Healthcare Triage
Medicare's Coverage Gaps and Out of Pocket Costs
One of the original justifications for Medicare is that older people have much higher health care needs and expenses. But there are a few common misunderstandings about health costs when people are older, including the idea that money...
Healthcare Triage
How Administrative Costs Drive Healthcare Costs
Administration of medical care is a huge driver of costs in the United States' healthcare system. Running hospitals, generating bills, and collecting payment are just a few of the activities that take up health providers' time, and run...
Healthcare Triage
The 10 Worst Examples of Healthcare Profiteering and Dysfunction
Each year, the Lown Institute gives out the Shkreli Awards, named for disgraced and imprisoned "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli. The awards go to the perpetrators of the most egregious examples of dysfunction and profiteering in healthcare....
Healthcare Triage
Medicare for All and Administrative Costs
Political talk is getting more and more serious around Medicare for All in the United States. The argument, as usual comes down to costs. One of the advantages that proponents always bring up are the very low administrative costs of...
Healthcare Triage
Doctors' White Coats Can Host a Lot of Bacteria
For a lot of doctors and patients, the physician's traditional white coat is a big part of a doctor's identity, and contributes to their authority. Those white coats can also spread disease! It turns out, fabrics in doctors coats can be...
Healthcare Triage
Human Genes in Monkeys? We Don’t Love It.
Scientists have put the human gene MCPH1 (which plays a role in brain development) into monkey embryos through a virus that contained the gene. Sounds like a movie, right?
Healthcare Triage
Drinking Alcohol During Pregnancy
Drinking during pregnancy is roundly frowned upon, for good reason. It's a huge risk factor for lots of post-natal problems. But prevention can be counter intuitive. Strong prohibitions and punitive measures for pregnant women who drink...
Healthcare Triage
Does Vitamin D Influence Mood?
We’ve scoured the data for you when it comes to Vitamin D supplements, coming up empty-handed almost every time. We know it doesn’t help with a variety of conditions, including those related to the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal...
Healthcare Triage
Racial Disparities in Healthcare are Pervasive
Study after study affirms that doctors treat their patients differently, depending on the patient's race. Minority patients get different diagnoses, different treatments, and are often subject to being stereotyped by their physicians.
Healthcare Triage
Pregnancy and Covid Vaccine Safety
Pregnancy can be a scary time for many reasons, one of which is having so many things feel off-limits for the safety of the fetus. But what about vaccines? Especially the Covid-19 vaccine? To understand the answer to this question you...
Healthcare Triage
Measles Infections Can Wipe Out Immunity to OTHER Diseases
We're very clearly in favor of vaccines here at Healthcare Triage, because they save a LOT of lives. It turns out, the measles vaccine was doing more than we previously thought. Getting infected with measles doesn't only make you sick,...
Healthcare Triage
Shkreli Awards: Profiteering and Dysfunction in US Healthcare
Last year we did an episode on the third annual Shkreli Awards from the Lown Institute - ten examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare. The ins and outs of the healthcare system are the bread and butter of this channel, so...
Healthcare Triage
Would Medicare for All Increase Your Wages?
Medicare for All, which would extend health coverage to all Americans, has been a hot topic of debate in recent years. Researchers have looked into the many ways that a switch to Medicare for All might change our lives, and one of those...
Healthcare Triage
Where is the Waste in Health Spending?
Up to 25% of health spending in the US is wasteful. Where is that money being lost? What can we do about it?
Healthcare Triage
Does Poor Sleep Contribute to Alzheimer's Disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is no stranger in the news cycle. The latest headlines are dedicated to a new study on how the brain keeps itself clean, a process which scientists have long suspected to be involved in the disease. Let's take a look.
Healthcare Triage
Vaccine Development, Covid-19, and MRNA
In this last episode of our six-part series on vaccinations, supported by the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, we cover vaccine development - particularly in the context of the current global pandemic. We discuss...
Healthcare Triage
Covid Natural Immunity vs Vaccine Immunity
There’s a lot of talk about “natural immunity” to Covid-19, and some people are refusing vaccination on the grounds that they’ve got this natural immunity thanks to a previous Covid-19 infection. In this episode we take a look at how...
Healthcare Triage
Why Does the U.S. Spend So Much on Healthcare? High, High Prices.
American healthcare spending is still WAY higher than pretty much all other industrialized countries. But not that long ago, things were different. The US didn't spend nearly as much in this realm. What changed? Demographics? More...
Healthcare Triage
Deaths of Despair and Decreasing Life Expectancy in the US
In recent years, life expectancy in the US has been dropping. A significant contributor to that drop has been deaths of despair. Drug overdoses and suicides have increased in tandem with the opioid crisis, and the outcome is shorter...
MarketWatch
How to pay less for your prescriptions - even without insurance
Medication costs continue to rise with no sign of slowing down amid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. But there are ways to pay less for your prescriptions. Here's what you need to know.
Healthcare Triage
The Implications of "Public Charge" on Immigrant Children
The Trump administration has put forth a rule change for immigration saying that if an immigrant gets one of a number of benefits from the government, it could lead to their being denied legal permanent residency or entry to the US. Will...
Healthcare Triage
Vitamin D Supplements Continue to Be Unnecessary
There are several news studies that confirm what we've been saying for years. Vitamin D supplements don't do much, and are unnecessary for just about everybody.
Healthcare Triage
Cancer Research Spotlighted in Nobel Prize for Medicine
We've been talking a lot about the state of cancer research in the HCT Podcast, and now the Nobel prize in medicine is going to cancer researchers. So that's pretty cool. Check out some of the amazing (and amazingly expensive) treatments...
Healthcare Triage
Why Is It So Hard to Lower Drug Prices?
There are many, many factors that contribute to high drug prices. Regulating them is complicated. It turns out, expensive drugs are often expensive because they're hard to replicate. We try to shed some light on the situation.