onto Youtube comments? “Continuing to pay doctors huge sums of money” is only half the story. Nothing is changing, we’re just able to see the numbers because they can’t do budget-fu to hide it anymore. What is troubling, is that this is MEDICARE ONLY. For seniors. If they hadn’t fixed this, and let the docfix fall off, then many physicians would refuse to see medicare patients anymore. *THEY WOULD STILL GET TONS OF MONEY FROM THE REST OF US* who aren’t under medicare. This is why universal healthcare should be for everyone, not just seniors. Then we could control spending much, much easier.

  3. is this a sign of congress actually getting their a$$es in gear or just a single concession among many failed efforts at bipartisanship, or one last chance to get anything done before 2016 election campaigns begin?

    • +Vincent Noble  It might be the case that a split Congress/Presidency might actually drive positive change. Republicans finally have an incentive to get things done; they can’t just stall forever and them blame Obama.

  4. I’m a physician; you were able to summarize this morass into the easiest-to-understand lesion than all the articles I’ve read at Medscape and my journals. Kudos and thank you. Keep up the good work.

  5. BTW < have you ever addressed any research how good are prescriptions over time. I'm always asked if old pills are still useful or not. Any research? thanks.

    • +Ur Spo I’m not a doctor, I subscribe to WorstPills newsletter. They’re always saying that just because it’s an old drug doesn’t make it bad, and just because it’s a new drug doesn’t make it the best. A lot of drugs are “me too”. They have a 7 year rule to wait with new drugs because then you get to see how it does in the real world. Their team is filled with doctors and pharmacists–so I’d tend to believe them.

  6. You made a comment saying “In the first time in a LONG time the House passed a Bill”; this statement is inaccurate because the House does pass bills all the time, they are just pushed by one party over the other and get nowhere in the Senate.(or get a veto threat)

  7. Yay, rich people got more money!? While the minimum wage continues to be a fraction of what a living wage would be. Sorry I just can’t get excited about this.

  8. 3:25 – “Holy Crap. Pigs fly. Hell freezes over. I’m eating crow. And my hat.”
    If you believe “The Inferno”s description of hell, there’s a part of it that’s already frozen over. The happening of something previously believed to be impossible aside.

  9. Could you talk about viral therapy for cancer?  The HBO doc was informative, but I’d like to know if what I took away from it is what HCT would say.

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